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PITTSBURG —
Gov. Sam Brownback has spoken, and now it is up to the Kansas Legislature to turn his words into actions.
Brownback gave his State of the State address on Tuesday and followed it up Wednesday with the release of his planned two-year fiscal budget for the state.
Local legislators had plenty of thoughts about both the speech and the budget. Legislators did say that their reactions were preliminary, as they had been in committee meetings throughout the day and had not pored over the details of the governor’s plan, but had some reactions based upon the general summary.
Perhaps the legislators’ approach was best summarized by new state Sen. Jake LaTurner, R-Pittsburg.
“I thought he had some interesting proposals in there,” LaTurner said. “We’ll carefully comb through the budget and see what is acceptable to the people of Kansas.”
Even those on the opposite side of the political spectrum found something to compliment in the State of the State. Rep. Bob Grant, D-Frontenac, said that he found a few things he could agree with. Namely, the praise of Senate Minority Leader Sen. Anthony Hensley for his 37 years in the Kansas Legislature and the praise of Don Wistuba, who has run the statehouse snack shop since 1976. That’s about where the praise ended for Grant.
“I thought it was a good speech,” Grant said. “The only problem was there wasn’t a lot of substance... There were a lot of difficult things in there. He’s sure painting a rosy picture of what will happen. I’m not sure we’re going to end up with that or not.”
Rep. Julie Menghini, D-Pittsburg, was blunt about the State of the State. Her response echoed that of Hensley, who provided the Democratic response to the State of the State.
“I think that there were some dangerous and unproductive things he proposed. It worries me that a member of quote solutions unquote were Washington D.C.-style policy and politics,” Menghini said. “D.C.-style policy and politics aren’t faring so well at this time. That concerns me.”
Last Friday, a three-judge panel ruled that the state Legislature had not been funding K-12 education to a level acceptable by the state Constitution. Brownback proposed changing the way state judges are appointed during his State of the State, suggesting it be an appointment by the governor or a vote by the people. Appellate judges are currently chosen by the governor from a list of three candidates proposed by the Kansas Supreme Court Nominating Commission, a nine-member panel made up of at least five attorneys, and judges are put up for retention votes on a certain rotation.
Gov. Sam Brownback has spoken, and now it is up to the Kansas Legislature to turn his words into actions.
Brownback gave his State of the State address on Tuesday and followed it up Wednesday with the release of his planned two-year fiscal budget for the state.
Local legislators had plenty of thoughts about both the speech and the budget. Legislators did say that their reactions were preliminary, as they had been in committee meetings throughout the day and had not pored over the details of the governor’s plan, but had some reactions based upon the general summary.
Perhaps the legislators’ approach was best summarized by new state Sen. Jake LaTurner, R-Pittsburg.
“I thought he had some interesting proposals in there,” LaTurner said. “We’ll carefully comb through the budget and see what is acceptable to the people of Kansas.”
Even those on the opposite side of the political spectrum found something to compliment in the State of the State. Rep. Bob Grant, D-Frontenac, said that he found a few things he could agree with. Namely, the praise of Senate Minority Leader Sen. Anthony Hensley for his 37 years in the Kansas Legislature and the praise of Don Wistuba, who has run the statehouse snack shop since 1976. That’s about where the praise ended for Grant.
“I thought it was a good speech,” Grant said. “The only problem was there wasn’t a lot of substance... There were a lot of difficult things in there. He’s sure painting a rosy picture of what will happen. I’m not sure we’re going to end up with that or not.”
Rep. Julie Menghini, D-Pittsburg, was blunt about the State of the State. Her response echoed that of Hensley, who provided the Democratic response to the State of the State.
“I think that there were some dangerous and unproductive things he proposed. It worries me that a member of quote solutions unquote were Washington D.C.-style policy and politics,” Menghini said. “D.C.-style policy and politics aren’t faring so well at this time. That concerns me.”
Last Friday, a three-judge panel ruled that the state Legislature had not been funding K-12 education to a level acceptable by the state Constitution. Brownback proposed changing the way state judges are appointed during his State of the State, suggesting it be an appointment by the governor or a vote by the people. Appellate judges are currently chosen by the governor from a list of three candidates proposed by the Kansas Supreme Court Nominating Commission, a nine-member panel made up of at least five attorneys, and judges are put up for retention votes on a certain rotation.
“If I’d been the Supreme Court judges,” Grant said, “I believe I would have walked out. I believe it was a cheap shot at them. They’re not able to answer, but have to sit there and take what he says. That’s his last remaining hurdle for him to get complete control of the state. That’s not right.”
LaTurner didn’t see it that way, saying the judiciary branch had taken too much power into its own hands. He said he liked the governor’s plan to change the appointment process.
“I don’t think the court has the right to bind the hands of the legislative body when it comes to funding issues,” he said. “What the court says in their opinion is we can’t do anything. We can’t change the formula, we can’t use any mechanism. The only thing we can do is increase funding. That’s a pretty dangerous precedent for the judicial branch to tell the legislative branch what to do.”
Both Menghini and LaTurner said they opposed the governor’s proposal to keep the one-cent sales tax in place, rather than to allow 6/10 of that cent to expire as planned.
“We face quite a shortfall now,” LaTurner said. “The governor wants to keep the sales tax, but eliminate deductions. I’m still solidly against keeping that 6/10 of a penny on. The reason why is very simple. The Legislature made a promise to the people of Kansas. When you make a promise, you ought to keep it.”
Menghini agreed, and put the reason for the shortfall on Brownback’s recent tax cut plan. In the State of the State, the governor called for further reductions of the state income tax, and his budget said this would be paid for by eliminating deductions, including the mortgage interest tax deduction. Menghini said she would no longer call that the “tax cut” plan, but instead the “tax shift” plan, saying it transferred the burden of taxes from the upper class to the low- to moderate-income families.
“It concerned me that they wanted to keep the full one cent sales tax on, when we made a promise to the people of Kansas,” Menghini said. “We put it on in the midst of global recession. The budget crisis now could have been avoided if we hadn’t done the tax shifts.”
LaTurner said he liked the overall idea of further tax cuts, but would like to see how the governor gets to the goal of zero state income taxes before making up his mind. He did not like the plan to get rid of the mortgage interest tax deduction.
“[Brownback] wants to get to zero [income taxes]. It’s not a bad idea. Where we’re starting right now with such a budget deficit, it’s hard to sew that up for the time being. We’re still looking at everything. I’m not making any hard and fast decisions,” LaTurner said.
The Brownback budget calls for keeping the base state aid per pupil flat in fiscal year 2014 at $3,838 per pupil, well below the court-mandated level of $4,492 per pupil, and raising it $14 to $3,852 in fiscal year 2015.
The budget does not include the expectation of a casino in the Southeast Gaming Zone, but expects casino revenues to double to roughly $400 million. Grant said he planned to reintroduce his gaming bill that would lower the requirements for casinos in Southeast Kansas.
Overall, LaTurner found plentyto like, but the actual legislation could be a different story.
“I think the general approach is right,” LaTurner said. “I also want to reduce taxes in the state, and make it more affordable to stay in the state and not leave the state. We want to encourage people to come to the state. The line was, ‘Look out Texas, here comes Kansas!’ It’s an admirable goal, and I support it in the abstract, holding spending steady and getting business to come in. But the devil’s in the details.”
Andrew Nash can be reached at andrew.nash@morningsun.net or by calling 231-2600 ext. 140.
