TOPEKA — Kansas no longer will impose a statewide phased-in reopening plan, Gov. Laura Kelly said Tuesday.
In deciding to veto a bill that would have restricted her powers to respond to the coronavirus, she issued a new emergency declaration.
“This legislation creates more problems than it solves,” Kelly said. She argued it would ultimately delay coronavirus aid from the federal government. “This would only prolong the economic pain of this crisis.”
Kelly’s new order makes her phase-out of the economic shutdown and limits on mass gatherings an advisory guidebook for county officials — not a statewide command.
She also will call the Legislature into a special session on June 3 to extend the new emergency declaration.
The Democratic governor heaped criticism on Republican leaders of the Legislature, lawmakers whom she said made “rushed and haphazard” changes to the law that gave her the emergency powers to impose a statewide shutdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Kelly said the legislation was constitutionally dubious. That meant, Kelly contended, that if she signed the bill, “it would have put the state at risk for additional legal battles.
“More importantly,” she said, “it would have hindered our response to this crisis.”
Republican lawmakers pulled an all-nighter last week to clamp down on Kelly’s authority after weeks of criticism that she overstepped in shutting down businesses and didn’t reopen quickly enough.
That put Kelly in a tough spot, because the extension of her emergency declaration, which expires at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, was tied to provisions that gave lawmakers more oversight over actions she might need to take in pandemics or disaster situations.
“This new declaration is not ideal,” Kelly said. “It is a direct result of the political games that had been played up to this point.”
Some lawmakers cautioned last week that they were on shaky legal ground because the resolution that brought the Legislature back into session had a midnight Thursday ending date.
“Anything that we do from here on out, we’re going to get sued on,” Republican Rep. Mark Samsel said in the early hours of Friday morning.
On Tuesday, Republican leaders in the Kansas House issued a joint statement after the governor’s announcement saying the sudden change in policy creates “unnecessary confusion about the status of the current disaster declaration, what orders are still in place, and what Kansans can expect going forward.”
Kansas has more than 9,200 cases of COVID-19, with 800 people needing hospitalization and 188 people dead. Five counties make up more than half of the state’s cases: Finney, Ford, Leavenworth, Seward and Wyandotte.
Kelly said she briefed county leaders on a conference call Tuesday morning. Sedgwick County has called a meeting today to discuss the changes.
