News Release<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NEWS RELEASE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Kansas Silver Haired Legislature<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Harvey County State\nSenator Carolyn McGinn, and Topeka Senator Vicki Schmidt, were honored as\nLegislators of the Year by the Kansas Silver Haired Legislature at their Annual\nSession this past October in Topeka. \nThey were chosen for their strong support of senior issues, including\napproval of $5 million dollars for financial support for grandparents who\nbecome foster parents for their grandchildren. (The appropriation also includes\nsupport for other family members, such as aunts and uncles who are awarded\nplacement of children to keep them out of the foster care system.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The KSHL also passed\nnine resolutions on senior issues which will be passed on to the Kansas\nLegislature in January. They include a\nresolution urging the Legislature and Governor to fully fund all obligations to\nthe state employee retirement program, known as KPERS and to stop delaying\nKPERS employer contribution payments. \nThe delegates also passed a resolution urging the state to fund a\ncost-of-living adjustment for KPERS retirees.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The KSHL is also\ncontinuing their support for the expansion of Medicaid in Kansas; support for\ncommunity based transportation for senior citizens; and for full funding for\nthe Senior Care Act which allows older Kansans to remain in their own homes\ninstead of having to move into nursing facilities at a much higher cost to the\nstate. Another resolution urges the\nstate to continue to protect grandparent rights, especially when considering\nthe temporary placement, legal guardianship and adoption of grandchildren who\nare in need of care.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Two revenue issues\nwere among the resolutions passed at the KSHL legislative session. The body is urging the state to support\nlegislation to authorize statewide sports wagering and to direct the revenue\ngained to senior citizen social service programs, especially the Kansas Senior\nCare Act. The body also urges the state\nto exempt food purchases from sales tax, and to replace that revenue with income\nderived from taxes on internet sales.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Since many Kansas\nsenior citizens suffer from chronic pain conditions, including multiple\nsclerosis, Parkinson\u2019s disease, fibromyalgia, and endometriosis; nausea\nresulting from cancer treatments and other conditions; and post-traumatic\nstress disorder, especially in military veterans, the KSHL urges the\nlegislature to legalize expanded medical uses of cannabis. This resolution also acknowledges the fact\nthat thirty-one states and the District of Columbia have legalized the medical\nuse of cannabis under various circumstances and that many Kansas parents have\nmoved to other states where cannabis treatments are legal and available.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The overwhelmingly positive\nvotes for all of this year\u2019s resolutions are evidence of the statewide support\nof these issues, said Jay Rowh, SHL president from Mitchell County (Beloit). The Executive Board, in July, debated and\ndiscussed the 26 issues brought to them by the regional (PSA\u2019s) chairs, then\npaired the issues down to the nine resolutions which received final passage at\nthe Annual Session October 4th<\/sup>. \nThese will now be presented to the Kansas Legislature in January, 2019,\nfor their consideration.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Find out more by visiting our website at: <Kansas-shl.org>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Modified 9\/3\/2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" News Release NEWS RELEASE Kansas Silver Haired Legislature Harvey County State Senator Carolyn McGinn, and Topeka Senator Vicki Schmidt, were honored as Legislators of the Year by the Kansas Silver Haired Legislature at their Annual Session this past October in Topeka. They were chosen for their strong support of senior issues, including approval of $5<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":288,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-370","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":428,"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/370\/revisions\/428"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}