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Posted
by Scott Rothschild
July 7, 2011 at 11:17 a.m.
Meeting called to discuss SRS office closure
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.
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LHS56 (anonymous) says…
I believe it would have helped if Mr. Davis had been proactive prior to the closing of the Lawrence SRS office. There is nothing that can be done now. The "horse is out of the barn."
The meeting will just be members singing to the choir. Yes....I'm mad. This was truely a get even...don't get mad closing. We need leaders that can get something done. I've lost count of how many jobs we have lost over the last two years because of lack of action on the part of State, County and City leaders.
ivalueamerica (anonymous) replies…
LHS56, your comments do not make sense to me.
1. There was no warning of this, how can you plan for something that does not make sense, is illogical and not supported by facts from the Governors office.
2. Decisions are reversed all the time, I see no need for such a defeatist attitude to think there is no point in trying to make change because you probably can't. Imagine how much the world has changed by people who decided to make change even after being told it was futile. In this case, it is not even futile, it is reachable.
I do agree with you that public offices are filled with too many bureaucrats, cowards and stalwarts unwilling to work together, however, but we only have ourselves to blame for that.
fred_mertz (anonymous) replies…
Agree with point 2, but not completely on point 1. On point 1 Davis did have some forewarning that something like this might occur since he as a legislator knows the legislature cut SRS's funding including administrative funding. So, he should have known that this type of cut was possible and perhaps been a bit more proactive.
ivalueamerica (anonymous) replies…
fred mertz,
You probably have a couple good points there.
we need to react to a governor that clearly does not need to use science, facts or reality to react and it should have been predicted that instead of making sensible cuts, he would make knee jerk cuts based on voting demographics as opposed to use and need.
wastewatcher (anonymous) says…
Wow!!!!! Rep. Davis must be endorsing Faith Based initiatives since he is announcing the meeting at a church. Previously he had whined loudly about Faith Based activities.
jafs (anonymous) says…
I wonder what people think that Davis should have done exactly.
This governor doesn't even respect Republican representatives when they don't go along with his ideas - Arts Commission, for example.
What possible power could Davis have had?
Alceste (anonymous) says…
Well, if nothing else Paul Davis is certainly taking care of business for himself in this thing called the "Kansas Legislature" in that he has embraced the retirement plan to the max:
Legislators have given themselves one heck of a sweetheart deal in how their own KPERS benefits are calculated. 372 days in a year! Leave it to a political hack to figure that one out!
For the legislator listing all income - the daily rate, subsistence and allowance - this is how annualization is calculated:
•$88.66 (daily rate) x 31 (days) x 12 (months) = $32,981.52
•$123 (subsistence) x 31 (days) x 12 (months) = $45,756
•$7,083 non-session allowance.
Altogether, that equals $85,820.52, and that's the pay figure that would be used for that legislator retiring now.
The Senate president and House speaker are at the top of the pay scale, and annualized pay for those posts could be as high as $99,859.74, depending on their enrollment choices.
Now Paul Davis is the Minority Leader.....don't that mean he's getting paid extra too? Funny how guys and gals take care of themselves really well, but when comes time to watching that barn door mentioned above....they're not so good at staying on the job. How's that work? Greed? 372 day year? Right....uh huh......good one.....
When Paul Davis was first elected he had a choice to make with respect to how he wanted his legislature work figured for retirement purposes. He could have chosen the method that counts only the actual days worked and the actual money received.....not this funny bunny "I work 372 days per year. Build my KPERS benefit around that option please". *shrug*