LJWorld.com

Gov. Sam Brownback's office will provide ice cream and cookies to state employees on Friday.

The event, to run from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. outside the Statehouse, is being held to show appreciation to state employees.

Workers are encouraged to bring a sack lunch or buy food from vendors on site.

Ice cream and cookies will be given to the first 2,000 attendees.

Brownback will present 40-year and 50-year service pins to eligible state employees.

In recent days, the American Legislative Exchange Council has been the focus of numerous media reports for pushing corporate interests in Legislatures across the nation, including Kansas.

The corporate-funded group gathers conservative legislators for meetings to put together "model legislation" that they then carry back to their respective states.

The Kansas Legislature has worked on several ALEC-inspired bills, including a resolution criticizing the EPA for greenhouse gas regulations, calling the regulations "EPA's regulatory train wreck." ALEC also advocates for the repeal of federal health reform and for consideration of replacing current public employee pension systems with 401 (k)-type plans, both issues that have gained traction in the Kansas Legislature. The group argues against tax increases and for lower government spending.

ALEC has also released a report called "Rich States, Poor States: ALEC-Laffler State Economic Competitiveness Index." The most recent fourth edition has a forward written by Gov. Sam Brownback.

Each year, a group of Kansas legislators goes to ALEC meetings. State Sen. Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, served as the group's national chair in 2006, and currently serves on its board of directors. State Sen. Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, also serves on the group's board and in 2010 was named by ALEC legislator of the year.

Last year, Kansas taxpayers spent $9,132 to send 13 House members and 4 state senators to ALEC's annual meeting in Atlanta, according to state records. A group of state legislators is preparing to go to ALEC's next annual meeting, which will be held next month in New Orleans.

Here's one story about the recent ALEC findings from the Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/13/nation/la-na-epa-states-20110714

Tonight's meeting to discuss the recent decision by the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services to shut down its Lawrence office will likely touch on several changes at SRS under Gov. Sam Brownback's administration.

The meeting is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. at Plymouth Congregational Church, 925 Vt. The meeting has been arranged by local legislators and is free and open to the public. Lawrence leaders are urging people to attend.

The immediate concern is the announcement by SRS Secretary Robert Siedlecki Jr. to close nine SRS offices, including Lawrence's, which is by far the largest. Brownback and Siedlecki say the closures are needed to cut costs and that Lawrence clients can access services online or go to offices in Topeka, Overland Park and Ottawa. Advocates for the needy say this is not reasonable.

And legislators have voiced numerous concerns about Siedlecki's handling of the state welfare agency since he was picked by Brownback. Siedlecki came to Kansas after having worked as chief of staff for the Florida Department of Health. He also had also worked in the U.S. Justice and U.S. Health and Human Service departments under President George W. Bush.

During the recently completed legislative session, some legislators were so concerned with what Siedlecki was doing that they put in the appropriations bill a provision that SRS report quarterly to the Legislature. Brownback vetoed that provision.

In his veto message, Brownback stated: "I have directed my staff to maintain open lines of communication with the Legislature, instructing them to operate transparently and provide timely information on our policies, ongoing progress, and the challenges we must meet.

"The language contained in this provision would place an unfair and unnecessary administrative burden on one state agency, so I have vetoed it."

Now some legislators say their suspicions have been confirmed by recent changes at SRS, which include the proposed office closures, layoff of experienced staff and restructuring of the department to include a faith-based office. And, they say, there have been no open lines of communication from SRS.

House Minority Leader Paul Davis of Lawrence said he attended a tour with Siedlecki last month at the Lawrence SRS office and Siedlecki gave no indication that closures were being considered.

During the legislative session, Davis said, SRS officials made no attempt to inform legislators about the impact of proposed budget cuts. "They haven't been good advocates for the people that they serve. They seem to welcome the cuts, and that is a strong departure," he said.

State Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, who serves on the House Appropriations Committee and the social services budget panel said she heard from SRS about the office closure just hours before the news was officially released.

And legislators said they have received no detailed information from SRS on what went into the decision to close these specific offices.

Brownback has stood by his secretary. After Siedlecki was confirmed by the Senate, Brownback said of Siedlecki, "He understands the severe budget challenges Kansas faces. He will work to improve the delivery of our health services programs to our state's most vulnerable in a cost effective way."

The office of House Democratic Leader Paul Davis of Lawrence says a meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Monday at Plymouth Congregational Church, 925 Vt. to discuss the recent decision by Gov. Sam Brownback's administration to close the Lawrence office of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.

The meeting is free and open to the public.

Emboldened by the anti-abortion agenda of Gov. Sam Brownback and the Kansas Legislature, an anti-abortion group said Tuesday it will start a petition drive to have a special legislative session to enact a measure banning abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detectable, which can be as early as seven weeks.

Mark Gietzen, chairman of the Kansas Coalition for Life, said he would like to get 15,000 petition signatures urging passage of "Heartbeat Legislation," before asking Brownback to call a special session of the Legislature to enact it. Gietzen said the proposal would ban 85 percent of abortions.

“As soon as the people of Kansas show our lawmakers that we want Heartbeat Legislation passed, there is no doubt in my mind that the current legislature will do it … especially since 2012 is an election year for both the House and the Senate,” Gietzen said.

No state has passed such a proposal, although the Ohio House of Representatives has approved it.

In a report today, the Kansas City Star shows the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and Sunflower Electric Power Corp. were in close contact when KDHE was writing the permit for Sunflower's controversial 895 megawatt coal-burning power plant.

The newspaper reveals emails that show KDHE allowed Sunflower to respond to questions from the public about the project and used those answers as its own during the permit process.

Former KDHE Secretary Roderick Bremby, who denied Sunflower's first permit, and then later was fired by Gov. Mark Parkinson after Sunflower officials and legislators who supported the project complained that Bremby was delaying the second permit process, reviewed the emails obtained by the Star and described them as "disgusting." He added, "We are supposed to be working with the applicant but not for the applicant."

Here is a link to the story: http://bit.ly/itonZU

State Board of Education member Walt Chappell has switched to the Republican Party.

Chappell, of Wichita, who won election to the 10-member board as a Democrat, said Tuesday that he changed his party affiliation last week.

He said he switched because he supported the tax position of Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, who has opposed tax increases.

Chappell said he had been a Republican all his adult life until he ran for the state House in 2006 when he ran as a Democrat.

He lost that race, but then was elected in 2008 to the State Board of Education. He said he hasn't decided on whether to seek re-election next year.

News of U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner's photos that he took of himself in the House gym raised a couple of questions in my mind -- "The House has a gym? Why?"

The gymnasium is located beneath the Rayburn House Office Building, according to the website of the Architect of the Capitol.

Here's a description of the building, which was completed in 1965, from the Architect of the Capitol: "The design of the building is a modified H plan with four stories above ground, two basements, and three levels of underground garage space. A white marble facade above a pink granite base covers a concrete and steel frame. One hundred sixty-nine Representatives were accommodated in three-room suites, with modern-for-the-time features such as toilets, kitchens, and built-in file cabinets; nine committees were also moved to this building. Amenities include a cafeteria, first aid room, Library of Congress book station, telephone and telegraph room, recording studio, post office, gymnasium, and facilities for press and television. A subway tunnel with two cars connects the building to the Capitol, and pedestrian tunnels join it to the Longworth Building."

The website doesn't go into why House members need a gym. I guess, there are no private gyms in Washington, D.C. Additionally, why is there a telegraph room? Maybe representatives need to send telegrams to their districts -- "Just scored 10 in pickup game against Republicans. Stop. Great victory. Stop. But we will lose funding for new bridge."

Reading all the glowing articles this morning about the new $200 million state-of-the-art soccer stadium in Kansas City, Kan. that opens tonight got me to wondering, "Isn't the state of Kansas — read Kansas taxpayers — involved in this project?'"

The answer is yes.

In 2010, Gov. Mark Parkinson's administration hammered out a deal to help finance the stadium and a new office complex for Cerner Corp. Under the deal, the project would be subsidized with $85 million in state tax credits and $144.5 million in STAR Bond assistance. STAR Bonds allow developers to finance major commercial, entertainment and tourism areas and use the sales tax revenue generated by the development to pay off the bonds.

The use of STAR Bonds has many critics who generally contend this is an unnecessary subsidy of big business, puts other businesses at a disadvantage and shorts distressed state coffers at a time when the state is struggling to pay for basics, such as public safety, social services and education.

But as he was leaving office, Parkinson said the project was one of the highlights of his tenure as governor. He defended the use of STAR Bonds, saying the project would create thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in economic impact.

So, while the players are sitting tonight in the plush locker rooms on $5,000 seats imported from Spain, and fans watch the action or replays on 330 high definition televisions or connect on the more than 150 WIFI access points, it might occur to someone to say `Thanks' to the Kansas taxpayer.

Last week, I asked readers to submit suggestions on how the state could save money or be run more efficiently in light of the massive drop in tax collections that has forced cutbacks in most areas of state government.

I received several ideas and questions, in fact more than I could get to, but I will chase them all down.

One that came in late in the week concerned why officials at Oklahoma University were able to freeze tuition this year, but not state universities in Kansas. That’s a good question and I intend to get an answer this week. If you have any recommendations on how the state can get through this budget crisis, especially if you are a state employee with inner knowledge of what is going on, please contact me at srothschild@ljworld.com or srworldks@yahoo.com or at 785-423-0668 or 785-354-4222.

Anyway, here are the answers to a couple of comments posed by readers.

Dental program

A Lawrence man read our story about how a Medicaid program to provide dental care to low-income pregnant women has never gotten off the ground because while lawmakers appropriated enough to cover the actual service, they failed to appropriate the funds to cover the administrative expenses of the new benefit.

He asked why couldn’t a non-profit agency provide the administrative support, and could homeless people be covered by the program.

Peter Hancock, a spokesman for the Kansas Health Policy Authority, gave me this response: “Medicaid reimburses health care providers for treating Medicaid beneficiaries. If a non-profit organization qualifies as a Medicaid provider, it can receive reimbursement for allowable expenses. KHPA, however, is the single state Medicaid agency and, thus, is responsible for determining who is eligible to receive benefits and which providers can receive payments. People qualify to receive Medicaid benefits based on their income. If a homeless person meets the income guidelines, that person can qualify to receive benefits.”

Illegal immigrants

A reader from Ottawa said the state could save money by cutting benefits for illegal immigrants. He said as a former state employee he had first-hand knowledge of illegal immigrants receiving funds under the Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIEAP), which is federally funded and pays a portion of energy costs.

Michelle Ponce, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, which administers the program, said non-citizens are not eligible for LIEAP assistance and are unable to receive benefits. “It could theoretically be possible for a non-citizen to be a household member of an individual who receives assistance, but in that case the non-citizen is not considered when calculating the amount of benefit,” she said.