TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas incoming Democratic governor uses words like decimated to describe whats happened to state government over the past decade and will be looking to add staff, boost spending and rethink contracts that outsourced jobs to private companies.
Yet the same electorate that chose Gov.-elect Laura Kelly out of displeasure with her Republican predecessors opted in more-localized races to push the Legislature further to the right. Upon taking office in January, she will face GOP supermajorities and conservative leaders, setting up political fights over proposals seen as expanding state governments footprint.
Its not just big initiatives, such as more spending on public schools or expanding the states Medicaid health coverage for the needy. After advisers fanned out to state agencies, Kelly said shes concerned about a shortage of social workers to serve troubled children, how the state processes tax payments and even whether it can clear highways well in a winter storm.
She promised during her campaign not to increase taxes; she is not backing off that pledge, and GOP leaders have said they intend to hold her to it. But during a recent Associated Press interview, she also made it clear that she believes extra money and staff are needed to fix things.
I am not sure we knew how bad it was, said Kelly, a veteran state senator from Topeka and a key player in legislative budget debates. We have seen our agencies just hollowed out.
Some Republicans agree that parts of state government, particularly prisons and services for abused and neglected children, need attention. But conservatives also see an annual budget that has grown 22 percent over the past decade to $17 billion, with much of the new spending driven by Kansas Supreme Court mandates to boost education funding.
GOP legislators slashed personal income taxes in 2012 and 2013 at then-Republican Gov. Sam Brownbacks urging, as a fiscal experiment and economic stimulus. After persistent shortfalls, lawmakers reversed most of the tax cuts in 2017.
Kelly made Brownback a key issue in the campaign, even after he resigned in January for an ambassadors post. His successor, Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer, who narrowly lost the GOP primary in August, said he walked into a very difficult situation, but, I think we need to look at where were going and what weve accomplished.
As a state and as state government, were in a much better position than we were a year ago or 10 years ago, overall, he added during a recent interview.
Prison disturbances last year spotlighted high turnover rates and low pay among staff.
The Department of Children and Families faced intense scrutiny after high-profile deaths of children in abusive homes in recent years and reports that troubled kids slept in state contractors offices . The departments staff of child-protection specialists and supervisors has shrunk 8 percent over the past decade, to fewer than 500, even as the number of children in foster care has jumped 49 percent, to more than 7,400.
Kelly and her staff also have questioned two Department of Revenue contracts worth $82 million for a subsidiary of the Canada-based CGI Group to modernize its system for collecting delinquent taxes and to manage its tax-collection systems.
A core competency of ours is not software development, said Sam Williams, the current revenue chief.
He said the contracts have made the department more efficient, but Kellys transition team questions that, based on its own review.
She said her team is reviewing all state contracts.
