Kansas’ GOP members of Congress oppose cutting billions of dollars in federal subsidies to privately run Medicare Advantage plans as a way to help pay for health care reform. But Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger says the cuts make sense. “When Congress is looking for savings, this is a very appropriate place to look,” Praeger told the Kansas Health Institute News Service. “I mean, keep in mind, Advantage plans are supposed to be costing less, not more.” Praeger said the private plans currently cost 13 to 14 percent more than traditional Medicare.
The 2010 Legislature expects to re-examine the death penalty and debate a state smoking ban, as well as deal with a budget crisis. But it should be brief, noted Topeka Capital-Journal columnist Ric Anderson. “If there’s ever been a year for a short session, this is it,” he wrote. “Last year, it cost $78,158 per day for the Legislature to be in session. This year, the price tag will be slightly higher because of an increase in the per diem compensation given to lawmakers, which means a 90-day session would cost well more than $7 million. Cut the session to 45 days, though, and there’s $3.5 million that could be spent somewhere else in the budget. Granted, that’s a drop in the bucket when the latest projections show revenue is $235 million short, but every little bit helps.”
To encourage lawmakers to get in and out as quickly as possible, Anderson proposed “adopting a temporary rule change allowing legislators to throw their shoes at anyone who proposes frivolous proclamations or bills, like naming an official state spore or imposing a ban on declawing cats.”
“We’ve got a whole generation who will be negatively impacted . . . by the idiots and fools in Washington and Topeka that have been making policy.” — 2010 Commission member and former Kansas GOP chairman Dennis Jones of Lakin
“We’ve cut so deep in the meat, it’s tragic.” — Lawrence schools superintendent Rick Doll
“You can’t get blood out of a turnip. By joining it, we’re draining what resources we have left.” — Silver Lake school board president Sam Grant, who opposes joining another Schools for Fair Funding lawsuit against the state
The Kansas Department of Corrections could help its budget problems if it could deport nearly 300 inmates who are potentially illegal immigrants. But doing so either isn’t possible because of a lack of extradition agreements or may not be effective. Corrections Secretary Roger Werholtz told a joint House-Senate committee Tuesday that about 80 of 293 inmates who were born in other countries and may be illegal immigrants might be eligible for deportation, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported. But deportation may not guarantee that inmates would remain in prison in their home countries. If inmates are freed, they could return to the United States, which might endanger public safety, Werholtz said. The inmates in question come from 28 different countries, though most (200) are from Mexico.
Good for state Sen. Thomas “Tim” Owens, R-Overland Park, for his stated commitment to give a proposed repeal of Kansas’ unused death penalty more than a cursory glance in the legislative session that starts in January. “We are going to have a complete and thorough discussion of death penalty abolition,” said Owens, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee. Since Kansas reinstated capital punishment in 1994, nine men have taken up residence on death row but no execution dates are in sight. Meanwhile, according to a 2003 study, capital cases are costing Kansas 70 percent more than noncapital cases.
When talking about budget problems, state lawmakers like to say that “everything is the table.” But they usually don’t mean it — refusing to consider tax increases or cuts to certain programs. However, the state’s budget shortfall is so serious — nearly half a billion dollars this fiscal year, according to new revenue estimates and including increased education costs — that lawmakers need to rise above their rigid ideologies and be open to all options. That includes more cuts to education and other important programs, delaying the phase-in of tax cuts, and increasing some taxes or eliminating some sales-tax exemptions.
“I had a tremendous time looking at fossils.” — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (in photo), in Lawrence, saying KU’s Dyche Hall “may be the best university natural history museum in the United States”
“My name has been besmirched.” — Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, in Pittsburg, saying an earmarks-related ethics probe was started by an anonymous accusation
“We hurt people. I can tell you who didn’t share in the pain: corporate interests.” — Rep. Ann Mah, D-Topeka, on the 2009 Legislature’s spending cuts
“I was just reading this interesting story that I was going to run for the Senate in Kansas as a Democrat. I don’t know where that came from. I’m a lifelong Republican.” — Sheila Bair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
To hear the GOP members of the Kansas congressional delegation tell it, passage of health reform will end liberty as we know it. Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, is already talking about trying to repeal or defund any bill that makes it into law. Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger (in photo), also a Republican, has concerns about the unlevel playing field a public option could create, but she remains optimistic about reform overall, telling the Topeka Capital-Journal: “If we go with a plan that retains as much flexibility as possible, keeps the states are regulators, allows us to continue to be there for consumers, and we could get a national system in place in terms of no pre-existing condition exclusions and everybody have coverage and meaningful subsidies, I think we’d all be better.”
Kansans’ thoughts and prayers are with the family of William Avery, the former Republican governor who died Wednesday at age 98. Avery was the last Kansas governor to feel the weight of the death penalty on his shoulders, having dealt with the appeals of the “In Cold Blood” killers and two others among the last to be hanged in the state, in 1965. Yet he advocated in 1985 that Kansas reinstate the death penalty, viewing it as reasonable protection for law-abiding citizens. Avery, who billed himself as “Kansas’ No. 1 salesman” and served 10 years in Congress before running for governor, actually took pride in tax increases — though the 1965 package of income and sales taxes, intended to fund education and provide property-tax relief, denied him re-election in 1966. “The teachers told me they appreciated that. But when it got to election time, I saw no evidence they told anybody,” Avery said decades later. Given that Gov. Mark Parkinson and legislators could face a fiscal 2011 budget shortfall of $500 million, it was sobering to realize Thursday that the shortfall Avery aimed to bridge back then was a mere $50 million.
“It will not be me.” — Gov. Mark Parkinson (in photo), on the identity of the Democrats’ gubernatorial candidate
“We lack a farm team.”— Sen. Chris Steineger, D-Kansas City, Kan., on his party, as he tests the waters to run either for governor or secretary of state
“Instead of a fresh proposal, we got an additional 1,000 pages of government intrusion.” — Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, on the health care compromise bill unveiled by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
State Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, and other GOP legislators have jumped on a national bandwagon aimed at opting out of national health reform state by state. “We were created to have state sovereignty,” Landwehr said. “We were not set up to have the federal government tell the states who, what, when, where and how.” But their Health Care Freedom Amendment requires two-thirds support in the Legislature and majority approval at the polls, which can be hard to come by in Kansas. And if the constitutional amendment prevailed and Kansans were protected from federal health insurance mandates, would they find it any easier to get and keep insurance and access affordable health care?
Marveling that 15 million Americans are out of work yet the Kansas Democratic Party can’t find one candidate for governor, Topeka Capital-Journal columnist Ric Anderson quipped: “Pretty soon, that guy from ‘Dirty Jobs’ is going to show up. Talk about an opportunity hardly anybody wants to touch.”
George Tiller’s Wichita abortion practice ended with his murder. Pro-choice Gov. Kathleen Sebelius went to Washington, D.C., leaving a pro-choice successor with no plans to run for the job. Kansas’ likely next governor is Sam Brownback, perhaps the most anti-abortion member of the U.S. Senate. So it was curious to see the reaction of Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, to last week’s resignation of Jack Confer as executive director of the Kansas Board of Healing Arts: “Jack Confer was our last hope against the complete and total corruption of this state by abortion forces,” Culp told the Topeka Capital-Journal, “and with his resignation, no matter what the reason, that hope is dashed.” Whatever drove Confer’s decision, the board seemingly has yet to find its footing after its 2008 overhaul by the Legislature. Kansans need a health care regulatory authority that is professional, apolitical and stable.
“We are Velcroed to them.” — Suzie Ahlstrand, vice president of community advancement for the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce, in one of the recent national articles about Wichita’s slumping aircraft companies
“If I could do it over, I would wear a Bass Pro Shop cap or dress as a caveman.” — Rep. Bill Otto, R-LeRoy, on the flap created by his anti-Obama YouTube rap video, in which he wore a hat labeled “Opossum, the other dark meat”
“So people who dis you and do not agree/Are just not racist and that includes me.” — Otto again, in a new rap video with a more positive tone
Former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius took some heat several years ago for saying that the quality of the roads in Missouri was scary. Now Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has poked fun at the intelligence of Kansans. When asked this week whether an expansion of the University of Missouri-Kansas City Dental School could end up training dentists for Kansas, Nixon dismissed the notion that some graduates might want to practice in Kansas. “But it’s so obvious when you cross the state line,” Nixon said as the 100 or so in the audience laughed and applauded, the Kansas City Star reported. “People just start talking slower.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius raised eyebrows today during her Senate testimony about H1N1 readiness. A Washington Post blog explained that Kansas’ former governor had an outpatient procedure Tuesday to remove a basal cell carcinoma from her forehead.
Wichita State University’s College Republicans seemingly weren’t at fault in booking conservative columnist Michelle Malkin for a $50-a-head political fundraiser. But the speech, now relocated, is to benefit Kris Kobach, the law professor and former Kansas GOP chairman who is running for secretary of state; Kobach blamed it on a “misunderstanding somewhere along the line.” But shouldn’t someone who wants to be the state’s top election official know, and have made clear to his campaign workers, that it’s unlawful to use state facilities for political fundraising?
Dan Glickman said this week he guesses he’ll “end up in the nonprofit or academic world” when he steps down next September after six years as chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America. But does the 64-year-old former Democratic congressman from Wichita have politics in mind? The U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Sam Brownback (and already fought over by Reps. Todd Tiahrt and Jerry Moran)? Or the governorship, toward which Brownback seems destined at this point? Of the Senate seat, Glickman said: “That’s probably not a very realistic option for me, (but) I never rule anything out,” noting he’d like to be a senator but doesn’t relish trying to raise campaign dollars. “We’ll see if there’s a groundswell from Kansas.” Glickman remains well-liked in his home state, but there are two potential roadblocks to statewide electability: He’s a Democrat, and now he’s also been a lobbyist — and for Hollywood, of all things.
Kansas legislators just lost one reason not to legalize medicinal use of marijuana, something former Kansas Attorney General Robert Stephan has endorsed. It made no sense for Kansas to join the 14 states with patient pot laws as long as the Bush administration was prosecuting cases related to prescription marijuana. But on Monday the Obama Justice Department formally directed federal prosecutors to refocus their efforts. “It will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana,” said Attorney General Eric Holder, adding, however, that “we will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal.”
“Run? I can’t hardly walk.” — Former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, asked if he might run for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat next year
“Your Cash for Clunkers was the very last card. Now what’s a redneck like me gonna block up in my yard?” — Rep. Bill Otto, R-LeRoy, in an anti-Obama “RedNeck Rap” YouTube video some saw as racist
“It’s not lost on me that we’re both African-American and under 9 feet tall.” — Patrick Woods, Kansas SRS legislative liaison, on an incident in which Otto confused Woods with the much-older Health and Environment Secretary Rod Bremby
Additional budget cuts this year could result in fewer meals for seniors, larger class sizes in public schools and deeper cuts to state programs that already have gone through several reductions, The Eagle reported Tuesday. That makes even more indefensible the refusal last session by most GOP state lawmakers to temporarily delay the phase-in of tax cuts for estates and corporations. If everything is on the budget-cutting table, as GOP lawmakers have said, then that should include tax cuts to the wealthy, not just services to the poor.
Good for Gov. Mark Parkinson for requesting an outside review of Kansas’ prison system. Inmates and staff at the Topeka Correctional Facility claim that as many as one-third of the prison’s 250 employees have been involved with an illegal black market that includes exchanging drugs for sex with female inmates, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported. Corrections Secretary Roger Werholtz disputes this, estimating that 2 percent of the department’s 3,000 employees statewide have engaged in such misconduct. Parkinson is acting responsibly in seeking an independent evaluation, which Werholtz also supports. As Parkinson said in a statement this week, “No one in our corrections system — whether it’s an employee or inmate — should ever be exploited or abused.”
Former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius wanted to shut down the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp., a public-private partnership that supports technology-based economic development, and merge some of its programs into the Kansas Department of Commerce. A critical audit report and legislative and media scrutiny led KTEC’s president and CEO Tracy Taylor to resign in June. But a House-Senate special committee concluded last week that KTEC should continue as a stand-alone operation, the Lawrence Journal-World reported. State Sen. Carolyn McGinn (in photo), R-Sedgwick, who recently was appointed to the KTEC board, said that KTEC has “made some good changes” and that it would get lost if it were brought under the Commerce Department.
“It looks like some kind of pregnancy for south Wichita, I’m telling you.” — Vice Mayor Jim Skelton (in photo), arguing that the state should not allow the Cornejo & Sons construction and demolition landfill to grow
“What we don’t need to happen in Kansas is for an extremist brand of the out-of-touch politics of the Bush years moving into the governor’s office.” — Lt. Gov. Troy Findley, surprising people at the recent Demofest in Wichita with an obvious jab at Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.
“We’ll have good candidates. There’s plenty of time.” — State Treasurer Dennis McKinney, on Kansas Democrats’ prospects for 2010
“If you’re running for Congress or statewide office, you needed to start working last January.” — Rep. Scott Schwab, R-Olathe, questioning how Democrats can be competitive
“Thank goodness my GOP doesn’t look like old white guys who stand for bailouts, the French tanker and amnesty-McLame indeed!” — Vicki Tiahrt, wife of Rep. Todd Tiahrt, in a Twitter comment critical of Sen. John McCain and other endorsers of Rep. Jerry Moran for U.S. Senate
It’s hardly great news for Kansas drivers that the Kansas Turnpike tolls went up last week for all but K-TAG users — now costing a motorist $10.75 in cash to travel the turnpike’s entire 236 miles, up from $3.80 when the turnpike opened in 1956. But, as Topeka Capital-Journal columnist Ric Anderson noted, “the toll would now be $30.15 if it had risen at the rate of inflation since 1956.”
