There oughta be a law that restricts legislators to voting on single issues instead of the current mash-up method.
It’s bad policy that leads to worse lawmaking.
The recent Senate Bill 8 is a textbook example.
The tax-policy tome included more than a dozen stand-alone measures including tax credits for adoption, tax breaks on Social Security benefits, accelerating the tax cuts on food sales and granting property tax breaks for certain health clubs.
Because SB 8 had so many moving parts, lawmakers scarcely had time to review, much less diligently consider, the finished product.
“This is garbage governance,” said Sen. Mark Steffen, R-Hutchinson, calling Senate Bill 8 “a hodgepodge of bills and issues put together haphazardly without a common theme.”
Even Rep. Adam Smith, chairman of the House tax committee, admitted he had not had time to read the bill’s final version before it was to be voted on.
“The full conference committee report, I will admit, I have not had time to read,” Smith said. “I have read the entire brief.”
The brief is 22 pages; the full report, 127 pages.
THERE OUGHTA be a law that lawmakers get their work done in a timely fashion.
Instead, legislators regularly skipped town Thursday afternoons, waiting until the last week of the 90-day session to do the heavy lifting.
How did that work out?
In the House, Senate Bill 8 came to the floor in the wee hours of Good Friday morning with Legislators finally adjourning at 4:30 a.m.
“This is crazy,” said Rep. Vic Miller, D-Topeka. “This is no way to pass anything, let alone a bill that is 18 or 19 bills that we’ve not had a chance to have hearings on or have a full debate.”
House leadership refused to dismiss its 125 members, several of whom were slumped over their desks fast asleep and others so tired they couldn’t think straight.
