Kansas views on fiscal mess, earthquakes, voting changes, judicial selection, pot bill, KU vs. Missouri
Fiscal mess – Thus far, Brownback administration officials have blamed President Obama, previous governors, the overreaching federal government, a lackluster holiday shopping season, the media, and tax refunds for the tax revenue shortages that have been appearing for more than a year now. We will remind our readers once again this fiscal mess, which only will worsen, is self-inflicted.
Earthquakes – In Oklahoma, regulators collect seismic mapping data from oil operators and use it to identify fault lines. When seismic activity increases in a particular area, regulators use the data to instruct operators to temporarily stop or slow down the rate at which the companies fill their disposal wells. The requirement hasn’t stifled drilling in Oklahoma and it hasn’t undermined the oil economy. There is no reason this can’t be done in Kansas, and there’s no reason it can’t be authorized this legislative session. Any lawmaker who says otherwise is willingly abandoning his duty to find a balance between fostering economic activity and protecting the property rights of the state’s residents.
Voting changes – Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s voting proposals have always been about marginalizing certain citizens and smoothing the way for Republican candidates. This year’s crop of ideas is more of the same. The House Elections Committee has recommended that the full House pass a Kobach bill to restore straight-ticket voting in Kansas. Combine that with a proposal by Gov. Sam Brownback, which Kobach supports, to move elections for local and judicial races from the spring to the fall, and you can see where this is headed. Brownback and Kobach would love nothing more than to engineer a partisan takeover of local races by creating long ballots with a tempting option at the top to simply vote the ticket.
Judicial selection – Kansas has no cause to scrap a Supreme Court selection process that’s served the state well for decades in exchange for one driven by partisan interests. Worse yet would be doing so to give Gov. Sam Brownback – or any governor, for that matter – control over all branches of state government as a way to ram through an ideological agenda.
Pot bill – Kansas legislators should seriously consider a bill that would reduce the penalty for first and second convictions on possession of marijuana. Given the state’s financial condition, and the fact Kansas prisons are crowded and headed toward overcrowding, adjusting the sentences for some marijuana possession convictions makes a lot of sense.
KU vs. Missouri – When the University of Missouri elected in 2011 to sever its Big 12 ties, University of Kansas officials thought it best to discontinue one of the nation’s longest-standing intercollegiate athletic rivalries. If Missouri wanted to leave the Big 12, why should KU continue to keep the Tigers on the Jayhawk schedules? With MU’s athletic director recently announcing his plans to retire, there are bound to be some who call for a renewal of the KU-MU athletic rivalry. Hopefully, KU athletic officials will continue to seek schedules and contracts with top-flight athletic teams from throughout the country rather than cave in to please Kansas City merchants, sportswriters and those in Columbia who turned their backs on the Big 12 conference.
This story was originally published February 8, 2015 at 6:07 PM with the headline "Kansas views on fiscal mess, earthquakes, voting changes, judicial selection, pot bill, KU vs. Missouri."