Debate delves into salaries, cancer, border security and professional soccer
BY: TIM CARPENTER, Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — The Kansas Legislature relied on bipartisan House and Senate majorities to send Gov. Laura Kelly a budget bill that financed 5% to 10% raises for most state employees and sidestepped a separate vote on the 93% raise for legislators recommended by a special commission.
Contents of Senate Bill 28, including provisions never before considered by either the House or Senate, would invest $17 million in improving services for people with disabilities, $80 million into rates paid hospital and physicians serving Medicaid patients and $900 million for state transportation projects. It also would allow the state treasurer to invest half the state’s $1.8 billion rainy day fund in an attempt to secure a better return.
The $25 billion bill didn’t include Kelly’s proposal for expansion of eligibility for Medicaid. It also excluded the governor’s call for using part of a massive budget surplus to pay down state government debt.
Rep. Troy Waymaster, the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said the bill would spend $900 million less than the budget championed by the governor in January. He said House negotiators held “fairly well” to the House’s positions when contrary to the Senate’s view of the budget. On the House floor, the chairman faced gentle and hostile commentary from representatives assessing details of the spending deal. It passed 78-44.
“We’re spending a lot of money,” said Rep. Henry Helgerson, D-Wichita. “We have a spending problem. Overall, we’re spending more money than we can afford.”
On the other side of the Capitol rotunda, Sen. Rick Billinger, GOP chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, outlined the identical package to colleagues. He, too, was hit with praise and complaints about fine print of the budget. And, it was approved 26-12.
Sen. Rob Olson, R-Olathe, said he was disappointed that negotiators put only $23 million into removing 500 people from waiting lists for services provided to Kansans with intellectual and physical disabilities. The two waiting lists contained names of 7,500 people in February, which amounted to a 35% increase over the past five years. The budget bill would place into law a provision forbidding the combined waiting lists from exceeding 6,800.
Olson said the budget mysteriously earmarked $1 million for restoration of an opera house in Manhattan, a last-minute request submitted by one senator and two representatives.
“I’d be ashamed to put something in the budget like an opera house, while there’s kids that need help that are on a waiting list,” Olson said.
The salary debate
Sen. Dennis Pyle, R-Hiawatha, said he was perplexed that Billinger and the two other budget negotiators from the Senate didn’t insist on retention of a provision requiring the House and Senate to vote on their substantial salary increase scheduled to be implemented in 2025. The pay hike would be implemented after House and Senate elections in November.
Under the plan proposed by a commission of retired legislators, the 93% increase would be enacted unless rejected by the Legislature. Pyle convinced the Senate to pass an amendment calling for such a vote on the $3.5 million increase in legislative compensation.
“Five percent for state employees. Ninety-three percent for legislators. Something’s wrong there. Something’s very, very wrong. It’s a sad day for Kansas,” Pyle said.
Billinger said it would have been futile to fight for a vote on salary increases for legislators because the House negotiators said that issue was off the table.
The legislation forwarded to the governor would allow for a general 5% pay hike for state government workers, but about 900 state employees with below-market salaries would qualify for a 10% boost in pay.
“I want to emphasize that all employees receive a raise under this plan,” said Billinger, who also indicated he didn’t like the size of pay increase recommended for legislators.
Fighting cancer
Rep. Linda Featherston, D-Overland Park, had convinced the House to include in the budget $75,000 so state employees enrolled in the state’s health plan would have access to thorough testing for potential breast cancer. Passage of her amendment was hailed as a demonstration of bipartisan cooperation.
During House and Senate negotiations, the tiny sliver of the budget was deleted from the bill.
“This was stripped for some reason,” she said. “Was it politics? Was it special interests? Was it sexism? Was it spite? Was it a complete lack of regard for women’s health care. The fact that we cannot agree that women’s health should be a priority is appalling.”
Helgerson, the Wichita Democrat, said absence of the breast cancer screening money was odd given the conference committee agreed to spend $49,893 for a bus tour by legislators on the House and Senate budget committees.
Waymaster, who led House negotiations on the budget, said removal of the breast cancer funding was tied to the belief a proposal should be included in the next round of contract negotiations on the state health insurance plan. He said he was offended by suggestions the budget item was deleted due to sexism or out of spite.
“If you really know me,” he said, “you would know that my grandmother is a breast cancer survivor. I have two aunts who are breast cancer survivors. So, I actually took a personal offense to some of the comments that were made.”
Texas border fight
Billinger, the Senate budget chairman, said he was pleased the bill retained $15.7 million to finance deployment of Kansas National Guard to the southwest border with Mexico.
The provision called on the governor to activate, mobilize and deploy state resources to prevent drug and human trafficking and “other crimes” such as illegal immigration “contributing to an emergency.”
“The Biden administration has encouraged the flow of drugs,” Billinger said. “We’ve got so many drugs coming into Kansas it’s killing our young people.”
Kelly, who reminded legislators recently that she was commander-in-chief of the Kansas National Guard, would have authority to veto that line-item in the budget while still signing the bill. She has not expressed an interest in directing troops to the U.S. border with Mexico.
Earlier in the 2024 legislative session, the House and Senate adopted resolutions to demonstrate support for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has battled President Joe Biden on immigration policy.
In other areas of the budget, state lawmakers allocated $28 million to subsidize the 2026 World Cup soccer competition in the Kansas City area. The budget bill included $36 million for aviation hangers at local airports in Salina and Topeka to engage in commercial aircraft repairs.
The budget delivered $4.5 million to cover costs incurred when the Kansas Supreme Court’s computer system was compromised by a ransomware attack that shut down online operations for months. Of the total, $1 million was budgeted to provide one year of credit monitoring services for individuals harmed during the security incident.