The requirement that the lottery adopt advertising standards may be particularly timely. Among other things, the proposed standards say that lottery advertising shouldn't imply lewd or indecent images and shouldn't degrade any ethnic, minority, or religious group. Some legislators were offended by what they believed to be inappropriate racial and sexual overtones in the ad. With the number of practicing dentists in Kansas dwindling, legislation has been introduced that would provide state-paid loans to dental students who could then repay the loan by working in a dentally under served area in Kansas. The number of dentists being trained is decreasing nationwide.
Student debt continues to grow.
Slightly more than half of the state's dentists practice in four counties-Douglas, Johnson, Sedgwick and Shawnee. An alternative pay raise plan for state employees that would preserve step increases, provide larger raises and initially cost less than Governor Graves' recommendation has been proposed. The proposal would provide a 3.5 percent increase to all classified and unclassified state workers, compared with the 3 percent hike the governor has recommended. The plan would also preserve the 14-year tradition of granting all classified employees a step movement up the state's pay plan, which is worth a 2.5 percent raise. In Graves' salary proposal state workers in the coming fiscal year wouldn't receive step movements, a recommendation that has made some state workers uneasy.