Editorial: Closed doors

Behind closed doors seems to be the way most business is getting done in Topeka these days.

Whatever Kansans have to say about a new renewable energy “compromise,” state legislators aren’t interested in hearing it.

In a press conference Monday, Gov. Sam Brownback announced a plan that will eliminate a requirement that 20 percent of the electricity generated by utilities in Kansas come from renewable energy sources and reduce the property tax exemption for renewable energy producers. In exchange, legislators who have been pushing to eliminate the renewable energy standards altogether say they will drop that effort and an effort to impose a 4.33 percent excise tax on electricity produced by wind turbines.

Wind advocates accepted the plan because it helped stabilize what had become an uncertain playing field for potential wind developers in the state. However, as Rep. Boog Highberger, D-Lawrence, pointed out, the instability that was deterring developers was not a result of the existing renewable energy standards but was “caused by repeated attacks” on those standards.

The plan is a “compromise” only in the sense that, if wind advocates didn’t accept something that weakens their position, legislators could have made their situation even worse — and still could do that if they decide not to uphold their end of the bargain.

If anyone in Kansas would like to argue against this plan, forget it. At the same time the agreement was announced, the chairman of the House Energy and Environment Committee announced there would be no formal hearing on the legislation that will implement the plan. The committee has debated this issue for the last five years, he said, and even though the specific plan was worked out behind closed doors, there was no need to discuss it further.

Thankfully, that judgment drew fire from both Republican and Democratic committee members. Rep. Tom Moxley, R-Council Grove, called the process “the equivalent of a smoke-filled room with just a handful of people in it that are doing this work and the broader public has not had any input.” Rep. Annie Kuether, D-Topeka, noted that not even one Democrat was present at the meetings where the plan that she called “a done deal” was negotiated. “How the heck do we do business in this place anyway?”

Many Kansas residents likely are asking the same question. Behind closed doors seems to be the way most business is getting done in Topeka these days. Legislative leaders are meeting to hammer out a plan to close a $400 million gap in the state budget but have released almost no information about what revenue options and spending cuts they are considering.

In all likelihood, these discussions will produce a fully formed plan that lawmakers then will try to push through the House and Senate with little opportunity for input from legislators, let alone their constituents. Even though the House hasn’t debated or passed a budget bill, the Senate stripped the contents out of an unrelated House bill and replaced them with its own budget, allowing the bill to go straight to a conference committee. Once the committee negotiates a budget, it will have to be approved by both houses but there would be no opportunity to offer amendments.

Why are these important talks being conducted in secret? Are legislators afraid to consider the public’s opinion? And as Rep. Kuether put it, “How the heck do we do business in this place anyway?