Flags have been lowered to half-staff today in Kansas to honor Staff Sgt. Wesley W. “Wes” Kubie of Salina, Kansas.
Sgt. Kubie was involved in a military vehicle accident June 8 at Smoky Hill Air National Guard Range, 10 miles southwest of Salina.
Staff Sgt. Kubie was a Joint Terminal Attack Controller instructor for the Kansas Air National Guard, assigned to the 284th Air Support Operations Squadron at Smoky Hill. He was deployed to Afghanistan from 2019 to 2020 as an active guard reservist in the Air Force.
“Staff Sergeant Kubie lost his life in the line of duty serving his state and nation,” Gov. Laura Kelly said. “I share my condolences with the Kubie family, loved ones, and fellow Kansas Guardsmen. His commitment to our state will not be forgotten.”
The Urban Outfitters development, near 118th and State, is one of several economic development efforts in Wyandotte County. This photo is from early May. (Photo by Steve Rupert)
by Mary Rupert
Wyandotte County has been a big beneficiary of economic development efforts in Kansas, according to Gov. Laura Kelly.
The state intensified economic development efforts in the past few years, moving up in state rankings for its efforts and recently receiving the Gold Shovel Award from Area Development magazine, she said on Tuesday. Only eight states received the award, and Kansas was the only small state that received this economic development award this year, she said.
“We set a record for new capital investment in 2020,” Gov. Kelly said. “We brought in over $2.5 billion in capital investment, more than ever before. And we are on target to beat that record in 2021.”
The award was a recognition of the work the Kansas Department of Commerce has done with the local communities, she added.
Gov. Kelly said they have closed the deal on about $6 billion of capital investment projects in Kansas since she took office in 2019. In addition, they have brought in about 26,000 jobs to the state, she said.
Wyandotte County has been a major beneficiary of the state’s economic development efforts and local efforts, she said.
Since 2019 they’ve closed on about 33 or so new projects with over 3,500 jobs associated with those in new capital investments, she said.
In the past year or two, despite the pandemic, Wyandotte County has seen some big projects announced, such as Urban Outfitters, an Amazon warehouse, the Turner Logistics Center and the redevelopment of the former Schlitterbahn water park into the planned Homefield complex. There have been many other smaller projects in Wyandotte County, and together they make a huge difference, Gov. Kelly said.
A lot of these and other projects here have had assistance from the state in various incentives. For example, parts of the Homefield amended project was going through state approval as recently as last week, according to Unified Government officials.
The governor said the return on investment is huge from all these projects.
“Kansas really does get a lot more back than we give,” she said. “It’s imperative that we make investments to grow our economy. You can’t do it any other way.”
After the tax experiment of the Brownback years, the Commerce Department was decimated, she said, with not enough staff to recruit and work with businesses. Gov. Kelly redirected resources in 2019, re-establishing programs such as the international trade commission and office of rural prosperity, focusing on more economic development.
“That investment pales in comparison to the return on the dollar,” Gov. Kelly said.
Medicaid expansion
One of the governor’s goals in office was to expand Medicaid. That didn’t happen this year in the Kansas Legislature, as lawmakers adjourned without taking a vote on it. Expect to see it again next year.
“I will not give up. It is absolutely imperative that we expand Medicaid,” Gov. Kelly said.
In Missouri, residents voted to expand Medicaid, only to see a decision not to fund it from the legislature, and then a court case over it, according to news reports.
Kansas is now the only state in the Midwest that has not expanded Medicaid, she said.
“That is not only bad for our people and businesses, it makes it very difficult to recruit and retain medical professionals,” Gov. Kelly said.
If medical professionals are located anywhere near the border, many of them will go to one of the states that has expanded Medicaid, she said.
Medicaid expansion also is very helpful to rural hospitals, many of whom are close to closure and need the expansion to keep their doors open, she said.
“Not to mention that we’ve left over $5 billion in Kansas taxpayer money sent to Washington, D.C., and disbursed to 38 other states that have expanded Medicaid, rather than coming back to Kansas to take care of our people and grow our economy,” Gov. Kelly said.
Unemployment system
The unemployment system in Kansas was swamped when the pandemic hit, with hundreds of thousands of people applying for benefits and some unable to get them.
Gov. Kelly said the computer system in place at the start of the pandemic dated back to 1977, the year that Elvis died, and while it could handle the usual 7,000 to 10,000 applicants, it was swamped by hundreds of thousands of applications in the pandemic.
The governor said the modernization process for that system had started with the Parkinson administration, but it was pulled by the Brownback administration, which stopped the project. When Kelly became governor, she started working toward modernization, and then the pandemic hit, she added.
“We had to stop working on modernization to respond to the surge in applications and just do patchwork,” she said.
Not only did the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits increase, but also a new federal program with some changes had to be added at the state level. Hundreds of people were brought in to work in the agency to respond to the claims.
Gov. Kelly said the state now has a modernization system in the works that is being fast-tracked and may be completed in a few years. Normally, it would take about four to five years to revamp the computer system, she said.
Transportation plan
Gov. Kelly’s administration also passed the fourth comprehensive transportation plan. Instead of selecting all the projects and putting them in the pipeline for the next 10 years, they are putting them on a basis of just a few years. In the past, sometimes local community needs changed during the 10 years.
Local communities are able to leverage their dollars with the state’s dollars, and they’re able to get more projects in the pipeline, she said.
One of her goals when elected was to close the “Bank of KDOT” by fiscal year 2023, she said. “We are on track to do that,” Gov. Kelly said.
In the past, transfers to the highway fund were not being made by the state, and dollars intended for transportation projects were not always used for them, but were borrowed for other uses.
When she was in the Senate, they overturned the Brownback tax experiment, and then they changed that “Bank of KDOT” practice, she said.
“Since I’ve been governor, I’ve been able to put together three budgets that fund our schools, fund our roads and fund other vital state services,” she said.
Kansas will continue its fight against COVID-19, according to Gov. Laura Kelly.
Although the Kansas disaster declaration was allowed to expire today by the Legislative Coordinating Council, the state will continue its effort to vaccinate people, she said.
“We are going to keep doing what we have been doing,” Gov. Kelly said Tuesday. “It just will be harder without the disaster declaration.”
The declaration allowed the state to activate some resources including the Kansas National Guard and Emergency Management Division, and they will no longer have that ability, she said. They will still fight COVID-19, it will just be a different process, more cumbersome and more expensive, and starting from scratch putting it in place, she added.
The emergency declaration would have allowed the state to continue to contract with a number of nurses who provide vaccinations, Gov. Kelly said. She added they would have to revamp and figure out a different way to do it.
Also, by ending the state disaster declaration, it complicates the state’s relationships with the local units of government and the local health departments, she said. The state will have to figure out a different way to partner with the local health departments to make sure they’re getting what they need, she added.
A lot of the local services were in partnership with the state and with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, she said.
“We will continue to work with people and for people,” Gov. Kelly said. “It is just more complicated.”
There was no good reason other than political reasons to end this disaster declaration now, she added.
“Our intent was to ramp up our vaccination efforts in our school-age kids,” she said, making sure they had their vaccinations before schools reopened in August. “That’s something that we’ll do, but the state will have to pay for it and will have to put in place a new structure.”
Wyandotte County extended its own local state of emergency for 90 days by a unanimous vote of the Unified Government Commission on June 10. This action will allow the local government to receive federal funding for the vaccination sites and other efforts to fight COVID-19, according to local officials.
The state was receiving federal funding for vaccination clinics and also for other programs, such as extra assistance for those on food stamps.
Gov. Kelly, state and local health officials saved countless numbers of lives during the 15 months the disaster declaration was in place in Kansas.
On Tuesday, the governor credited local public health departments with being remarkably responsive, innovative and absolutely passionate about the future.
Tuesday morning, the Legislative Coordinating Council let the disaster declaration expire by canceling the meeting where it was scheduled to be discussed. The declaration expires today. Senate President Ty Masterson released a statement, with Senate Vice President Rick Wilborn and Majority Larry Alley:
“At last month’s LCC meeting, a majority of legislative leaders made it clear that June 15th was likely to be the end of the state of emergency – that after 15 months, it is time for Kansas to return to normal. As such, the LCC recommended the governor develop an exit strategy to end the emergency – however, after reviewing the governor’s letter, it appears the governor opted for an extension strategy.
“The legislature and the LCC have granted the governor every extension request over the last year, but the current circumstances surrounding COVID-19 no longer necessitate a statewide disaster emergency. The governor has not provided adequate justification for the LCC to grant her request for yet another extension, and all remaining efforts related to COVID-19 can and should take place under our normal procedures. As such, the statewide disaster emergency will expire as planned.”
Kansas Democratic Party Chairwoman Vicki Hiatt stated: “The decision by Kansas Republican leaders to end the disaster declaration is nothing more than reckless political action that risks the health of Kansas families and our small businesses. To be clear, ending the disaster declaration doesn’t end the pandemic, it only makes it more difficult for the state to administer vaccines — especially to our children who will be going back to school come August.”
Kansas House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins issued a statement, with Speaker Ron Ryckman and Speaker Pro Tem Blaine Finch, all Republicans:
“Today marks 460 days since the Governor’s declaration of a disaster related to COVID-19. It is time for the declared disaster to end and recovery to begin. We asked the Governor for a detailed plan to justify the need for a further extension and the winding down of our state’s emergency response. What we received was an acknowledgment that nearly all executive orders could end immediately, and nearly all mission assignments could be closed by today. The Governor has failed to make a case for continuing the extraordinary measures that come with a declared disaster.
“The remaining goal to make vaccines available to all Kansans who want them is one that our state can achieve without emergency measures and executive orders. There are adequate medical personnel to meet the current demand for vaccines and the regular authority available to the Governor under the laws of our state is sufficient to meet these needs.
“The emergency part of this disaster has thankfully passed. Now is the time to help Kansans recover, rally and return to normal.”
