When The Iola Register reversed its policy of printing anonymous letters to the editor or recordings left on its answering machine, their level of rudeness and nature of attack changed dramatically.
It’s funny how taking responsibility for one’s own words can change their tone.
The change also did away for the most part with unsubstantiated rumors. If your name is attached to a letter, you want to make darn sure you can stand behind what you say.
So it would be a welcome change if state legislators were required to attach their John Henrys to legislation they propose.
Kansans deserve to know what legislation their elected representatives put forward as well as how they vote on any number of measures.
Otherwise, their anonymity serves as a shield against transparency.
Democrat and Republican leaders proposed as much Tuesday afternoon.
The entire body should embrace the change.
Democrats also proposed eliminating the “gut-and-go” procedure.
Such a process scraps the essence of a bill to replace it with something totally unrelated.
Thanks to some stellar reporting by the Kansas City Star, reporters found numerous instances of the tactic.
In 2016, for example, a Senate committee took a bill dealing with abandoned oil wells and replaced it with legislation that makes it easier for cell phone companies to build towers in the public right-of-way.
The bill passed with virtually no discussion.
The result?
Local government officials from across the state were surprised by a new regulation that eviscerated their power to say where the massive towers can be placed.
Clearly, industry lobbyists held sway, but because the sponsors of the bill were anonymous, we’ll never know who was in their pockets.
Unfortunately, this is standard procedure for Kansas legislators, which is why the state has a reputation of being one of the most opaque states in the country.
Of the 104 bills passed last year, only six came with identified sponsors, according to The Star. The other 94 percent were introduced anonymously. Such a practice encourages legislators to act in bad faith to their constituents. How are we to really know what they support if we can’t pin their names to specific legislation?
Even Missouri has us looking bad. Like many other states, Missouri requires every bit of legislation to have its sponsor named.
The Kansas Legislature needs to clean up its act.
Yesterday was not soon enough.
— Susan Lynn
