The Kansas disaster emergency declaration was extended today after a lengthy State Finance Council meeting.
The governor reported today that the Kansas death toll from COVID-19 rose by 16 deaths since Wednesday. It now totals 511. There is a cumulative total of 48,386 cases in the state, an increase of 976 cases since Wednesday.
The Republican-controlled council challenged Gov. Laura Kelly’s proposal to pass a renewal of the emergency declaration. Without the renewal, the governor said, federal assistance and also Kansas National Guard assistance in fighting COVID-19 in Kansas would end.
When asked, the governor told the council that she did not have the intention of closing any businesses. She said she would state that in a news release, but it was not necessary to add it to the emergency declaration.
State Sen Jim Denning, R-Overland Park, advocated for a clause to be inserted into the emergency declaration that the governor would not close any businesses.
Some of the legislators had been pressured by business groups in the state not to approve an extension that would allow any businesses to be closed.
But that was a moot point, according to an attorney. The governor’s attorney told the council it was not necessary to add the clause because a state law, H.B. 2016, already makes it very difficult to close any businesses, and the rare cases that businesses could be closed are laid out in detail in that statute. The statute limited the governor’s authority and was a compromise that was worked out months ago by the governor and Legislature. The governor’s attorney said putting a clause into the declaration today could cause some confusion between the law already in place and the declaration.
After hours of discussion, Gov. Kelly agreed to add a clause written by her attorney, that any restrictions regarding closure of businesses in the Kansas Emergency Management Act remain in place, and the governor does not intend to use her authority to close businesses.
House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins, a Republican from Wichita who is a member of the council, voted for the revised declaration because there might be criminals who would be let go if it wasn’t passed. Under the emergency declaration, the state courts can decide to extend deadlines for cases.
The approval of the emergency declaration also allowed Gov. Kelly to extend the emergency orders that already have been approved.
Under the agreement reached previously with legislators, the governor can only extend the emergency declaration for 30 days at a time, and it goes before the State Finance Council for approval. The state of emergency would have expired Sept. 15 without the approval.
During the discussion, Gov. Kelly told the council that she had received a call from Dr. Deborah Birx with the White House Coronavirus Task Force stating that Kansas was in the “red zone” and suggesting mitigation techniques. Kansas is ranked eighth in the nation for its high positivity rate. The positivity rate is the number of positive COVID-19 tests divided by the total number of tests. The governor and council members agreed that if they did more testing that included nonsymptomatic people, the rate might decrease in Kansas. Usually, except for university admission health testing, COVID-19 tests in the state have been limited to people with symptoms and those who have been exposed.