The Kansas House and Senate worked into the night Thursday on a state budget, just two days after voting to scuttle Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax policies amid a projected $900 million shortfall over the next two years.
Negotiators from both chambers launched into evening talks shortly after the House passed a multiyear spending plan that differs from the Senate’s on key points such as pay raises for state employees.
Lawmakers are just days from setting a record for the state’s longest legislative session. But if negotiations proceed smoothly, they could wrap up the budget this week.
Senators passed their budget Sunday. After hours of debate Thursday, 99 of the House’s 125 members approved their 500-page spending blueprint, which includes appropriations of more than $6 billion annually from the state general fund.
“We’re able to balance our budget, pay our bills, have an ending balance,” Topeka Republican Rep. Brenda Dietrich said after casting her vote in favor. “And any of the additional spending that we’re doing is primarily necessity, which is making our KPERS payments.”
Olathe Republican Rep. Erin Davis described the lengthy floor debate as positive.
“I just want to commend the leadership for letting us actually have a debate on the floor,” she said. “It’s been a few years since we’ve been able to do that, and let the entire chamber have their say.”
But the bill met with opposition from some conservatives who decried state spending as too high, and from some Democrats who said the package doesn’t do enough.
“My biggest disappointment is it does not include a raise for many, many, many of my constituents that work for the state and have not gotten a raise for going on 10 years,” said Topeka Democratic Rep. Vic Miller, who expressed hope the House would defer to the Senate’s position, which includes salary increases for state employees. “Should they do that then I’ll likely vote yes.”
The Senate’s plan includes about $120 million over the next two fiscal years for that purpose.
Some lawmakers also worried the Legislature will continue to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars from the Kansas Department of Transportation to cover other areas of the state budget.
“We can’t keep doing it this way,” said Rep. John Carmichael, a Wichita Democrat.
Other features of the House budget include higher payments into the pension system in 2018, nearly $5 million for additional beds at Osawatomie State Hospital and extra funding for maintenance and repair staff at Larned State Hospital.
The House plan boosts support for community mental health centers and services designed for seniors who need assistance to be able to stay in their homes longer. It also alleviates budget cuts at Kansas State University and the University of Kansas, which experienced steeper reductions in state aid than other Board of Regents institutions last year.
The Senate’s version differs on dozens of points, from pension payments to IT and health care spending.
Negotiators didn’t need to cover K-12 spending Thursday because the House and Senate agreed on an education budget earlier this week and sent it to Brownback.
Celia Llopis-Jepsen is a reporter for the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics. You can reach her on Twitter @Celia_LJ. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to kcur.org.
Weekend heat indices. (National Weather Service graphic)
The National Weather Service said today’s heat index will be in the 90s, triggering an air quality alert.
Today’s high in Wyandotte County will be about 85, the weather service said. Muggy conditions this weekend will cause heat index values to rise to nearly 100 degrees in some areas, while other areas will still be warm, with heat indices in the mid-90s, according to the weather service.
Thunderstorm chances return to the area Tuesday and Wednesday, the weather service said. Some of these storms could be strong to severe.
The Mid-America Regional Council has issued an air quality alert in effect for Friday, June 9, when ozone is expected to be the primary pollutant.
People and businesses are urged to avoid activities that lead to ozone formation, including refueling vehiles, topping off when refueling, idling vehicles unnecessarily, and using gasoline-powered lawn equipment.
Residents may take positive action such as car pooling, biking to work, delaying or combining errands and using water-based paints and cleaners.
When pollution levels are elevated, the Mid-America Regional Council recommends that individuals consider limiting strenuous outdoor physical activity to reduce the risk of adverse health effects. People who may be especially sensitive to the effects of elevated levels of pollutants include the very young, and those with pre-existing respiratory problems such as asthma or heart disease. Those with symptoms should consider consulting their personal physician.
Today’s weather will be sunny with a high near 85 and a sout southwest wind of 5 to 10 mph, the weather service said.
Tonight, it will be mostly clear with a low of 68 and a south wind of 8 to 10 mph, according to the weather service.
Saturday, it will be sunny with a high of 90, the weather service said. It will be breezy with a south wind of 13 to 21 mph, gusting as high as 31 mph.
Saturday night, it will be mostly clear with a low of 72, according to the weather service. A south wind of 14 to 17 mph will gust as high as 29 mph.
Sunday, it will be sunny with a high near 91, the weather service said. It will be breezy, with a south wind of 14 to 21 mph, gusting as high as 30 mph.
Sunday night, it will be mostly clear, with a low of 72, according to the weather service.
Monday, it will be mostly sunny with a high near 91, the weather service said.
Monday night, the low will be around 73 with mostly clear skies.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach on Thursday announced his bid to become governor of Kansas in the 2018 election. He was joined at his announcement in Lenexa by his wife and five daughters. (Photo by Dan Margolies, Kansas News Service) by Dan Margolies and Sam Zeff, KCUR and Kansas News Service
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who catapulted to national prominence on the strength of his anti-immigration views, announced his candidacy for Kansas governor Thursday.
Kobach made the announcement two days after Kansas lawmakers voted to override Gov. Sam Brownback’s veto of a tax package that would raise $1.2 billion over the next two years — a rejection of Brownback’s signature 2012 tax cuts.
Kobach denounced the vote and said Kansas had a spending problem, not a revenue problem. Although he didn’t mention Brownback by name, he in effect aligned himself with the governor by categorically rejecting tax increases to patch the state’s budget hole, estimated at $900 million over the next two years.
“We have a Legislature that on Tuesday passed the largest tax increase in state history,” he said. “It’s outrageous. … This is the time we do not want to be taking policies that are going to reduce growth.”
Flanked by his wife and five young daughters, Kobach said this was “absolutely the worst time for the worst tax increase in our state’s history. We’re going in the wrong direction. That tax hits working people, it hurts the working poor, it hurts the middle class, it hurts everyone.”
“When I am governor, I will fight against every attempt to raise taxes on the people of Kansas,” he said.
‘Protecting Americans’
Kobach, a Republican, announced his candidacy for the 2018 election in the Thompson Barn in Lenexa, an event space on the old Lackman-Thompson estate. A throng of reporters, photographers and Kobach supporters crammed into the space as Kobach spoke for nearly 30 minutes.
Kobach last month was appointed by President Donald Trump as vice chair of a presidential commission on voter fraud and suppression. At his announcement Thursday, he cited illegal immigration, along with taxation and corruption, as one of three problems “that illustrate how bad it is in Topeka.”
“It’s not just that the illegal alien takes your job, it’s that the illegal aliens in that industry depress wages so that everybody who is still working in that industry is working for less,” Kobach said. “So it’s about protecting Americans, putting Americans first.”
In his speech, Kobach said “illegal aliens” were costing Kansas $424 million a year. That information apparently came from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has said has ties to white supremacist groups.
Kobach, who is in his second term as Kansas secretary of state, said that as governor he would put an end to so-called sanctuary counties in the state.
“In Kansas, we have had no efforts to stop illegal immigration,” he said. “In fact Kansas is the sanctuary state of the Midwest. We are the only state in the five-state area that has done nothing to discourage illegal immigration.”
He also said that under a Kobach administration, students lacking immigration status would not be allowed to pay in-state tuition at Kansas Board of Regents schools.
Last fall, 668 such students were enrolled in Kansas universities and community colleges, according a regents report. That represents 0.37 percent of the total student population in the state, with most of those students studying at community colleges.
Kobach also said he would ensure that state and local law enforcement officers cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when it makes requests to hand over undocumented immigrants.
Voter ID requirements
Kobach has been a polarizing figure in Kansas, where he has used the secretary of state’s office as a platform to launch himself into national politics.
He has successfully pushed for tighter voter registration and voter ID requirements in Kansas. He says the rules have helped secure Kansas elections, but his critics say the requirements block legal voters and exaggerate the issue of voter fraud.
He has stood by Trump’s claim that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 presidential election, although no evidence has emerged to support that claim. Trump, in turn, has cited Kobach as a source for his claim of widespread voter fraud.
Kobach has served as an informal adviser to Trump on immigration. At several points he was mentioned as being in line for a position with the administration. On Thursday, Kobach spoke of Trump leading an economic recovery and said Kansas needed to be part of that recovery.
A popular and frequent guest on conservative media outlets, Kobach has had a sometimes contentious relationship with journalists.
On KCUR’s Statehouse Blend Kansas in August 2015, he was asked why people rarely see letters supporting his policies in local newspapers.
“People have written those letters, they just don’t get published in the Kansas City ‘Red’ Star,” Kobach said. “I don’t expect to be treated even-handedly in the newspaper.”
In his Thursday announcement speech, Kobach said that as governor, he would reduce the number of government employees by leaving positions vacated by retiring baby boomers unfilled. He said he had reduced the number of employees in the secretary of state’s office by 18 percent without diminishing its ability to carry out its work.
Kansas has the third-highest number of government employees per capita in the country, he said.
“We’re going to see a reduction by attrition, not massive layoffs, but we will try to get by with fewer employees. And something tells me that if 47 of the other states can do it, I think we can probably manage in Kansas, too,” Kobach said.
Kobach also said he would put limits on lobbyists and seek to enact term limits for all elected officials. He noted that Kansas Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley was elected to the Legislature when Kobach was 8 years old and Gerald Ford was president.
“And I am now 51 years old,” Kobach said. “Do the math. And he is still in office. I think it’s time to retire.”
Kobach is seeking to succeed Brownback, who has some of the lowest voter approval ratings of any governor in the country and is term limited. Talk that Brownback may leave the office to take a position with the Trump administration has circulated in the Capitol, but so far no announcements have been forthcoming.
Before he was elected secretary of state in 2010, Kobach was an Overland Park city councilman and chairman of the Kansas Republican Party. He ran unsuccessfully for Kansas’ 3rd congressional district in 2004, when he was defeated by the Democratic incumbent, Dennis Moore.
He earned his undergraduate degree at Harvard University, holds master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Oxford and received his law degree from Yale Law School. From 1996 until his election as secretary of state, he taught constitutional law and other law courses at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.
Others in the field
Former state Rep. Ed O’Malley and Wichita businessman Wink Hartman have launched exploratory campaigns for the GOP nomination. O’Malley represented a Johnson County legislative district for two terms before leaving the Legislature in 2006 to serve as president of the Wichita-based Kansas Leadership Center.
Former Kansas Sen. Jim Barnett, who lost to former Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius in 2006, is also considering a return to gubernatorial politics.
On the Democratic side of the ballot, former Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer and former Kansas Rep. Josh Svaty have launched bids for their party’s nomination.
Greg Orman, the Johnson County businessman who in 2014 mounted a strong challenge to U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts as an independent, is also looking at the 2018 governor’s race.
Dan Margolies is KCUR’s health editor. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to kcur.org.
