By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, March 27
The Kansas Senate is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a bill designed to help safety-net finance expansion projects.
The bill
Senate Bill 365
was forwarded to final action Tuesday without debate.
“There weren”t any questions,” said Sen. Jean Schodorf, R-Wichita. “It looks good.”
The bill authorizes the state to guarantee loans to safety net clinics for new buildings, expansion projects, renovations or new-equipment purchases.
Loan guarantees would be limited to $3 million per project; $15 million all together. Supporters say the guarantees will make it more likely that financial institutions will approve loans to the clinics, which serve low-income Kansans.
The bill also establishes a five-member committee to oversee the loan-guarantee processes.
“The clinics in Wichita and in other areas of the state are very much in favor of this bill. It”s really going to help them raise money when they need to make improvements,” said Schodorf, a member of Senate Ways and Means Committee, which introduced the bill.
In 2005, Safety net clinics
also known as community health centers
served more than 61,000 Kansans. About 64-percent of those served earned less than the federal poverty level.
Rep. Bob Bethell, R-Alden, welcomed news of the bill reaching final action in Senate.
“That”s great,” he said. “I don”t know if we”re going to get to it in the House. Now
if we don”t get to it
we can do it in conference,” Bethell said, referring to the process for resolving differences between House and Senate bills.
Bethell sponsored a virtually identical bill in the House. The bill passed the budget committee but has not been heard in the House.
Bethell is chairman of the Social Services Budget Committee.
-Dave Ranney is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. He can be reached at
dranney@khi.org
or at 785-233-5443, ext. 128.