TOPEKA — A leading business lobbying organization in Kansas frustrated with Congress’ failure to deal with immigration policy recommended the federal government grant states authority to implement guest worker programs that address specific workforce needs.
The Kansas Chamber, which plays a significant role in lobbying the Kansas Legislature, said that if Congress again failed to make progress on reasonable change to bolster the U.S. workforce with international labor it should enable states to craft alternatives that catered to precise business needs of participating states. The lobbying organization also said it would oppose state legislation increasing penalties or threatening business licenses for employers who unintentionally hired an illegal worker.
“On both sides, whatever you want to look at, whether state or federal, it’s almost like both sides use it as a political cudgel,” said Alan Cobb, president and CEO of the Kansas Chamber. “I trust Kansans to put something together that addresses the workforce need.”
He said government reform of immigration had to respect the necessity of protecting borders of the United States from criminal elements and take into account the humanitarian crisis of thousands of undocumented individuals at the southern border with Mexico.
The Kansas Chamber’s political agenda for the 2024 legislative session — it opens at 2 p.m. Monday — touched on other human resource issues, including a quest for criminal justice reform that helped people with criminal records to enter the workforce.
Workers’ compensation
Eric Stafford, a vice president of the Kansas Chamber and chief lobbyist in Topeka, said business and labor interests had negotiated a proposed bill that would restructure the workers’ compensation system to fairly compensate people injured on the job and strive to maintain low costs for employers. For example, he said, the negotiated deal would increase caps for total disability and death benefits.
“Hopefully,” he said on the Kansas Reflector podcast, “our message to those listening, legislators, leadership is keep the bill clean and get it through to the governor.”
The core of the Kansas Chamber’s agenda featured praise for legislation creating a flat-rate individual income tax in Kansas. Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, vetoed a bill creating a 5.15% single rate to replace staggered rates depending on income. The Legislature failed to override her veto, but House and Senate GOP leaders said one of their top priorities was taking another run at the reform in 2024. Likewise, Kelly said she was prepared to veto any comparable flat tax reform bill.
Cobb’s big wish: “Three or four GOP senators to override the governor’s veto of the flat tax.”
He also said the organization was opposed to Kelly’s recommendation for the state to expand eligibility for Medicaid to about 150,000 lower-income Kansans.
Kelly has placed passage of Medicaid expansion among her top priorities of the annual legislative session. The governor said she was a “little bit” surprised the Kansas Chamber was prepared to continue opposing Medicaid expansion because the business community was supportive of changes that delivered preventative health care to workers who otherwise couldn’t afford coverage.
“Interestingly, they did not oppose Medicaid expansion before I became governor,” Kelly said. “They were just neutral, they didn’t deal with it. When I became governor, all of a sudden, they started to oppose it. But after I met with them, I thought that we might see them at least go back to neutral because there were a number of board members there who clearly got the message, understood the importance of this.”
It’s about economics
Cobb also said there was a need for the Legislature to devote more effort to oversight of rules and regulations crafted by executive branch agencies to implement state law. There have been many times when state agencies went beyond what the Legislature intended, he said.