Lawmaker pushes for smaller Legislature

TOPEKA — The Kansas Legislature is filled with lawmakers who ran on a promise of shrinking government — and at least one state senator thinks their chambers shouldn't be immune.

Sen. Chris Steineger, R-Kansas City, plans to introduce a bill this week that would reduce the number of state lawmakers by about one-fourth.

Steineger wants to cut the House of Representatives from 125 members to 90 and the Senate from 40 to 30.

He estimates that the change would save about $2 million a year in state spending.

"There are a lot of folks who talk about reducing the size of government. I'm doing it," Steineger said. "Talk is cheap. I'm trying to put words into action."

Some of Steineger's colleagues are skeptical that the plan would succeed. He's tried it before, several times, and been rebuffed.

"No. 1, I don't think it will happen," said Sen. Dick Kelsey, R-Goddard. "When he told me about it, I told him, 'See which 10 senators want to give up their seats.' "

There are practical considerations as well, he added.

"It would make some of the rural districts awfully huge," he said.

Steineger said several key differences this year might make shrinking the Legislature more palatable.

For one thing, the November elections brought to the Legislature many more conservatives, who ran on small-government platforms and who got a big boost of voter energy from the tea party movement.

He said reducing the number of legislative seats would be consistent with the smaller-is-better and competition-is-best philosophies advocated by tea partiers and their supporters.

Steineger recently changed parties from Democratic to Republican, saying that his smaller-government philosophy is a better fit there.

And, he said, he hopes to get more done as a member of the GOP, which now controls the governor's office and holds overwhelming majorities in the House and Senate.

The change in the number of legislative seats could be accomplished smoothly this year as part of the process of reapportioning and redistricting, Steineger said.

Although reductions might pit some sitting lawmakers against each other in elections, he said he doesn't see that as a bad thing.

"Ultimately, competition would prevail and the voters would decide who keeps the seat and who retires," he said.

Most of the opposition he's heard has come from other lawmakers, he said.

"We all have egos and we all believe we are essential, but other states with larger populations have smaller legislatures," he said.

How we compare

According to figures compiled last year by the Connecticut Office of Legislative Research, Kansas is 33rd in population among the 50 states, but has the 17th largest Legislature, with 165 members.

Those lawmakers serve a population of about 2.8 million. That's one lawmaker for each 17,083 residents — putting Kansas at No. 15 among the states.

Just above Kansas is Hawaii, at 17,042 residents for each of its 76 lawmakers.

Just below is New Mexico, with 17,943 people for each of its 112 legislators.

The most-represented Americans are in tiny New Hampshire, which has 424 legislators and a 1.3 million population — an average of one lawmaker per 3,124 residents.

New Hampshire also has by far the biggest Legislature in the country. Next on the list is Pennsylvania with 253 members.

The smallest legislature is in Nebraska, which governs itself with 49 representatives in a unique, one-House system.

Among the 49 states that have both a House and Senate, Alaska has the smallest legislature with 60 members, followed by Delaware, 62, and Nevada, 63.

California, with 37 million population and 120 total legislators, has the highest number of residents per lawmaker, 308,014.

Lawmakers skeptical

The idea of reducing the number of legislators offers a conundrum for fiscal conservatives.

It would reduce government expenditures, which they like.

But it also would increase the population of each legislative district by about a fourth, which they don't like.

The $2 million in forecast savings would be small compared to the state's budget gap of more than $500 million.

However, of the eight state agencies that Gov. Sam Brownback is eliminating in his proposed budget, only the Kansas Health Policy Authority spends more than $2 million a year.

Sen. Mike Petersen, R-Wichita, said he would oppose shrinking the Legislature.

"There might be some cost savings, but how much would it affect the representation?" he said. "I think it's important that in Kansas, where we have a citizen Legislature, that we have small enough districts to maintain that contact with the folks back home."

And Kelsey suggested that the savings might not be as much as Steineger hopes.

"If you give a representative a bigger district, will they start wanting more staff and more expense money?" he said.

Rep. Jim Ward, D-Wichita, said he doesn't think larger districts would work because Kansans have an expectation of "retail politics" and want their lawmakers to walk precincts and attend community functions.

"Any change in that status, I think we should go back to them (the public) for a vote," he said.

Sen. Jean Schodorf, R-Wichita, said she's not convinced reducing the size of the Legislature is a good idea, but that lawmakers ought to at least consider it as they ponder deep cuts in departments that provide services to the public.

"At this point in time, in our budget situation, I think everything's on the table," she said.

To cut or not to cut

Advocates working from outside the Capitol to reduce government costs said they can see both sides of the issue, but would probably opt to leave the Legislature at its current size.

"It could be a benefit in terms of cutting costs there, too — it does shrink government," said Lynda Tyler of Kansans for Liberty, who has been the chief organizer for most of the Tea Party events in Wichita.

But she said the benefit may not be worth the cost. She said she thinks it's much more important to shrink state bureaucracy than the Legislature.

"We're a half a billion short and we're talking about two million here or a million there," she said. "Are we not missing the problem somewhere else?"

John Stevens, president of the Republican Wichita Pachyderm Club, said he thinks changing the Legislature would make it too hard for some Kansans to stay in touch with their elected officials.

"In the city, you could still visit your representative," he said. "Out in the country, it might be kind of a hardship ... You've got a lot of geographic territory out there."

Americans for Prosperity, a leading lobby for reducing government spending that provided early organizational support to the tea party movement, has not seen Steineger's bill and is not taking a stance at present, said spokeswoman Jennifer Rezac.

Although reducing government is a key priority, "representation's important as well," she said.

Steineger said he sees his quest for a smaller Legislature as being like that of the Wright brothers, who needed many tries before designing an airplane that flew.

"I'm willing to spend year after year trying," he said.

This story was originally published January 23, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Lawmaker pushes for smaller Legislature."