Kansas Secretary of Labor Jim Garner on Friday gave his annual State of Labor assessment at the Capitol. Kansas has a 7.7 percent unemployment rate, the highest since January 1983.
Topeka — 1:45 p.m. Want to know what Gov. Mark Parkinson, or any other state employee makes?
The salary information is now available on KanView, the online web site that provides access to state government financial data.
The site is www.kansas.gov/KanView/.
12:22 p.m. Kansas Department of Labor Secretary Jim Garner today gave a sobering assessment of the economy in his annual state of labor address.
The state unemployment rate of 7.7 percent is the highest it has been since January 1983.
More than 100,000 Kansans are receiving unemployment benefits, compared with 23,000 this time last year.
Kansas has lost 30,000 jobs since April.
And by the end of the year, the state’s unemployment trust fund will likely be depleted. If that happens, Kansas will have to borrow from the feds to pay off unemployment claims.
“This recession has imposed the greatest burden on our unemployment insurance system since it was created more than 70 years ago,” Garner said.
But Garner said it appears the economy is starting to recover, and that the state may be poised to take advantage of renewable energy jobs in the future.
He said legislation approved this year that extends jobless benefits to those in approved training programs will pay off in the long run “as it prepares those who are out of work to fill high-demand positions.”
9:30 a.m.The Kansas Republican Party is expressing displeasure over approximately 1,000 letters sent by Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Secretary Don Jordan and Department on Aging Acting Secretary Martin Kennedy to social service providers doing business with the state
These letters request the names, addresses and telephone numbers of employees, and that information will be then given to the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, a politically active union.
Michelle Ponce, a spokeswoman for SRS, said the agency was responding to a request made by SEIU under the Kansas Open Records Act.
“SEIU is requesting the information about employees so that they will have a means to distribute information to them. We have no opinion as to what the employee should or should not do after receiving the information, but do believe it is good for employees to have access to it,” Ponce said.
The state agencies say they will ensure that the information will be not used for marketing purposes and that SEIU will be picking up the expense of this request.
The Kansas Trunkline, which is decscribed as the official blog of the state Republican Party, said the letters were “unsettling.”
The blog raised questions about what this information was going to be used for and why was SEIU getting “special treatment.”
Comments
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situveux1 (anonymous) says…
How in the world are state agencies going to ensure the information is used "correctly?" What if it's not used correctly? What then? Are they going to ask for it back? How stupid.
And how in the world can somebody file an open records request and get personal information about state employees like name, address and phone number? What an invasion of privacy! I'd be livid if I was an employee.
newmedia (anonymous) says…
How's that CHANGE working out for you? The SEIU needs every warm body it can find after nationwide another 216,000 people lost their jobs in August....
situveux1 (anonymous) says…
Never mind. SEIU gave Sebelius $100K. Looks like its time for them to collect. Now I understand.
http://kansasmeadowlark.com/2009/09/0...
Jimo (anonymous) says…
Frankly, I've grown tired of "GOP concerns" especially seeing that they seem manufactured for show purposes only. Why would anyone be concerned with the enemy-occupied GOP? Maybe the "journalist" could interview a spokesman for the Republican wing of the Republican Party - they're just living in shanty town down Democrat Way.
situveux1 (anonymous) says…
Privacy should be everyone's concern.
Jimo (anonymous) says…
Thanks situveux1. I'd forgotten how loudly the GOP has championed the right to privacy in the past.
It must be so useful to have the memory span of a guppy!
What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil? ... And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you - where would you hide, situveux1, the laws all being flat?
Boston_Corbett (anonymous) says…
State and other public employees name and salaries are open records. Always have been. Just ask your friend kansasmeadowlark if you don't believe me.
situveux1 (anonymous) says…
Nice to know the left has no problem giving personal information like name, address and telephone number out to anybody that asks.
Bob_Keeshan (anonymous) says…
situveux is only upset because this is a labor union.
This is an open records request, the kind of thing Kansas Meadowlark specializes in. If Kansas Meadowlark had made the request and state agencies had expressed the concerns situveux is expressing here, you can bet the posts would say exactly the opposite.
Tell you what - if you are so upset then change the law so that records are only open to internet bloggers like Kansas Meadowlark and labor unions are prohibited from accessing the same records.
Ain't it great to be a Republican hypocrite and take both sides of the issue?
Boston_Corbett (anonymous) says…
I don't remember Situveux being concerned with privacy when Phill Kline was rifling around all those medical records.
situveux1 (anonymous) says…
You guys are okay with giving out name, address and phone number of state employees without their consent. Good to know.
Jimo (anonymous) says…
"You guys are okay with giving out name, address and phone number of state employees without their consent."
In a word, yes. Why would the name, address and phone numbers of the employees of those doing business with the state (not "state employees") be secret? It's not like SEIU will be peddling salad shooters or Time-Life Elvis CD collections to these people.
I'm okay with worrying about privacy when it matters and forgetting about fake privacy where it doesn't. For some of us, privacy isn't a topic to be trotted out for tactical partisan maneuvering but rather a serious issue not to be trivialized.
Bob_Keeshan (anonymous) says…
situveux is confused.
Let me spell it out for you - we are OK with the State of Kansas responding to an Open Records request. You, apparently, are only OK with the state responding to requests that don't come from labor unions.
Your faux outrage is just embarrassing for you. If a state agency refused to comply with an Open Records request made by Kansas Meadowlark or Flint Hills or Kansas Lieberty based on a purely emotional defense, which is what you are using, you would be outraged.
Show some consistency in your arguments. As is, you just come off as a pathetic partisan hack willing to take any position to make a misguided political point. Not only are you denigrating yourself as a poster, you are denigrating the Kansas Open Records Act.
Show some respect for the State of Kansas and its statutes. Have some respect for the law, even if you don't have any respect for yourself.
Bob_Keeshan (anonymous) says…
Just to further the point, the attached story demonstrates how outraged people who are allowed to post on Kansas Liberty are when state agencies, in their view, selectively adhere to state statutes.
I wonder, situveux1, do you agree with this author's dismay over how the Kansas Governmental Ethics commission plays it "loose and fast" with state laws? If so, then you understand why state agencies are compelled to respond to this basic Open Records Request.
http://kansasliberty.com/opinions/edi...
Phillbert (anonymous) says…
Conservative hypocrisy? Inconceivable!