Kansas Week 5: Kobach controversy, rural hospital closures, and more 🚨
Video Script
Intro [2/05-2/10]
Hey I’m Davis Hammet with Loud Light! Here’s what happened the 5th week inside the Kansas Statehouse.
Kobach Controversy
Attorney General Kris Kobach had a controversial week as he received criticisms from across the political spectrum. It started with him on the opposite side of both agriculture leaders and civil rights advocates, by supporting a bill that would restrict property rights and free enterprise based on citizenship status. He followed this by sending letters to a number of Kansas school districts instructing them to “out” students who identify as transgender or nonbinary to their parents, but provided no legal authority to make the demand. The ACLU of Kansas said doing so ignores a student’s right to privacy. Kobach finished his week by introducing a bill that would allow the state to kill Kansans facing the death penalty through an experimental execution method used for the first time ever a few weeks ago in Alabama. The method suffocates the person by pumping a mask with nitrogen gas.
Gannon v. Kansas
The Kansas Supreme Court issued a ruling ending their oversight of public school funding. The case, called Gannon, was originally filed in 2010 and challenged the state’s unconstitutional underfunding of education. In 2019, the Court said they’d retain jurisdiction to ensure the legislature completed a 5-year phase-in plan to constitutionally fund public education. When the Court gave up Jurisdiction in a 2006 case, the Legislature immediately responded by passing new education cuts. While Kansas special education is still underfunded, the BASE level of public education in Kansas is now properly funded for the first time arguably ever. The big question is if the Legislature will stay the course without the accountability of oversight or begin cutting education funding yet again.
Kansas Public Radio
A Senate committee voted to defund Kansas Public Radio by 10% this week. The proposal was brought by Sen. Caryn Tyson after claiming she viewed a program that was critical of another Republican, Sen. Renee Erickson. Sen. Tyson did not identify the specific content she took offense to, but initially tried to defund the entire public broadcasting budget saying it could be used for “political gain, political purposes.” After a 100% cut failed, the committee took a vote for a 10% cut which had bipartisan opposition causing a 4-4 tie until Committee Chair, Sen. Erickson cast a vote in favor of the cut to break the tie and send it to the Senate.
Another Rural Clinic Closes
Yet another rural healthcare clinic in Kansas has closed, impacting medical, dental, and behavioral health services in Greenwood and Woodson Counties. The Governor responded by reiterating her call on Speaker Hawkins and Senate President Masterson to allow a vote on medicaid expansion, which would bring in over $680 million a year in federal healthcare funding and insure roughly 150,000 uninsured Kansans. More than half of rural Kansas hospitals are currently at risk of closing and bipartisan proponents of medicaid expansion claim the reduction in uncompensated care would be a lifeline helping to prevent even more hospital closures in the state.
Coming Up
Friday was the deadline for most bills to be introduced causing a surge of news bills including a number of anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion bills.There are several bill hearings every day as legislators only have 2 weeks until Turnaround Day when a bill needs to have passed the House or Senate to stay alive. Loud Light is hosting testimony workshops in Kansas City, Topeka, and Wichita on Monday night. You can sign up to attend and learn how to submit testimony on bills you care about at loudlight.org/events. Stay tuned, stay engaged, and until next time, thank you so much Kansas!