“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.
Most passengers don’t realize that a wildly disproportionate amount of taxes they’re paying for airport improvements goes to more than 2,800 fields across the USA that they’ll never use. Since the Airport Improvement Program began in 1982, $15 billion — about a third of the money collected for the program — has gone to the smaller airfields with no scheduled passenger flights. By contrast, the nation’s 30 largest airports, which enplaned more than 500 million passengers last year alone, got about $13 billion. How to explain such a senseless allocation of taxes? It’s the same two words responsible for earmarks and other political distortions: Congress and lobbying. We don’t argue that this network is unnecessary. The Airport Improvement Program, however, wasn’t intended to be a piggy bank for the small-plane lobby. Air passengers shouldn’t have their pockets picked to fund an extravagance that benefits a select few. — USA Today editorial
Kansas has 141 airports serving 7,602 pilots and 6,509 general aviation aircraft. Kansas is also home to 24 charter flight companies, 110 repair stations and five flight schools that provide 115 jobs. The total economic impact of general aviation in Kansas is $7.1 billion. Most Kansas communities are several hours away from an airline hub. General aviation is the primary way goods and services are transported from big cities to small communities, providing the tools that businesses need to function. Not only is the aviation industry a driver of economic growth and vitality in Kansas, small airports are also used by the National Guard, law enforcement, air ambulances, search-and-rescue operators, flight schools, small businesses, charitable organizations, farmers and ranchers, as well as for medical care and organ and blood transplant. The necessity of a vast aviation industry is evident — for rural communities, for the economy and for emergency providers. — Gov. Mark Parkinson, letter to USA Today
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.”
There is much to be wary of in the energy bill that passed the House, but its national renewable energy standard, or RES, deserves the support of Kansas’ congressional delegation. That point got some welcome emphasis last week at the Kansas Wind and Renewable Energy Conference in Topeka, where Gov. Mark Parkinson encouraged attendees to lobby lawmakers accordingly. “Please do not assume that because your congressperson or senator comes before your group or your community and says they support wind power, that that means anything. If they’re not voting for an RES, they’re not supporting wind power. That’s the bottom line,” said Parkinson. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., supported an RES in a committee earlier this year, but a full Senate vote is pending. Kansas Republican Reps. Todd Tiahrt, Jerry Moran and Lynn Jenkins voted against the energy bill in June, and have expressed concerns about higher energy costs.
September was a rough month for President Obama in Kansas, judging from the latest SurveyUSA poll co-sponsored by KWCH, Channel 12. Only 39 percent of Kansans surveyed approve of the job he’s doing, down six percentage points in a month and down 23 points since he took office. The month ended with approval ratings for Sens. Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback slipping a few percentage points to 54 and 48 percent, respectively. Gov. Mark Parkinson saw his approval number rise four points to 53 percent, the highest in his five months in office.
– “In hindsight, thank goodness that I lost. My life would have been incredibly different.” — Gov. Mark Parkinson, reflecting on losing his first legislative race by 36 votes in 1978 when he was a junior at Wichita State University
– “Apple pie doesn’t get that.” — Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., speaking in Hesston, about a Gallup Poll showing that 80 percent are satisfied with the quality of their health care
– “Yo Westboro Baptist Church! I’m happy for you and Imma let you finish, but Adolf Hitler was the best anti-Semite of all time!” — A sign (inspired by Kanye West) countering the Topeka church’s recent protests outside Brooklyn synagogues
– “If everybody in this country didn’t smoke, ate right and exercised, we would have plenty of money to cover health care in this country.” — Former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, while at KU to accept the 2009 Dole Leadership Prize
It may be “too early to panic” about the state’s budget problems, as Gov. Mark Parkinson said Wednesday. But it’s not too early to prepare for cutting budget allotments. According to preliminary figures, the state collected $67 million less in revenue in September than forecast. If revenue is down significantly again next month, Parkinson should move to cut funding, rather than wait until the Legislature convenes in January. Delaying the cuts only makes them more difficult to absorb.
“Don’t do that right now.” — Gov. Mark Parkinson’s advice to those school districts considering litigation over state funding
“It’s not too late.” — Mayor Carl Brewer, in the Boston Globe, urging the makers of the Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz “Untitled Wichita Project” to reconsider their decision to film Wichita scenes in Massachusetts
“As the overweight person said as he crawled through a barbed-wire fence, one more point and I’m through.” — Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., trying to argue for a 72-hour delay between the Senate Finance Committee’s markup and vote on its health reform bill
“It’s like writing a big fat check on an overdrawn bank account.” — Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., speaking in Olathe about the Obama administration’s spending plans
Gov. Mark Parkinson stirred concerns when he said recently that the long-term solvency of the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System is such an issue that “everything has to be looked at” — including possible changes to current benefits for retirees. Parkinson later regretted his words, writing on his blog: “Because I said that we would consider changes for people that are already in the system, I may have scared tens of thousands of retirees who are already receiving benefits, and even more current state employees who are counting on this fund for their future. I said it, but it’s not what I meant. What I should have said — and meant to say — is that we don’t want to cut any benefits and we are analyzing all our options.”
He attributed that and “other mistakes that day” to the four hours of sleep he’d had the night before because of “some pet issues” at 3:30 a.m. “I’ll try to not let that happen again,” he wrote.
In a recent address at the Glass Association of North America’s fall conference in Kansas City, Mo., Gov. Mark Parkinson stepped up his endorsement of the national renewable energy standard, currently part of the House-passed energy bill. He said, “Most people watching (the cap-and-trade bill) believe it will not pass the Senate.” If it fails, he added, “We’re encouraging our delegation to work with delegations around the country and revive just the RES portion of the current cap-and-trade bill.” A national RES, he said, “would really catapult renewable energy to the next level.” The national RES in the House bill would require electric utilities to meet 20 percent of their electricity demand through renewable energy sources and energy efficiency by 2020.
“Outside of the Capitol, no one knows who I am. They don’t know that I’m the governor.” — Gov. Mark Parkinson, on his new blog, on trying to get a pizza delivered to Cedar Crest and being mistaken in St. Louis for a member of his security detail
“Rep. Tiahrt’s campaign logo looks like he stole it off of a note passed to him by a 13 year-old girl.” — An unnamed “former state party official” to Politico’s Shenanigans blog, about the logo’s “T” and heart
Gov. Mark Parkinson joined calls for less vitriolic rhetoric in the abortion debate. “People that are pro-life are not terrorists, and people who are pro-choice are not baby killers,” Parkinson said. “They are people that have a different view on a very controversial issue.” He said that the inflammatory rhetoric “is not helpful.”
Gov. Mark Parkinson made the right call today in restoring federal funding for Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri that the Legislature had cut. Anti-abortion lawmakers opposed the funding because Planned Parenthood performs abortions at its clinic in Overland Park. But the federal funds aren’t used for abortions; Planned Parenthood said the money only goes to clinics in Hays and Wichita, which provide health and family planning services to low-income Kansans. As Parkinson noted, “Eliminating funding for programs intended to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies does nothing to help reduce abortions in Kansas.” In fact, it could have the opposite result.
Gov. Mark Parkinson said he hasn’t felt any animosity from Republicans still sore about his switch from state GOP leader to Democratic lieutenant governor and now governor. “In a normal economic time, where the state has plenty of money and we’re not in the kind of recession that we’re in right now, some of that retaliation-type stuff might have occurred,” Parkinson told Topeka TV station WIBW. “But these aren’t normal times. We’re in the worst economic recession that we’ve been in since the 1930s, and I think all of the legislators, Republicans and Democrats, understand that the time for normal, typical, childish party politics is over, that we’ve got to pull together to create solutions, which is what we did during the veto session.”
New Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson offered a deal to Sunflower Electric Power Corp. of Kansas, the company that had been lobbying for two coal-fired power plants for well over a year. Parkinson is allowing Sunflower to build one of those coal plants. With this settlement Kansas has given up its place as a national leader on clean energy. Under former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Kansas was well-positioned to make contributions to slow global warming. This agreement is a significant setback. The concessions made to the coal industry will greatly outweigh any so-called benefits for the state. The new coal plant actually increases Kansas’ contributions to global warming. While the country is moving away from polluting fossil fuels, Kansas has opened the door for outdated, dirty technology other states are rejecting. The agreement appears to invite Sunflower Electric to build another coal plant in two years. This is not a compromise, but a giveaway to the coal industry Kansans have stood up against. — Bruce Nilles, Sierra Club, for the Huffington Post
The number of planned coal plants across America has plummeted from 150 to 60 in the past five years. Last year 5,465 megawatts of new electricity were announced, but more than twice that capacity was subtracted because of cancellations or delays. Environmentalists, though thrilled, know they still have a long way to go. Renewable resources can’t yet begin to replace coal as providers of power. But a deal struck in Kansas on May 4, ending 19 months of impasse between Sunflower Electric Power Corp. and the state government, shows under what conditions coal may be able to survive. Two coal-fired plants had been planned by Sunflower. It will now build just one, which will use new clean technology, offset carbon dioxide emissions and develop wind energy on the side. In return, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment cannot impose any greenhouse-gas regulations that are tougher than those emerging from Washington. Suddenly, that seems a pretty high bar. — the Economist magazine
Troy Findley wasn’t on the radar screen as a possible pick to become lieutenant governor. In fact, few Kansans had even heard of Findley until Gov. Mark Parkinson selected him Thursday. But Findley has good credentials — a former state lawmaker, former Lawrence banker, chief of staff for Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and now Parkinson. As Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, noted, Findley has “political and policy expertise and long-standing commitment to the people of Kansas.”
Still, Findley was a bit surprising from a political standpoint. In choosing a lieutenant governor who says he won’t run for governor, Parkinson missed an opportunity to give the Democratic Party a running start in what likely will be an uphill race to retain the governorship in 2010.
Hooray for Hutchinson for landing a new wind turbine plant that is expected to employ 400 people. Germany-based Siemens selected Hutchinson because of its central location, work force and transportation logistics. Turbine manufacturing is a natural fit for this region, but we’ve been slow in pursuing it. The Hutchinson plant is a great start at achieving Gov. Mark Parkinson’s vision of “a corridor of factories from Wichita to Salina” that will “make Kansas the renewable energy leader of the country.”
Gov. Mark Parkinson wasted no time making a mark on an area of public policy of special interest to him, hammering out a deal with Sunflower Electric Power Corp. to allow a single 895-megawatt coal-fired plant near Holcomb if lawmakers pass a comprehensive package of renewable energy measures. Kansas will get the jobs and part of the power, and many fewer tons of carbon dioxide than under the two-plan proposal. Best of all, what had become an absurd political and lobbying fight appears to be over.
