House Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, made two major changes in his Chamber last week when he removed members from health and education committees who hadn’t followed the party line as dictated by Gov. Sam Brownback.
Banished from the committee that oversees education were Reps. Diana Dierks, Salina, and John Ewy, Jetmore. They voted against block grant funding for public schools, the convoluted mechanism that purports to put more money into the classroom, but doesn’t. (More about that later.)
Sent packing from the Health and Human Services Committee were Barbara Bollier, Mission Hills, a retired physician; Susan Concannon, Beloit, who has a background in rural health; and Don Hill, Emporia, a pharmacist. All are considered moderates. Their unforgivable error was favoring expansion of Medicaid in Kansas to give the indigent a chance for comprehensive health care.
In another shift meant to tighten the ultra-conservative stranglehold of Brownback and his toadies, Rep. Willie Dove, Bonner Springs, was moved from Education to Health, and made its vice chairman.
In essence, the governor and his supporters are saying there’s no room for discussion, much less dissent. It’s their way, or the highway. This is a heck of a way to operate a state.
But we shouldn’t be surprised. Once Brownback was elected governor he made no bones about working to see other ultra-conservatives win office. In what is considered a rarity in partisan politics, Brownback actively campaigned to unseat moderate Republicans in the 2012 elections.
Now he and his ilk are tailoring committees to enhance voting pluralities.
Next might be some effort to shift Kansas to a one-party system, except Democrats have fallen so far out of favor with voters they pose no threat.
THE LOCAL school budget is a graphic example of how the block funding short shrifts schools.
For USD 257, the general fund budget projected expenditures of $12,495,893. In the 2014-15 general fund expenditures were figured at $9,087,638.
That additional $3.4 million is only on paper.
In reality the extra funding is going to shore up KPERS (teachers’ retirement) and special education, whose funding passes on through to the ANW Cooperative.
And money to the classroom? Down $1.1 million from the previous year, to $7.9 million.
Also, revenue earmarked for supplemental general fund (commonly called local option budget or LOB) partly is being used to lower property tax support for the fund, an admirable effort on behalf of property owners if schools weren’t so financially beleaguered.
KENT THOMPSON, Republican who represents our region in the House, considers himself a moderate and often has railed about the Machiavellian approach that is being taken in Topeka.
Recently, he told the Register that last year the House had shown more moderate tendencies from the previous session.
These recent actions, however, don’t bode well for the 2016 session.
If not, voters must muster the courage and conviction to make a statement themselves on Election Day next November.
— Bob Johnson
