Kansas Senate GOP hopefuls craft platform, woo angry voters

Everything is on the table.

That was the message from Senate President Susan Wagle on Wednesday as she spoke about a plan from Republican candidates for the Kansas Senate “to better Kansas.” Fourteen senators and 12 candidates signed on to the plan.

The latest move by GOP candidates for the Legislature comes with about a month left before Election Day.

The presentation also came in the midst of a week of bad budget news for the Gov. Sam Brownback administration. A report released Monday showed that the state’s budget shortfall has grown to around $60 million.

“I promise you, when we walk out the door (at the end of the session), this shortfall will be resolved,” Wagle said. “It will be a long-term fix. We will be more engaged.”

Though the administration has said it will not make across-the-board cuts, some changes are likely to come because of the latest shortfall.

“That’s why everything is on the table,” said Wagle, R-Wichita. “There’s no one solution. We are in a serious financial situation, and we can’t tax our way out of it, we can’t cut our way out of it, the loophole doesn’t fix it.

“It’s going to have to be a number of different bills that come together and balance the budget.”

A pamphlet passed out at the announcement said that “Kansas is on the wrong track.”

The message ran somewhat contrary to the primary election campaigns of several moderate Republicans who ousted conservative incumbents.

In those campaigns, many of which were centered on education funding, candidates called for a rollback of the tax cuts that Brownback championed in 2012. Those cuts, which took roughly 330,000 limited liability corporations and other businesses off the tax rolls, have been a major talking point in both the primary and general election campaigns.

Wagle frequently criticized Kansas Democratic candidates for campaigning against the two-term governor, rather than suggesting solutions.

“The Democrats don’t have a plan,” Wagle said. “They haven’t put forward budgets, they haven’t put forward tax plans. They don’t have a plan.”

The Senate Republicans’ proposal calls for restoration of the “rainy day fund,” which it says is empty, and the creation of a legislative oversight committee to help balance the budget and keep state agencies accountable.

It also makes a point that taxation should be fair across the board, likely a nod to candidates’ criticism of the 2012 tax cuts.

“Some currently do not pay any tax while others who do the same job are taxed unfairly,” the plan reads.

If the Senate does not pass a balanced budget within the first 70 days of the session, the plan calls for legislators to forfeit their salaries until a decision is reached.

The plan also calls for further government transparency for the public’s benefit, including live-streaming legislative meetings and Senate business.

After briefly reviewing the plan, one Democratic leader said the ideas show that the Kansas GOP is worried that disowning Brownback would alienate its voting base.

“I would say the vast majority of people that are on this list remain Brownback allies,” Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka said. “And that’s why our candidates … (are) running on the idea that we need change. We need to move beyond Brownback, and we need a change in the Senate to bring more moderate people together so we can form a bipartisan coalition that we’ve had in the past.”

This story was originally published October 5, 2016 at 7:34 PM with the headline "Kansas Senate GOP hopefuls craft platform, woo angry voters."