Each week, we provide Shawnee Mission area legislators the opportunity to share their thoughts about what’s happening in the state capitol. Sen. Mike Thompson and Reps. Jerry Stogsdill and Linda Featherston are scheduled to send updates this week.
Below is the submission from Democratic state Rep. Jerry Stogsdill of House District 21, covering parts of Leawood, Mission Hills, Overland Park and Prairie Village.
The best thing that can be said about the 2021 session of the Kansas Legislature is that it is over!
We go back on May 26th for “Sine Die,” which is the official end of the session, but for all intents and purposes the session ended around 2:00 a.m. on Saturday morning.
In my opinion, the best legislation to come out of the Legislature is enacted when neither party has a supermajority. If neither party has a supermajority then legislation has to be the result of properly held committee meetings where proponents and opponents on an issue have a chance to come to Topeka and express their views, where bills coming out of committee have an opportunity for full debate on the floor of the House and where both parties have to come to agreement and, usually, compromise.
That was certainly NOT the case in the 2021 session of the Kansas House of Representatives.
With the majority party, Republicans, holding a supermajority, many committee meetings were canceled or abbreviated, which kept constituents from testifying for or against bills in committee.
A number of bills were presented on the floor with no committee review at all and in several cases bills were brought to the floor of the House without members of the House having a chance to properly study or discuss the bill before it came up for a vote. Those bills could be rammed through because “leadership” (use of quotation marks is Rep. Stogsdill’s) knew they had supermajority numbers.
“Leadership” was also very willing to use political pressure and intimidation on their members who were uncomfortable in voting the way they were instructed to vote. That is apparent in the number of votes that were passed along straight party lines.
Fortunately, there were some bills so egregious that enough Republicans were willing to put their political futures in peril and vote their conscience rather than simply doing as they were told. The bills usually passed but they were not brought up for final votes because “leadership” knew they would not be veto proof. Watch for those Republicans who broke ranks to face stiff primary challenges in 2022.
There were a lot of bills to choose from but three of the biggest disappointments to come out of the Legislature this year were:
Failure to enact Medicaid expansion: In the middle of a pandemic, Republicans again failed to even discuss Medicaid expansion.
That refusal was unconscionable because the federal government would have paid 95% to 100% of the cost. By not expanding Medicaid, Kansas has lost billions of our federal income tax dollars being returned to our state in order to provide decent health care for tens of thousands of working Kansans. That is money that would have provided thousands of new jobs, helped support some of most vulnerable hospitals and have put billions of dollars into our economy at a time when we need all of the economic stimulus we can get.
Instead, our tax money is going to the vast majority of other states who have had the compassion and common economic sense to pass Medicaid expansion.
Failure to address property and sales tax relief: Again this year the majority party did everything in its power to provide tax breaks to the wealthiest individuals and largest corporations in Kansas.
Their tax plan does not address the need to implement changes in high-bracket income tax policy. By not addressing income tax disparity, it puts more emphasis on already unfairly high property taxes and sales taxes on food.
Lowering the concealed carry age to 18: The majority party’s policy of “guns everywhere” will allow high school age students to carry concealed weapons as well as making it legal for concealed weapons to be carried on our college campuses.
It will also allow strangers from other states, who we know nothing about but can conceal carry in their states, to conceal carry in Kansas.
However, there were some good things that were accomplished this year:
We killed the hateful and bigoted transgender bill: This bill would have made some of our most vulnerable children subject to bullying and the potential for an increase in suicide.
It would have also caused irreparable harm to our economy. That is why the four largest Chambers of Commerce in the Kansas City metro, our colleges and universities and many other organizations came out very strongly against this bill.
We killed the unnecessary “Civics and Financial Literacy” bill: This measure was not really about “Civics and Financial Literacy” as both of those subjects are already being addressed in our schools.
The real purpose of the bill was to take away the curriculum development and implementation rights and responsibilities of the Kansas State Board of Education and our local boards of education and place those rights and responsibilities into the hands of ultraconservatives in the Legislature. That is a really bad idea!
Adequate funding was provided for our educational institutions: The Legislature did pass enough funding for our public schools to keep us in compliance with the court-ordered levels for our public schools.
We also funded our colleges and universities at a level that will allow us to collect all the COVID -19 relief money that is due to come to Kansas to support our educational institutions.
Hopefully, in the 2022 session of the Legislature we will see better legislation and better legislative processes as the majority party realizes that the public usually pays more attention during an election year.
They know that the majority of Kansans do not favor their ultraconservative agenda. They know that they will be hard pressed in 2022 to continue with the worst parts of that agenda and with continuing to support a legislative process that is corrupted and severely limits constituent participation.
Hope does spring eternal!
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May 11, 2021 at 01:19AM
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Capitol Update: Rep. Stogsdill counts up biggest wins and losses of 2021 session - Shawnee Mission Post
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