Kansas Legislature bubbles over with fury and frustration as lawmakers buck Kelly, Hawkins

The Ad Astra statue peeks through branches outside the Kansas Statehouse. (Sam Bailey/Kansas Reflector)

Statehouse scraps

Opinion editor Clay Wirestone’s weekly roundup of legislative flotsam and jetsam. Read the archive .

And it’s over! For now.

The Kansas Legislature dragged itself kicking and screaming toward the finish line Friday night, working through a morass of tax and budget proposals. As I wrote this column Friday afternoon and evening, I honestly couldn’t tell you how everything was going to turn out. You have the rest of Kansas Reflector to tell you that.

As it stands, a whole lot else happened this week, including Facebook declaring falsely that we were a cyber threat. Here are a few of the highlights.

Backbenchers strike back

Democratic lawmakers don’t always like Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly . Republican lawmakers don’t always like Republican House Speaker Dan Hawkins . But to have both groups be angry at both leaders at the same time? That’s rare.

That happened Thursday, when the morning began with Dems venting at the governor for her support of a tax compromise proposal that only cut rates for the top bracket of three. In the evening, GOP backbenchers rebuffed pleas from Hawkins to pass the tax plan and be done with it already.

“The only true income tax relief that’s being given is being given to the top bracket, the wealthiest,” said House minority leader Vic Miller , a Topeka Democrat. “Seventy percent of the income tax relief is targeted to the top 20% of taxpayers. …If you’re going to give tax relief, it should be directed to those who need it the most, not the ones that need it the least.”

This suggests that neither Democrats nor Republicans can overcome the lingering stench of former Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax “experiment.”

Not only do Kansas voters understand the stakes and the consequences of bad tax policy, but so do the people they elect. No matter the party, representatives and senators ultimately recoil at the prospect of passing giant tax cuts that appear to mostly benefit the wealthy. This of course makes leaders’ jobs exponentially more difficult, as wealthy supporters want nothing more than lower taxes yesterday.

As I write this sentence late Friday, it appears the chambers may be barreling toward a compromise. We shall see.

Kansas Rep. Brandon Woodard, D-Lenexa, attends a Sept. 28, 2023, hearing on Kansas elections (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Gay marriage GOP

When Rep. Brandon Woodard, D-Lenexa, moved to bring a bill removing the state’s statutory prohibition on gay marriage to the House floor, you might be forgiven for thinking the result would break along party lines.

It didn’t.

Although Woodard’s request failed, eight House Republicans voted in favor of pulling the bill from committee, and I think it’s worth noting who took the plunge. It’s also worth nothing the vote wasn’t technically in favor of same-sex marriage. It simply supported bringing House Bill 2177 up for a vote. What’s more, 21 lawmakers were absent for the move, so we can’t how how everyone in the chamber would have voted.

Regardless, here are the eight Republicans who wanted a chance to debate the bill: Reps. Lewis “Bill” Bloom of Clay Center, Jesse Borjon of Topeka, Susan Concannon of Beloit, Nick Hoheisel of Wichita, Mark Schreiber of Emporia, Jeff Underhill of Junction City, Laura Williams of Lenexa and David Younger of Ulysses.

You might call this progress, and I wouldn’t disagree. Imagine Republican legislators standing up and taking such a stance 19 years ago, when the state overwhelmingly backed an amendment forbidding same-sex unions. Times change. Not always for the worse, either.

This photo led my column about an age-verification bill passed by the Kansas Legislature that raises concerns about depictions of LGBTQ+ people. (Getty Images)

Criticism received

Rep. Jason Probst, D-Hutchinson, voted for an online age-verification bill in the House to wall off adult content from those under 18. A handful of other Democrats joined him. On Monday, I wrote a column arguing the bill would criminalize writing about or pictures of LGBTQ+ people displaying affection publicly.

Probst did not care for that take, to put it mildly.

On his generally excellent Substack blog, That Guy in Hutch , Probst eviscerated my column and called it “patently false.” He also deemed my interpretation “hysterical,” which is an … interesting choice of words for criticizing an openly gay opinion writer.

But I digress. Read the column here if you’re curious about the representative’s reaction.

As far as I know, Probst does not have a law degree .

I’ll tell you who does: Lawrence First Amendment specialist Max Kautsch , who not only served as my source for the column, but who responded at length to Probst. You can read a comment from him underneath the Substack post, and a longer explanation at Kautsch’s website. In this case, I tend to believe the person with legal experience.

Listen, I know that folks get stressed in the heat of the session and say things they don’t mean. I respect Probst and enjoy his writing.

On this subject, though, he’s mistaken.

House Speaker Dan Hawkins (in sunglasses) and Senate President Ty Masterson attended the annual anti-abortion rally on Jan. 24, 2024. (Rachel Mipro/Kansas Reflector)

They want it this way

A week of drama like this one generates exciting news stories. But it makes for terrible decisions.

And that’s the way leaders like it.

Never let it be said that Hawkins or Senate President Ty Masterson want to give their members time and space to pass the best bills possible. No, they want to create the illusion of crunch time and force tough vote after tough vote, exhausting their members until they give up and accept whatever rancid refuse leaders place before them.

Both men could extend the session. They could empower committee chairs. They could require lawmakers to work on Fridays throughout the session, instead of routinely taking a paid day off. They could take any number of moves to create a more orderly and deliberative process. But doing so would require them to give up power.

Neither man wants to do that.

The result? Lawmakers working deep into the night , rushed conference committees with language conjured up on the fly and policy passed without public vetting. Sure, Masterson and Hawkins may score some political wins at the end of the exercise. They can tout these supposed victories on the campaign trail. But they do so at the cost of representative government for all Kansans.

Programming note

The Kansas Legislature leaves for a three-week break, beginning Monday. The Statehouse scraps column will accompany them for vacation and return along with veto session.

Don’t worry about me. I’ll still be writing columns.

Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here .

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