Pub 10 2021 Issue 2

22 2021 Public Affairs Conference Dinah Sykes Senate Minority Leader Scott Schwab Secretary of State Derek Schmidt Kansas Attorney General Tom Sawyer House Minority Leader Ron Ryckman Speaker of the House Esther George President Kansas City Federal Reserve David Herndon Kansas State Bank Commissioner Laura Kelly Governor of Kansas Ty Masterson Senate President Jerry Moran U.S. Senator Rob Nichols American Bankers Association President & CEO K BA Chairman Jonathon Johnson kicked off the 2021 Harold A. Stones Public Affairs Conference. He thanked all attendees who took the time to learn about the banking industry’s state and federal legislative priorities. Johnson introduced Harold Stones, who formerly served as KBA’s Executive vice president and had recently retired as Kansas Director of Special Projects for U.S. Senator Pat Roberts, who was honored and commented on its history, which began in 1971. Johnson also introduced the new industry image campaign recently launched by the KBA, which included ads on social media that take viewers to KBA’s landing page where they can learn the vitally important role banks play in communities across Kansas. KBA SVP-Government Relations Alex Orel introduced the Kansas Legislative Leadership Panel. Panelists were Senate President Ty Masterson, Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, Speaker of the House Ron Ryckman, and House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer. Orel asked panelists questions that included what they were putting on their agendas this year, including tax policy and regulatory reform and how they will address the COVID – 19 pandemic and state emergencies moving forward. After the panel, Attorney General Derek Schmidt spoke about the unemployment insurance fraud claims that are being mailed to recipients saying they claimed employee benefits and payments and how he is trying to respond to them. Schmidt said he doesn’t know-how much of the Kansas Unemployment Fund has been lost due to fraud, but estimates have shown more than $300 million. Kansas had the third-highest incident of unemployment fraud in the country. Schmidt stated that the fraudsters committing these financial crimes are mainly offshore, so they must get shut down, and prevention is the only solution to this problem. The Kansas legislature is working on addressing the issue. Next up was Secretary of State Scott Schwab, who discussed the successful certification of Kansas’ recent election