Aug. 26, 2010
(Syndicated to Kansas newspapers Aug. 23, 2010)

First real fight…

With a subtle—almost collegial—note to legislative leaders last week, outgoing Democratic Gov. Mark Parkinson told them how they can very simply adjust the current fiscal year budget to accommodate new federal funding that he intends to use to support the budget he and legislative moderates rammed down the throats of conservative House leaders last spring.

That’s how insiders read the Parkinson letter to the legislative leaders. Just a little amendment here and a little amendment there, and the federal aid Kansas received recently makes the budget, that didn’t balance when it was passed, miraculously balance and maybe even leaves a little money in the bank.

But while the letter sounds simple, it kicks off the first real fight of the upcoming legislature. Yes, we’re talking post-election, and while most of the state is intrigued by the governor’s race and individual legislative races, insiders are looking for the first big fight of 2011.

It takes a dab of rejiggering of the existing budget to use new federal education funding to protect Medicaid programs that many conservatives weren’t interested in protecting last year. So, if conservatives do well in the November general election, don’t look for them to be interested in Parkinson’s proposed “quick fix” for the budget they didn’t like anyway.

If moderate Republicans and Democrats do well in November, look for them to take Parkinson’s suggestion and try to enact it. It’s a classic rematch of the budget battle that moderates and Democrats won last session. It’s also an early test of the House, whether it is as conservative as conservatives hope it will be or remains as moderate as moderates and Democrats want it.

There is nothing quite as much fun for legislature-watchers as the first round of a boxing match, when you see who dances and shuffles and who just slugs away.

Oh, and it also gives the new governor, either Republican U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., or State Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, a chance to see who has the horsepower in the Legislature, where whatever they propose has to pass. An upside for the new governor?  He won’t have to wade into the fight if he doesn’t want to—merely hold their coats while conservatives and moderates fight it out in the first real battle of the 2011 session.

It’s all going to seem a little “insiderish” to the general Kansan who next January may be looking for the snow shovel or hoping that his/her job is stable. But, it’s a fight that will determine to a large degree just what direction Kansas leaders hope to take the state—where they’re willing to spend scarce tax dollars or whether they want to spend them at all.

That’s the bottom line of Parkinson’s suggestions for the mid-year adjustment to the Fiscal Year 2011 budget.

Before we have a governor, before we know who’s sitting in the Kansas House, and before we know the philosophical bent of its leaders, the fight has been defined.

For you insiders, does it get any better?