Following Wednesday night’s wrapup of this year’s Kansas Legislature session, which featured the passage of a state budget and yet another Holcomb coal plant bill, Emporia’s three legislators all came away with some degree of disappointment and frustration over the session as a whole.
Here’s how each Republican lawmaker summed up this year’s activity in Topeka following the omnibus session.
Sen. Jim Barnett
The good part about this session, Barnett said, was the in-depth discussion about a number of important issues, including health care, immigration and energy policy. But there were a number of disappointments for him, including the “lack of movement” on health care reform that would include the uninsured and measures to control costs.
“I also have major disappointment about the budget that was passed,” Barnett said of the $13.6 billion plan, which he voted against. “If you’ll combine spending for this year and next, in two years we will overspend revenues by over $800 million. That’s close to a billion, and clearly the state is headed for deficit spending in the near term at a time when our economy is unlikely to keep pace ... with recent years.”
To Barnett’s great frustration, the immigration bill he sponsored during the session, Senate Bill 458, was gutted in committee before a bill passed that looked nothing like the measure Barnett had intended. Barnett’s vision of SB 458 included language that would require employees to use the government’s E-Verify system to make sure employees and prospective employees are in the country legally. Barnett says the bill, as he intended it, would have addressed the problems that recently developed with unauthorized foreign workers present at the site of the Emporia Energy Center construction.
One personal achievement for Barnett was the passage of legislation mandating that real estate contracts include language educating the new homeowner about the dangers of radon.
Barnett said he’s waiting to make a formal announcement on whether he’ll run for re-election.
“I felt it was important to finish the work of this session,” he said. “So in the future, I will be making an announcement about that decision.”
Rep. Don Hill
Of the three Emporians, Hill had the most positive view of this session, calling it “a series of, I guess, satisfaction and frustration, but on balance, I feel positive about the way things wrapped up.”
Hill voted for the state budget, saying it addressed the priorities he was most interested in. He was happy that the budget didn’t include a cost-of-living increase for retirees, as the budget bill the House passed earlier in the session did. The omnibus bill included a one-time payment of $300 for retirees of 10 or more years.
“One of those deals where you’d like to do more, but the realities of the decreased revenue wouldn’t allow us to do everything we’d like,” he said. “So it’s a matter of setting those priorities.”
A pharmacist, Hill was also pleased with the expansion of the University of Kansas pharmacy school included in the budget. For him personally, he said, the session was good because key measures that he sponsored passed, including the Emporia school district disaster relief bill and the state pay plan measure.
Health care reform was one area in which Hill said only marginal gains were made.
“I’m disappointed we didn’t do more,” he said. “That’s something that’ll be left for another session, another year.”
He was also disappointed that higher education enhancement provided by this session only amounted to about half of what Gov. Kathleen Sebelius recommended.
Hill said he plans to run for re-election this year.
Rep. Peggy Mast
“In all the years I’ve been in the Legislature, I think this was the most disappointing as far as being able to address issues adequately,” Mast said. “And I do think that it was because the coal-fired plant dominated the session, and we weren’t able to get good things passed because it was the total focus.”
Mast was disappointed that, in her view, illegal immigration wasn’t addressed in a meaningful way, even though “over 80 percent” of Kansans wanted to see it addressed meaningfully.
“I thought that that would be a slam dunk. It seemed to be a priority for a lot of people,” she said. “But we didn’t ever pass any meaningful laws to deal with that issue.”
She said she couldn’t support the omnibus budget and voted against it because it expanded government more, adding 93 full-time employees to the state’s payroll, at a time when she feels government should be reduced to lessen the burden on taxpayers.
Like Hill, Mast said marginal progress was made on health care, but “there’s a lot more that we can do there. But we did get more money into our safety-net clinic, which is the right way to go for those that are not insured.”
A bill Mast sponsored to outlaw the psychedelic plant Salvia from being chewed or smoked recreationally made it through this session. Another measure she sponsored to create a child adoption tax credit for adopting special-needs children or children in foster care didn’t make it through conference committee and will have to be addressed next year. Her proposed resolution to condemn gangsta rap will have to wait as well.
“The reason that didn’t make it out of committee was the speaker had an issue with the individual (Topeka activist Sonny Scroggins) who had requested that bill from me,” Mast said. “I’m going to try to stay on top of it. I still think it’s something that needs to be addressed, and maybe the resolution isn’t the way to go, but I do think bringing the conversation up was a good thing, too.”
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Posted by Brittanicus (anonymous) on May 9, 2008 at 1:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It really doesn't matter whether your voting as a Democrat, Republican or Independant. The color of your skin, religion or anything else. If you are legally here in America, this issue has a massive impact on your job, your savings and your everyday needs, including putting food on your families table?
Alas, we cannot truly trust any of the presidential candidates, because they are all determined to sign into law a massive AMNESTY, against 80 percent of the American peoples demands. Just think of the taxpayer cost's for education, forced on the them by political active judges. Why should schools be overflowing with the children of illegal immigrants. Americans are a compassionate people, but taxpayers are being used by Washington to pay in supporting the parasite employers who steal your tax dollars to support big business. Who is paying for the overcrowded schools, subsidized housing, food stamps, baby delivery and all the billions of dollars in free health care. That is just a small portion of the billions of dollars skimmed off taxpayer dollars to pay for the welfare of predator businesses.
Why do you think that other states have enacted their own immigration employer sanction laws. Because those states that include Arizona, Oklahoma, Georgia and Rhode Island have had enough of taxpayers underwriting pariah employers profits. They gain, you lose...?
All the Sanctuary Cities better watch out...? Because now that Arizona, Oklahoma, Georgia and Rhode Island have enacted their own Immigration laws. The thousands that are leaving these swamped states must be going somewhere...? LOS ANGELES? They have Special Order 40, a haven for violent gangs of animals.
San Francisco? Salt Lake City or even Denver, Colorado. Is your community a SANCTUARY CITY, that lets the illegal immigration hordes feed from the welfare trough?
We know now that the majority of Democrats are INTENTIONALLY STOPPING the federal SAVE ACT (H.R. 4088) because they are waiting for the new president to sign another AMNESTY. For taxpayers it would be a nationwide catastrophe. NUMBERSUSA.
Keep calling your Congressmen today to co-author THE SAVE ACT! KEEP CONSTRUCTING THE FENCE! Toll free numbers include 18778516437 and 18662200044, or 12022243121 AND REGISTER YOUR OUTRAGE at ongoing efforts to keep our country from enforcing its immigration laws! You make the laws, not our tainted politicians. You judge what's right for your FUTURE?
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