Wednesday, March 17, 2010

A day after a rally by advocates for Kansas public schools, state employees and soda vendors are taking their turn at the Statehouse.

About 250 members of the Kansas Organization of State Employees planned to spend Wednesday lobbying to protect pay, benefits and pensions.

The union says it has about 11,000 members. It represents transportation workers, corrections officers, social workers and maintenance staff.

Kansas lawmakers are working on a state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The state is facing a gap of $467 million between project revenues and mandated expenditures.

Meanwhile, about 400 soda vendors wearing blue Pepsi shirts and jackets gathered outside a committee room Wednesday where a Senate panel took testimony on a plan to tax soda and other sugary drinks.

The idea from Sen. John Vratil, a Leawood Republican, would increase the cost of a 12-ounce can of soda by a dime. Such an increase would raise an estimated $90 million for the state beginning July 1.

An alternative plan floated earlier raises that tax by four-tenths of a cent per teaspoon of sugar.