(Syndicated to Kansas newspapers April 13, 2015)
It’s the social policy stuff that has been Gov. Sam Brownback’s big wins so far in the 2015 Legislature, with abortion and welfare programs reshaped to his liking—and maybe putting Kansas in the national spotlight under his tenure.
His first-term tax cuts, bigger than he wanted but he took them anyway, are playing out, but it is the social/government reorganization sphere that is coming to the front now.
Among major issues: That abortion bill, which was the first step by any state into specific procedures being used to stop some second-trimester abortion procedures.
That bill, signed by the governor at the Cedar Crest mansion with just five anti-abortion activists and two large photos of fetuses flanking the breakfast room table, is sure to kick off a court battle over women’s rights and the state meddling in medical procedures which were flashily and politically effectively called “dismemberment abortion.”
Another social issue: Welfare rights, both by limiting the time Kansans can receive welfare assistance, requiring that those recipients either work or convincingly apply for work, and by limiting the spending of welfare benefits—that now-famous no cruises, tattoos, strip joints, liquor or even swimming in public pools. Oh, spending welfare money on pistols is still OK; though some of us Statehouse regulars wonder how a gun exclusion might have played out on the debate floor.
And then there is the gun bill, which allows non-criminal Kansans to carry concealed weapons without a license, training, or apparently even a receipt for the firearm. Though those license-less concealed-carry folk can’t take their guns outside of the state. Even youngsters can carry their concealed guns in their homes or on their farms.
Lawmakers are still working on bills that would move the spring local government elections to the fall of even-numbered years and figuring out whether those typically nonpartisan local offices should wear party affiliation labels. So far, it looks like the local and school board offices will remain nonpartisan, though we’re wondering whether candidates might adopt “GOP” or “Demo” as their middle names for ballot purposes.
There is still no hard agreement on those union dues—whether they can be withheld from members’ paychecks by local units of government and school districts. The issue there—it appears that there are enough votes in the House and Senate to prohibit the deductions—is whether anti-union lawmakers will be sufficiently embarrassed by the bill’s narrow focus to allow it to expand to other voluntary payroll deductions such as charities and United Way and such.
And, then there’s a bill that essentially chokes off the civil service in Kansas, making newly created jobs unclassified, which means a smaller number of job protections than for classified jobs. It’s not specific, but practically, any state employee who wants to change jobs or take promotions or who leaves the state and returns, is going to have to relinquish those civil service job protections, which moves them to “hire at will” and, of course “fire at will.”
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So far? It’s a hard-right session and that’s about where Brownback wants it. And, it is worthwhile to remember that most of those above bills contain considerable organizational provisions, changes in the shape of state government duties and responsibilities that means they would be difficult to un-do, should a new governor or more moderate Legislature want to loosen the reins.
With nearly the full four years of his second term to go, that’s time enough to create a whole new governmental culture in the state.
If that’s the goal, and it surely is, Brownback and the conservative legislature are getting there. The current state leadership is moving Kansas to its vision of how a state should operate.
We’ll see how that works out…