Capitol Beats: Beware the Ides of March
Check this spot on Sundays for a few quick hits about what’s driving the debate in the Legislature.
SAY WHAT?
“I’ve got to laugh when I hear I was … ‘irrational’ and ‘lost control’ and ‘screaming and yelling.’ And I go, ‘I’ve never been more calm in my life.’ ”
House Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, rebutting accusations that he stripped two lawmakers of their chairmanship in a fit of rage. Merrick said he was “very calm and civil” when he made the decision.
“You walk around the building and everybody’s like a zombie. It’s so toxic and mean-spirited. And it’s just really not a fun place to work anymore. But we’re setting it up to get some new people, so it will be better next year.”
Rep. Jim Ward, D-Wichita, describing the mood at the Capitol this past week.
5,400
That’s the number of nonfarm jobs Kansas lost between February 2015 and February 2016, according to a jobs report released Friday.
Trending
In William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” a soothsayer warns the Roman dictator to “beware the ides of March.” Sure enough, the ides go poorly for Caesar, who gets a bunch of daggers in his back on the floor of the Roman Senate, one of them at the hands of long-time ally Brutus.
No daggers were unsheathed in Topeka on the ides, but there was plenty of upheaval in both the House and the Senate. A coalition of Republicans and Democrats overrode one of Gov. Sam Brownback’s recent vetoes on a piece of legislation meant to block the governor from using STAR bonds to lure the American Royal to Kansas. The coalition was led by Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, a long-time Brownback ally who finds herself increasingly at odds with the governor this session.
On the House side, Rep. John Rubin, R-Shawnee, tried to force a vote on a gaming bill in a direct challenge to House Speaker Ray Merrick. Rubin’s plan failed and ended up costing him his chairmanship of the House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee, prompting him to compare Merrick to a dictator. Rep. John Barker, R-Abilene, also lost his chairmanship of the House Rules Committee as a result of the controversy, as Merrick made the unusual move of announcing their replacements on the Senate floor.
News ahead
The Senate Ways and Means Committee approved a proposed fix to school finance Thursday. SB 512 reshuffles money already in the K-12 system as a way to address a court order calling for the state to fix inequities in school funding. The Senate could take a vote on the measure this week before it goes on a month-long break. The Wichita school district says the bill, which keeps overall funding flat, falls short of the court’s demand to make school funding more equitable.
Bryan Lowry
For more legislative news, go to www.kansas.com/politics and follow @BryanLowry3 on Twitter.
This story was originally published March 19, 2016 at 3:31 PM with the headline "Capitol Beats: Beware the Ides of March."