Hard to do worse than 2015 legislative session
The extended, emotional finale and historic tax hike of the 2015 legislative session overshadowed lawmakers’ earlier mistakes and missed opportunities. Unfortunately, Kansans now must live with all the consequences.
The Legislature broke national news by making Kansas the first state to ban abortions using the dilation and extraction method, predictably leading to a new lawsuit. It claimed the unwelcome spotlight again by passing a bizarre law prohibiting poor Kansans from spending welfare assistance on cruises, amusement parks, manicures, lingerie and tattoos. That bill was so badly written that it required a do-over of sorts, because it had limited ATM withdrawals to $25 in a time of $20-only ATM machines and put federal funding at risk.
At Gov. Sam Brownback’s urging, lawmakers also repealed the 23-year-old school-finance formula before having a replacement, instead passing a block-grant bill that is creating shortfalls for districts.
The Legislature showed deepening contempt for the concepts of judicial independence and local control, by coercively trying to use its power over court funding to influence a court ruling and by curbing local governments’ ability to raise property taxes and regulate gun sales. It broke the promises of the 2006 concealed-carry law, and ignored public opinion, by newly allowing people to carry concealed guns legally without a license or training.
Lawmakers also overruled local preference in moving city council and school board elections to the fall, and overlooked Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s record of poor judgment and excessive partisanship in empowering his office to prosecute voter fraud.
Even though two days of standing-room-only committee hearings in March made clear the high stakes for 150,000 uninsured Kansans and dozens of hospitals being harmed by the state’s failure to expand Medicaid, what prevailed was Americans for Prosperity’s threat “to hold accountable any legislator who supports this misguided scheme.” How sad.
Lawmakers also couldn’t be bothered to stop public officials from using private e-mail accounts to circumvent the Kansas Open Records Act – a loophole first reported by The Eagle related to the Brownback administration’s budget director. The Legislature, which still offers only live (and glitchy) online audio of floor action, failed again to finalize proposals to enable audio or video streaming of committee hearings.
Nor did the Legislature lift a finger to help state employees who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender after Brownback, in February, rescinded a 2007 executive order protecting them from workplace discrimination and harassment.
At least, after more bad headlines, the Legislature hammered out a bill regarding Uber and other ride-sharing services and came up with a rollback of the 2009 renewable energy mandate that shouldn’t tax wind energy out of business in Kansas.
The session lasted a record 113 days, so “lack of time” makes an especially weak excuse this year, whether for inaction or poorly crafted law. Surely legislators and the governor will do better in 2016, as it would be hard to do worse.
For the editorial board, Rhonda Holman
This story was originally published June 15, 2015 at 7:06 PM with the headline "Hard to do worse than 2015 legislative session."