Burdett Loomis: Is it the ‘end of the beginning’ in Kansas?

“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1942)

No one should confuse 2015 Kansas with 1942 Europe, but Churchill’s trenchant turn of phrase might well apply to our politics and policy, five years into the administration of Gov. Sam Brownback.

The governor, along with his legislative allies, has enjoyed a historic run, turning Kansas sharply to the right turn since 2010. No modern Kansan has had more impact on the state’s political makeup and its policies.

Still, “the end of the beginning” of the Brownback era is at hand. Aside from his lame-duck status, evidence for this claim comes from various sources, starting with the recent statewide Docking Institute of Public Affairs survey from Fort Hays State University.

In that poll, only 18 percent of the respondents were “very” or “somewhat” satisfied with the governor’s job performance. Remarkably, only 38 percent of self-identified strong Republicans approved, while 45 percent disapproved.

Moreover, 61 percent of Kansans viewed his tax cuts as an economic-policy failure (30 percent a “tremendous failure”), while just 7 percent viewed them as a success (0.2 percent a “tremendous success”).

With such free fall in public opinion, it is no great surprise that solidly conservative Kansas legislators, such as Sens. Jeff King, R-Independence, and Jim Denning, R-Overland Park, are questioning the long-term wisdom of core Brownback policies.

What’s telling is that King and Denning are addressing two separate policies, taxes and Medicaid expansion, in similar ways, but from very different career perspectives.

King’s willingness to revisit Medicaid expansion derives from a local issue – the closing of his hometown hospital – and his own considerable ambition.

At 40, with degrees from elite universities including Yale Law School, King wants to advance, but the Kansas GOP field is very crowded, and the opportunities are limited. It’s a measure of Brownback’s weakness that King is willing to take him on regarding Medicaid expansion.

Denning could not be less like King, save for his solid conservative GOP credentials. At age 59, with a background in accounting and as a former business CEO, his low-key style contrasts sharply with his colleague’s. Still, like King, he has consistently supported the Brownback policy agenda.

From his vice chairmanship of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, Denning has observed firsthand the plunge in Kansas revenues, with the many negative implications for bond ratings as well as policies ranging from education to foster care.

In particular, he finds fault with the income tax exemption for independent Kansas businesses. “When you look at what we’ve done, it’s so unreasonable, so amateurish,” he said. “There’s 1.5 million taxpayers in Kansas, and we’ve decided that 333,000 don’t have to pay tax.”

For a hardheaded CEO/accountant, there could scarcely be more powerful insults than calling something “unreasonable” and “amateurish.”

Brownback retains many allies and still holds the veto pen, but when he starts losing senators like King and Denning, the “end of the beginning” may be at hand.

This story was originally published October 30, 2015 at 7:05 PM with the headline "Burdett Loomis: Is it the ‘end of the beginning’ in Kansas?."