(Syndicated to Kansas newspapers May 9, 2016)
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.
And, there’s the step therapy program, estimated to save the state and its Medicaid (we call it KanCare here) contractors about $10 million a year. Basically, it’s a stutter step, prescribing cheaper medications for the poor and those with largely psychological or behavioral illnesses, and not moving them to expensive prescriptions for at least 30 days (in case the less expensive work), saving the contractors hundreds of dollars per patient.
Don’t forget the sale of the assets of the Kansas Bioscience Authority, probably $25 million worth, which will shut down one of the state’s premiere and apparently successful efforts to assist high-tech and bioscience expansion in Kansas, a source of high-paying jobs and medical research that has focused development in Kansas, of all places, not somewhere you can see an ocean.
Oh, and the delay of at least a year repaying about $97 million in employer (that’s the state) payments to the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System, on behalf of mostly educational system employees. The delay in repaying that borrowed money is supposed to bridge a revenue gap for which there is no apparent fix.
Sales tax revenues for the Kansas Department of Transportation? That’s all over, and while the governor can single-handedly just not make $185 million in sales tax transfers to KDOT in the remainder of this fiscal year and next, that $185 million results in more than $553 million of projects (including federal and other funds) not being put out for bid.
It’s a big week ahead, some ugly choices being made on behalf of Kansans, and the real problem—from just operating state government, but also politically for legislators who stand for re-election this fall—is that it doesn’t appear that it will get better next year, and maybe the year after with a governor who opposes raising taxes on business.
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Maybe the bills that the governor will consider signing this week would seem a little less dramatic if they fixed anything but the budget shortage.
If there were a plan—which probably should have been started last year or the year before—that was designed to “downsize” government, or make it more economical or streamlined, this week’s bill signings would seem a little less discouraging.
But that didn’t happen, and now legislators are going to stand for re-election with not much to show their potential voters. Oh, a few bills are worth touting. You don’t have to brand sheep and goats anymore. You can finally get a way to sue a neighbor who flies drones over your backyard when you are sunbathing. A little something, but it’s like prom night dinner when your date tells you to look at the chicken dishes and stay away from the steaks.
Just a little disappointing, or a lot disappointing…
We’re wondering how legislators campaign on a session with those results.