Well, this is the week, probably, that we find out whether the most dramatic, important bills of the 2016 legislative session are signed into law by Gov. Sam Brownback.
These are the bills that will impact how Kansans live and deal with each other, and, by the way, assemble a cash-short budget for a year in which the state is cash-short. Reasons for that shortage are, of course, the 2012 tax cuts the Legislature had little interest in reversing, even for those widely criticized LLCs, owner-operated businesses and, of course, farmers.
It is that shortage that is one reason, for example, lawmakers passed to the governor a bill that will shorten from 36 months to 24 months a key welfare measure, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which is a federally funded program that the state doesn’t spend a dime on. It’s essentially a few hundred dollars a month so that the poorest of Kansans can eat and live indoors and feed their children.