Nationally, the numbers of Americans without health insurance decreased during the most recent reporting period, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But the good news doesn’t extend to Kansas, where the percentage of Kansans without health coverage rose from 11.3 percent in 2005-06 to 12.5 percent in 2006-07. Only nine other states saw increases over the latest two-year period. “This is a marathon, not a sprint,” Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, recently said of the Legislature’s efforts toward health reform. But it also should be a growing priority for lawmakers.
As the results of a state audit on the impact of the state’s $1.3 billion investment in economic development since 2003 were presented to a legislative panel Tuesday, state Rep. Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita, asked a question worthy of debate: “What if we just lowered business taxes by $1.3 billion? Would that have more of an impact?” Of course, if Kansas hesitated to offer generous cash and tax incentives to business, other states wouldn’t hesitate to steal those companies and jobs away.
As Mary Prewitt, the state director of the Humane Society of the United States, argued in a commentary on the Opinion pages last week, it’s a problem that cockfighting is a misdemeanor in Kansas and a felony in neighboring states. As evidence that Kansas is now the “jurisdiction of choice” for cockfighters, Prewitt cited the recent cockfighting bust in northeast Sedgwick County, which led to 12 arrests. The current ban was viewed as the best the Legislature could get in 2002, when one lawmaker referred to cockfight ringleaders as “some misguided guys who want to kill a chicken on Sunday afternoon”; lawmakers need to take another look at the law. Sedgwick County Commissioner Kelly Parks also was right to urge residents to report such activity: “If you see a pickup full of roosters going kind of slow down your township road, they’re not going to Colonel Sanders.”
Kudos to former Wichitan Bill Koch for sparing the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame from eviction by the city with a generous $100,000 donation, which will allow the hall to cover the rent on its Old Town building. Let’s hope the funds also buy the attraction the time to develop a firm funding plan for the future, which should involve coaxing the rest of the state into realizing its role and responsibility to the hall.
Nationally, the numbers of Americans without health insurance decreased during the most recent reporting period, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But the good news doesn’t extend to Kansas, where the percentage of Kansans without health coverage rose from 11.3 percent in 2005-06 to 12.5 percent in 2006-07. Only nine other states saw increases over the latest two-year period. “This is a marathon, not a sprint,” Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, recently said of the Legislature’s efforts toward health reform. But it also should be a growing priority for lawmakers.
