Area legislators dissatisfied with session’s progress

Budget proposal criticized as short-term, divisive

Last week’s actions by the Kansas Legislature left some in the Douglas County legislative delegation in a bleak mood for their appearance Saturday morning before Lawrence Chamber of Commerce members.

“I wish I could report there are a lot of good things going on in the Legislature, but over the past two weeks there haven’t been very many good things,” Rep. Paul Davis, D-Lawrence, told nearly 40 people who attended the chamber’s Capitol Connections breakfast at the Hereford House, 4931 W. Sixth St. It was sponsored by Aquila, SBC and the Journal-World.

Davis and other legislators said they were not happy with an $11.3 billion House Appropriations budget proposal that would lead to cuts in higher education and possibly increases in tuition, student housing, student health centers and student activity fees. The bill also would delay a 2.5 percent state employee pay raise.

The move would — without increasing taxes — provide a $115 million increase to public schools in an effort to meet an April 12 deadline set by the Kansas Supreme Court to increase public education funding.

Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, criticized the budget proposal because it pits lower and higher education against each other. She also called it a short-term proposal.

“My biggest fear has always been pitting groups against each other,” said Ballard, who is on the appropriations committee. “Even with this solution, it is only a one-year fix.”

Both the House and Senate are attempting to delay addressing spending problems for another year, said Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence. She said the Legislature was following a “borrow and spend” path by taking from one area of the budget to give to another.

Legislators also weighed in on House Republicans’ rejection of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ emergency reorganization order for health care programs.

Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence, said he voted against it because he favored the Republican proposal that called for establishing a seven-member Kansas Health Policy Board to enact measures to increase health care effectiveness and efficiency. Some of the board members would be appointed by the governor. It would also have involved more state agencies in the process, he said.

Davis said he didn’t want an independent board making decisions about health care. Ballard said she thought the governor’s order could have been “tweaked” and made workable to both sides.

On other issues, Rep. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin, said he was pushing for legislation that would require a “paper trail” to verify votes on any electronic voting machines that might be used. He noted problems that other states have had with such machines and with verifying votes without paper to check.