A wish list for next legislative session

With the 2016 election over and the jockeying well underway for position and power, we are being treated to various Kansas politicians – from the governor on down – determined to dampen our holiday spirits. In an effort to maintain some happiness and good humor in this season, it seems appropriate to send Santa a last minute wish list for the good people of Kansas.

▪  For the Statehouse press corps, a year’s supply of Gorilla Glue in the handy spray applicator. This will help capture the cartoon balloons of rhetoric from the governor and his spinners concerning the great importance he attaches to not providing any substantive proposals for reducing expenditures now, and possibly forever more, to fit the state’s purposely diminished revenues. With these new applicators, journalists will be able to retain and analyze the “substance” of these statements.

▪  For Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, a fashionable new Kevlar and Teflon suit. This is no “ugly sweater” gift offered as a practical joke. This new garment will protect Kansas’ longest-serving, and perhaps longest-suffering, legislator from blunt-force injuries and mud slung his way by the Republican administration. An educator by trade, the good senator keeps annoying people by suggesting that the governor apply better critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

▪  For Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, a wassail cup of wisdom with a side order of tempered ambition. This term there are enough moderate Republicans in the Senate that policy majorities, built jointly with the nine Democrats, could stop the governor’s “glide path to zero” tax reduction program, reverse the 2012 tax cuts, and constructively deal with school finance and Medicaid expansion.

▪  For the Kansas House, peace and goodwill. The voters made a clear statement favoring significant changes in public policies as to the state’s services and how to pay for them. The House is full of new, inexperienced members. The moderate Republicans and 40 Democrats could come together and accomplish a good bit to fix the revenue shortage and address the policy issues, but it will take hard work and intelligence, coupled with a sharp reduction in aggressive partisanship.

Peace and goodwill may sound Pollyannaish, but broad observation provides plenty of illustrations of what goes wrong when these qualities are absent.

This story was originally published December 24, 2016 at 5:04 AM with the headline "A wish list for next legislative session."