Governor Mark Parkinson gave his first address to the state legislature during a joint session of the house and senate in the house chamber of the capital building in Topeka Thursday, April 30, 2009.

Topeka ? Kansas’ new governor, Mark Parkinson, on Thursday vowed that the state would overcome the worsening recession, and got his biggest applause when he fired a verbal shot at Texas, which is trying to stop construction of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility at Kansas State University.

“My message to Texas is simple: If you interfere with NBAF, not only will we mess with Texas, we will crush your frivolous attempts to take it away,” Parkinson said to a joint session of the Legislature.

Kansas was chosen by the Department of Homeland Security as the site for the biosecurity lab. A Texas consortium recently filed a lawsuit, alleging the process used to select Kansas was unfair.

During an extraordinary week in Kansas politics, Parkinson, the former lieutenant governor, was elevated Tuesday to the governor’s position when Kathleen Sebelius was confirmed as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. After he was sworn in, Parkinson, a Democrat, requested an appearance before the Republican-dominated House and Senate for a quasi state of the state speech.

On Wednesday, the Kansas Legislature started its wrap-up session facing a $328 million deficit on top of cuts put into effect earlier.

Speaking before lawmakers, the Kansas Supreme Court and other officials, Parkinson said many Kansans are suffering in the worst economic downturn since the 1930s.

But he said the state would rebound just as it had after the Great Depression, the Dust Bowls and two world wars.

“The pain and fear that people are experiencing is real,” he said. “But there will be brighter days ahead.”

And he said state government must play a role in the turnaround.

“Our immediate need is to balance our state budget in a responsible way. This will require a post-partisan spirit of shared sacrifice,” he said.

Parkinson argued against both raising taxes and drastic cuts.

He called for a “middle ground” that would entail delaying tax cuts approved earlier, decoupling the state tax code from federal tax breaks, building casino development fees into the budget calculations, and a tax amnesty.

On the other side of the ledger, he called for modest budget cuts on top of those already instituted by the Legislature.

“This shared sacrifice is the Kansas way of life,” he said.

Republican leaders, however, have said they would oppose the tax adjustments, and have proposed deeper budget cuts and a 5 percent state employee pay cut.

Parkinson will fill the remainder of Sebelius’ term, which expires in January 2011.

During that time, he said he would also work closely with Kansas University to make sure KU becomes a National Cancer Institute designated center. Parkinson has said he doesn’t want to run for the office in 2010.

Lawmakers reacted favorably to Parkinson’s speech.

“I thought he laid out a responsible way to get us through the budget crisis,” said state Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City.

“I liked his message of shared sacrifice. We need to find some cuts and we need to look at some things on the revenue side,” he said.

Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton, said Parkinson’s speech was “non-partisan and balanced. I felt like he was open to compromises on things we have to do to fill this budget gap.”