(Syndicated to Kansas newspapers Jan. 2, 2017)
Might want to stretch out, maybe finish up that Christmas book you got last week, and get ready for what us Statehouse insiders consider the real New Year, which happens in daylight—at 2 p.m. Jan. 9.
There won’t be any of those red plastic cups filled with ice and pop and whatever else… but that’s when 40 senators and 125 representatives take their oaths of office and start reshaping the state government.
It’s going to be fascinating to watch, we’re promising.
First, of course, there is that little matter of filling a $350 million shortfall in the current fiscal year budget, trimming spending, pulling money out of programs that were safely protected by state law just last summer.