Category: Kansas Legislature

Kansas election official urges legislators to avoid restricting drop boxes for advance ballots

by Noah Taborda, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — The Kansas Secretary of State’s Office and voting rights advocates are urging Senate lawmakers to reject a bill banning the use of drop boxes for advance ballots except under certain conditions.

With the pandemic raging, many counties chose to add additional drop boxes to increase ease of voting and maintain social distancing. These estimated 180 additional boxes are the target of many who fear the election could be vulnerable to interference from fraudsters.

Senate Bill 445 would prohibit the use of these boxes unless they are located inside the building of a county election office or satellite voting location. An employee must continuously observe the drop box during times that it is available to the public.

Clay Barker, general counsel for the secretary of state, said the proposed law was redundant as counties already supervise many boxes and that the law would hinder the state if more drop-off points were needed during a disaster.

“If I was doing ballot harvesting, which is now illegal in Kansas, I would not go near a drop box,” Barker said. “What we would like, if the committee wanted to move on drop boxes, is the direct authority to regulate them because right now, they are unregulated in Kansas.”

While they are unregulated, the Secretary of State’s Office has federal guidelines and its own policies helping direct counties on best practices. Policies include the requirement for a bipartisan group to pick up the ballots, the level of the sidewalk, and clearing brush away.

Still, the surveillance applied to these boxes is not uniform, leading to concerns among some legislators.

In 2020, Kansas saw the number of drop boxes increase by more than 180 in large part because of the secretary of state’s offer to purchase two additional boxes for every county. Seventy-nine counties requested two boxes and 12 requested one. Johnson County requested seven. At least eight counties purchased even more drop boxes on their own using federal grants.

Sen. Richard Hilderbrand, R-Galena, pointed out that while the desire may be for all counties to always have a man or a camera on these boxes, this is not the case everywhere. Camera security also cannot prevent the destruction of ballots in real time, only evidence to convict, he said.

“You keep saying these are the most secure because of surveillance but let’s just say they do have surveillance cameras on there, how often are they checked?” Hilderbrand said. “How often do people get to look at them? I can go in and drop 10 ballots off, and if it’s a low resolution, you don’t know if it’s 10 or I could drop 20 off.”

Aileen Berquist, community engagement manager for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, countered these concerns by reminding legislators there is no indication in Kansas that ballot drop boxes have or will be the subject of tampering. Reports from other states do not consider the verification process in Kansas, she said.

“We see this bill as a solution to a problem that is being manufactured,” Berquist said. “Ballot boxes provide much needed flexibility to voters in a busy modern world and that flexibility has been even more crucial to our civic engagement during a worldwide pandemic.”

Kansans must first request a ballot where they enter their driver’s license number and their signature, later checked by the election office, and then it must be taken to a box that is usually under surveillance, said Davis Hammet, of the election reform organization Loud Light. He said the vague writing of the bill could open the state up to litigation.

“There’s a whole chain of custody process for these ballots,” Hammet said. “The drop boxes might be actually one of the most secure ways to do this.”

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/02/18/kansas-election-official-urges-legislators-to-avoid-complicating-advance-ballot-drop-off/

House Republican wants bonus pay for teachers to replace funding for at-risk students

by Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Rep. Kristey Williams dueled Tuesday with school board lobbyist Mark Tallman over her proposal to create a bonus pay system for teachers by redirecting money earmarked for schools with high concentrations of low-income families.

House Bill 2690 would reward teachers in schools where students show 5% gains in standardized tests over the previous four years, or maintain a 90% level of proficiency. The $5,000 bonuses — or $2,500 for marginal student progress — would begin in the 2025-26 school year.

Funding for the merit pay program would come from a $50 million annual boost intended to raise the performance of at-risk students. That funding source is set to expire in 2024, which would leave a one-year gap in funding for public schools.

The Kansas Policy Institute, a longstanding adversary of public school funding, was the only supporter of the bill. Opponents include the Kansas Association of School Boards, which Tallman represents, as well as the teachers union, a coalition of public school advocates, the Kansas State Board of Education, and the Kansas PTA.

Williams, a Republican from Augusta and chairwoman of the House K-12 Education Budget Committee, said the funding for at-risk students is supposed to drive achievement. Without those gains, the money is “lost,” she said.

“We can’t just keep doing the same thing that we’ve always done, and we can’t not expect achievement gains, and we can’t not incentivize or reward achievement gains,” Williams said.

She asked Tallman: “What do you think incentivizes schools to increase proficiency?”

Tallman said he doesn’t know a school board or teacher that isn’t concerned about achievement gains.

He offered a historical perspective: When resources for Kansas public schools have increased, districts have used those funds to improve educational outcomes. When resources declined from 2009 to 2017, he said, achievement measures fell.

Lawmakers in 2018 adopted a plan to increase spending for public schools over a five-year period to restore funding to 2009 levels, adjusted for inflation. Progress was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Tallman said.

Williams claimed that funding actually increased during the timespan Tallman referenced — a claim based on KPI’s strategy to conflate spending levels before Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration with spending levels plus contributions to the state employee retirement fund.

Tallman said the districts that have the biggest needs would see the biggest loss under Williams’ plan, including eight districts that would lose $300 per pupil. Another 27 districts would lose between $200 and $300 per pupil.

“If the answer to better student performance is just better teachers or better teaching, why is low performance so disproportionately focused on lower-income families and schools with high percentage of these kids?” Tallman said. “It seems to us because these kids bring so many other factors to school that teaching alone cannot overcome.”

By converting at-risk money into incentives for teachers, Tallman said, the Legislature would impose a single strategy for improving education outcomes.

“If you take those dollars away, then that teacher may be able to get a bonus, but there would be fewer aides or assistants, or one-on-one or summer school programs,” Tallman said.

Rep. Susan Estes, a Republican from Wichita, said she was disappointed the school boards that Tallman represents have not used funding increases to pay teachers what they deserve.

“It’s hard to do your job well when you’re worrying about paying your bills,” Estes said. “We have teachers who qualify for free and reduced lunches — and that’s shameful.”

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/02/16/house-republican-wants-bonus-pay-for-teachers-to-replace-funding-for-at-risk-students/

House Republicans push for Kansas voters to limit executive branch authority, agency regulations

Representatives give preliminary approval by a vote of 77-42

by Noah Taborda and Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Republican representatives are eager Wednesday to approve a constitutional amendment that could provide legislators with new powers over the executive branch should it receive Senate and public approval.

If passed by two-thirds of the House and Senate and approved by a vote of the people of Kansas, the resolution proposed would amend article 1 of the Kansas state constitution. By adding a new section to the constitution, the measure provides the Legislature a new authority to set and revoke new rules within state agencies housed under the executive branch.

Throughout the debate, House Republicans batted away concerns over the effect of the provisions on the separation of powers and amendment to place other issues like Medicaid expansion and legalizing marijuana on the ballot.

“We’ve been given broad authority to not only carry out the law but also to create it,” said Rep. Barbra Wasinger, R-Hays. “This amendment approves that legislative oversight and allows us to be responsible for creating laws.”

The measure received preliminary approval 77-42 with five Republicans — Rep. Dave Baker, of Council Grove; Rep. Owen Donohoe, of Shawnee; Rep. Boyd Orr, of Fowler; Rep. Mark Schreiber, of Emporia; and Rep. John Wheeler, of Garden City — voting against it. The measure will need 84 votes tomorrow to pass.

If passed by the House and Senate, the constitutional amendment would be on the general election ballot in 2022.

Republicans are motivated primarily by a recent decision by the Kansas Department of Labor to add or amend six regulations regarding workers’ compensation. The decision drew the frustrations of several business groups and legislators during a November hearing who believed the regulations impeded statute and legislative authority.

Currently, the Legislature can only adopt a concurrent resolution expressing concern or requesting the revocation of a regulation. The rules and regulations committee issues comments and recommendations on proposals from these agencies.

However, Rep. Boog Highberger, a Lawrence Democrat, said the systems in place already function to address any overreach in regulations by executive branch agencies.

“I think it’s clear that if there’s a problem in the system, it’s sent to the attorney general’s office, and the problem needs to be fixed there,” Highberger said. “I’ve been involved in the process during my time in state government over the years. It really works, and there are a lot of checks and balances on it, a lot of guardrails.”

A 1984 Kansas Supreme Court ruling held that a previous measure allowing the Legislature to suspend or revoke administrative rule was unconstitutional because it violated the separation of powers.

Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s office signed off on the legality of this new resolution in July, after the state’s budget office and Department of Administration signed off in January.

House Speaker Ron Ryckman told House Republicans in a meeting before the House session Wednesday that Schmidt came up with the idea that “basically eliminates the fourth branch of government,” a reference to employees at state agencies who determine how to carry out the laws passed by the Legislature. Schmidt, a Republican, is running against Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly in this year’s election.

Ryckman asked House Republicans if they want “these folks” to make decisions like closing churches, shutting down businesses and giving overseas fraudsters money from the unemployment fund, or allow the Legislature to have a final say.

“It doesn’t matter who the governor is,” Ryckman said. “Bureaucrats have been here longer than us. They’ll stay here longer than us.”

The proposed constitutional amendment would not apply to the examples Ryckman provided. The governor closed churches and shut down businesses in April 2020 through executive orders in response to COVID-19. Bogus unemployment claims were filed in every state.

Majority Leader Dan Hawkins told Republican representatives prior to debate that he is “really passionate” about securing the ability to usurp the authority of the executive branch.

He said the committee that oversees rules and regulations can voice complaints, but bureaucrats at state agencies rarely listen. The committee lacks the power to block new rules and regulations from taking effect.

“It doesn’t make any difference what the governor is,” Hawkins said. “Those bureaucrats stay year in and year out, and they literally change the course of any law they want.”

Rep. John Carmichael, D-Wichita, said if the amendment was such a pressing need, the measure ought to be on the August 2022 ballot, alongside the Value Them Both Amendment.

When an amendment to do just that failed, Carmichael asked to push the vote back until after the gubernatorial election.

“In the event Derek Schmidt should be our governor, people can decide whether or not they want to do to Derek Schmidt what this is designed to do to Laura Kelly, because it’s bad legislation,” Carmichael told House Democrats in a meeting before the debate.

Other amendments offered by Democrats during the deliberation also fell short, including a revision to allow the governor the authority to veto a revocation, subject to a supermajority vote from the Legislature to override.

House minority leader Tom Sawyer and Rep. Jason Probst, who earlier this year offered constitutional amendments to expand Medicaid and legalize marijuana, again proposed to let Kansas voters decide on these hot-button issues.

The House Rules Committee ruled the amendments not germane to the resolution, promptly rejecting them.

“There are some other things I think people care about quite a bit,” Probst, a Hutchinson Democrat, said. “We’ve demonstrated to an excessive degree this year that we enjoy the opportunity to allow Kansans to vote on things.”

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/02/16/house-republicans-push-for-kansas-voters-to-limit-executive-branch-authority-agency-regulations/