It could have been worse.
That’s not the kind of statement that inspires excitement and applause, or rouses one’s fellow Kansans to ecstasies of celebration. It’s still an accurate summary of the 2022 Legislature, which saw its veto session careen to a close early Friday.
At various points, chamber leaders or arch-conservative legislators proposed a passel of policy that would have wounded our state for years to come.
A “taxpayer bill of rights” amendment would have made setting sensible fiscal policy radically more difficult.
Another amendment would have limited Gov. Laura Kelly’s power over state Supreme Court nominations.
An “ivermectin amnesty” bill pushed by Sen. Mark Steffen would have forbidden the state Board of Healing Arts from investigating doctors who prescribed ineffective treatments for COVID-19.
None of these measures made it through. Steffen tried to claim that his bill did in a bizarre letter to health care providers, but nope.
Other policies came closer to becoming law but were still stopped.
* A “parental bill of rights” would have singled out teachers as enemies of parents and their communities while allowing challenges of any material in school libraries.
* An anti-trans bill would have forbidden transgender students from participating in girls’ sports (apparently a single student in the entire state would have been affected).
* A new, bizarrely gerrymandered U.S. congressional map that split Wyandotte County and shoved Lawrence into the gargantuan 1st District.
Leaders couldn’t rustle up the votes in the House to override Gov. Kelly’s vetoes of the first two bills. As for the map, a Wyandotte County district judge did the job.
This is why we all should appreciate having multiple branches of government. The governor provides a check on lawmakers. When even she can’t stop them, judges can step up to enforce the state constitution.
As I said, it could have been worse.
Lawmakers didn’t just stop bad things, either. A few pieces of actual good policy made it through.
