RSVP to attend Open for Water, Energy, Land, and Food Forum!
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RSVP to attend the Water, Energy, Land, and Food Forum March 17th at the Capital in Topeka
The Legislative Day will begin at 10 a.m and end at 4 p.m. There will be a Climate Prayer vigil from 9 to 10 a.m. that everyone is welcome to attend.
- Get up-to-date on current environmental advocacy
- Visit the Solutions Showcase
- Enjoy a Local Foods Lunch (RSVP required)
- Sample New Ideas at the Cookies & Conservation Conversation
- Meet with your legislators (meeting times can be set up for you, contact Rachel Myslivy at [email protected])
Please RSVP if you plan to join us for a local foods’ lunch: http://tinyurl.com/WELF2016
Sponsorships are available for Water, Energy, Land, and Food organizations or businesses interested in sharing your services with Kansans. Click here to sponsor!!
For more information visit:
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Sales Tax on Food in Kansas
Currently, there have been two bills filed to address sales tax on food in Kansas:
- House Bill 2444, by Rep. Mark Hutton. This bill would drop the sales tax on groceries to 2.6 percent while ending the income tax exemption on some 330,000 businesses.
- A constitutional amendment, SCR 1612, by Senator Tom Holland. The amendment would reduce the state tax to 4 percent beginning in July 2017, then to 2 percent in 2018 and to zero by July 2019.
More information on each bill can be found by viewing KC Healthy Kids recent press release regarding SCR 1612.
What can you do? KC Healthy Kids invites Kansans to come to the Capitol next Wednesday, March 2nd, and advocate for the elimination of sales tax on food! KC Healthy Kids is happy to help provide you with talking points, as well as make appointments for you with your elected officials. Contact Ashley Jones at [email protected] for questions about the day.
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HB 2595 will likely be heard by the entire House of Representatives sometime next week.
This bill could potentially nullify some existing local food system and access efforts. Advocates have expressed concerns the bill could preempt the ability of their local city and county governments and other public entities to implement current initiatives such as:
- Community gardens on public land,
- Land banks that impact food access,
- Farmers markets on public properties with any food sales restrictions,
- Publically-funded SNAP double-up programs,
- Nutrition guidelines for Parks and Recreation or other public space, and
- School concessions nutrition guidelines
A copy of the bill and it's current amendments can be found following the link below.
http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2015_16/measures/hb2595/
The original bill preempts local efforts to address food based disparities and to make the healthy choice the easy choice in settings such as restaurants, retail food establishments and vending machines. There is concern the bill in its current state could also negatively affect momentum around local food systems development.
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SB 314 Update
SB 314
has been passed by both the Senate Agriculture Committee and the full Senate. It has now been referred to the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources.
The bill and current amendments can be found at the link below.
http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2015_16/measures/sb314/
SB 314
calls for the extension of the Local Food and Farm Task Force. The extension will allow the task force to continue evaluating policy and funding recommendations for expanding and supporting local food systems and for assessing and overcoming obstacles in order to increase locally grown food production.
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3/2 - Legislative day at the capital with KC Healthy Kids to advocate for the elimination of sales tax on food
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