Government Relations

Government relations at Sedgwick County plays an integral role in the legislative process by communicating issues of primary importance in Sedgwick County at the local, state and federal levels.

2023 Sedgwick County Legislative Platform

The following are legislative issues that will enable Sedgwick County to continue to maintain the high level of service and programs to the citizens of our County.

PRIORITIES

  1. Support for a regionalized state mental health facility in South Central Kansas. Sedgwick County requests a regional state facility with a bed capacity of at least 50.
  2. Support funding for the Wichita Biomedical Campus.  Supporting workforce needs and creating a pipeline that strengthens and supports healthcare and mental health initiatives.  

APPROPRIATIONS

COMCARE:

  1. Support workforce initiatives to include scholarships, loan forgiveness, tax credit for persons who work for CMHCs/CCBHCs. to increase number of behavioral health specialists working with high need, complex patients.
  2. Stable and sustainable funding for 988.  As a lifeline center, we must have a stainable source of funding to support call center operations and mobile crisis response as required under the 988 legislation.
  3. Continuing to support the Needs of the Uninsured and Underinsured – Restoring the Promise of Mental Health Reform.  Support a $3.0 Million increase in funding for FY 2023 for CMHCs.  Locally this could represent an additional $500,000 in state funding, which could support one medical doctor, one Therapist and three ICS staff to create an additional Assertive Community Treatment team.
  4. Enhancement of the Medicaid Safety Net and Medicaid Rates by 10%, potentially $330,000 to COMCARE of Sedgwick County  which equates to two additional Therapists and two additional Integrated Care Specialist (ICS) positions.  Increasing the number of patients served, reducing wait times or both.
  5. Identify, implement and fund a program to reduce the number of uninsured Kansans, particularly those living at 200% of poverty or below for Behavioral Health. 
  6. Increase Inpatient Beds for Substance Abuse Treatment.  A 10% increase in funding for inpatient beds at a cost of approximately $1.5 million would create an additional 40 patient beds in Sedgwick County for intermediate inpatient treatment and 150 patient beds for social detox treatment.

Developmental Disability Organization:

  1. Support the Interhab (State Association) request to restore $5 million in State General Fund and $560,000 in State Aid to the KDADS budget.  This could bring approximately $475,000 to serve individuals in Sedgwick County and is the equivalent of funding approximately 12 waiting list slots.

POLICY

Aging:

  1. Support k4ad (State Association) increased funding of $2.0 million for the nutrition program for serving older Kansans.

Broadband Access: 

  1. Support policy that funds broadband access through state and federal legislation.

Corrections: 

  1. Support the recommendations of the Community Taskforce to Review Youth Corrections Systems Standards and communication addressed to the Kansas Legislature emphasizing legislative and State of Kansas department recommendations.
  2. SB 367: Make enhancements to SB367. Support the passage of legislation similar to HB 2200 session 2021/2022.

Developmental Disability Organization:

  1. Develop and implement a multi-year strategy to eliminate the State’s waiting list of more than 4,000 adults and children and stop waiting list growth while strategy is deployed. There are currently 983 individuals on the waiting list in Sedgwick County.  Other than crisis situations, the waiting list is first on, first off and most recent waiting list offers were to persons added to the list in August of 2012.
  2. Adopt an annual adjustment process for IDD funding to keep pace with cost increases.
  3. Increase Targeted Case Management reimbursement to a level that stabilizes service capacity.
  4. Develop strategies to assist the IDD system in supporting individuals with complex needs, such as behavioral health, age-related illnesses, and high physical care needs.

Division of Finance:

  1. Support the passage of legislation similar to HB2676 - Ability to create a fund for code enforcement, update language related to use of the equipment reserve fund for modern technology, and authorize the creation of an opioid settlement fund.
  2. Amend SB13 (Revenue Neutral Rate law) to allow for adjustments to the revenue neutral rate to account for: 1) mill levy rates set by law and rates levied on behalf of other political or governmental subdivisions; 2) assessed valuation changes due to changes in use of property, new improvements, newly annexed properties, and properties coming onto the tax roll after property tax abatements expire; and 3) the consumer price index (CPI-U) for the most recently completed calendar year.

Human Resources:  

  1. Amend KSA 74-4914 for exception to the KPERS penalty for any retiree being hired by KPERS participants.

Public Works

  1. Amend KSA 68-1106 to no longer require passage of a specific resolution declaring a project necessary every time that county share of a project exceeds $250,000.  Alternatively, it could indicate that the project must be included in an approved capital improvement plan.
  2. Remove requirement in KSA 68-521 that requires the County Engineer to provide an Engineers Estimate for every project and prohibits accepting a bid that is more than 110% over the estimate. This requires rebids for projects.  These rebids tend not to change the project bids as contractors tend to honor the earlier bids.  It make sense for the BoCC to see the estimate but they should not be precluded from accepting a higher bid.

Suspended Driver’s License Law: 

  1. A Criminal Justice Reform review of the minimum sentencing guidelines and the Forever Lookback Law.