It was no surprise that Gov. Sam Brownback’s pledge to replace state funding of the arts with private money hasn’t panned out. Who believed it would? The Kansas Arts Foundation raised only $105,000 last year, and $30,000 of that appears to be the money that was left over from Brownback’s inauguration account. The foundation made no grants to local arts organizations last year. Brownback vetoed nearly $700,000 in state funding in 2011 and laid off the staff of the Kansas Arts Commission. That led to the loss of about $1.2 million in funding from national and regional grants. Fortunately for arts and culture in the state, he agreed this year to form a new Creative Arts Industries Commission and to provide $700,000 in state funding.
Though others panned Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ speech last week at the Democratic National Convention, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer said it was one of the best. He wrote that speeches by Sebelius and Rahm Emanuel were “both a model of what a convention speech should be: sharp, disciplined, focused – thus moving the electoral ball for the party in question.” Of the former Kansas governor, Krauthammer wrote: “Sebelius gave a fine rendition of all the nice things Obamacare does – leaving out, of course, the staggering cost and stifling bureaucracy. She rendered Obamacare into the best free lunch since your last bar mitzvah buffet.”
Gov. Sam Brownback says that a report citing continued sexual abuse of women inmates at the Topeka Correctional Facility is out of date and that reforms already have been put in place. Let’s hope so. The U.S. Justice Department released a letter last week reporting that misconduct and abuse are “rampant throughout the facility.” Though these problems have been known for several years, the Kansas Department of Corrections and the prison “still have failed to adequately address the deficiencies,” the letter said, and the inmates “universally fear for their own safety.” Brownback said the report was based on a 2011 investigation and that a federal audit of the facility this year found no deficiencies. He, state lawmakers and federal officials need to make sure that really is the case.
“I will personally offer the members of PETA a Kansas City strip if they drop this suit against the State Fair.” – Gov. Sam Brownback (in photo), tweeting about the animal-rights group’s legal challenge to the fair’s restrictions on its booth
“I was governor of Kansas when Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts. Many of us watched in amazement – envy, even – as he passed a universal health care law in his state.” – Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, speaking at the Democratic convention
“Kansans are proud of President Dwight David Eisenhower, Nancy Kassebaum and Bob Dole, whose moderation and commonsense wisdom have been repudiated by the Republican Party and replaced by the extremism of Ayn Rand, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sam Brownback and the Koch brothers.” – Lee Kinch, Wichita attorney and vice chairman of the Kansas Democratic Party, as part of Kansas’ statement during the roll call of states at the Democratic convention
It was no surprise that Gov. Sam Brownback’s pledge to replace state funding of the arts with private money hasn’t panned out. Who believed it would? The Kansas Arts Foundation raised only $105,000 last year, and $30,000 of that appears to be the money that was left over from Brownback’s inauguration account. The foundation made no grants to local arts organizations last year. Brownback vetoed nearly $700,000 in state funding in 2011 and laid off the staff of the Kansas Arts Commission. That led to the loss of about $1.2 million in funding from national and regional grants. Fortunately for arts and culture in the state, he agreed this year to form a new Creative Arts Industries Commission and to provide $700,000 in state funding.
