Straight Talk from Rep. Knox

May 11, 2009

The 2009 Legislature’s Major Successes

My legislative intern this year, Tim Edwards, asked me, “What do you believe are the major successes of the 2009 legislative session?” My answer, “Thus far, there are none.”  He asked this just ahead of the wrap up session. Fortunately, during wrap up, which concluded early Saturday morning, we accomplished what I consider to be the only major success of the session. We passed the Comprehensive Energy Plan.

Just prior to the beginning of the wrap up session a new governor was sworn into office in Topeka. When Governor Mark Parkinson spoke about moving Kansas ahead by working together in a nonpartisan way he wasn’t kidding. The first thing he did as governor was to initiate negotiations which led to an agreement to build the needed coal-fired electric generation station in Western Kansas and which assured passage of the comprehensive energy plan. We had worked hard, earlier in the session, crafting this legislation but the previous governor vetoed it.

The negotiated legislation was substantially similar to the version of the bill which had passed out of the House a couple months earlier. The vote on the bill last week was a strong show of support, gaining over twenty votes, which clearly illustrates the purely political nature of this issue. I’m sure those who changed their votes will point out some little nuance in the bill in explanation of their changed vote, but the political reality of the issue is clear. It was all politics. It had little to do with science or with true environmental concerns.

This is a major victory for Kansas. We can move ahead knowing that our short term base load electric needs will be met but also knowing that the state is moving ahead in renewable energy which will be important for long term energy security. This is a broad based compromise in which we all win. Kansas’ new governor deserves our appreciation and respect for showing true leadership. Truly there is a major positive mood shift in Topeka with our new governor at the helm and I look forward to seeing what other things he will accomplish.

The other major issue of the session is related to the economy; how the state is to balance its budget. I would like to be able to say that the passing of the Omnibus Budget Bill was another great success, but I don’t believe that to be the case. We certainly passed the omnibus bill, but I don’t believe that it will balance the budget. That’s why I didn’t vote for it. Neither did I vote for the accompanying tax bill.

In both of these bills the House simply voted to concur with Senate action. The omnibus did not make sufficient cuts to meet state revenue, leaving a $70 million dollar deficit. A tax bill was needed to fill this hole and it did so by making cuts to current tax credits and with other tax revenue enhancing means. Bottom line, those who supported the bills will be credited, falsely I believe, with saving needed government funded programs and with not raising our taxes. I suppose this is a matter of definitions, but many Kansans will pay more in direct state tax dollars because of the legislation and cities and counties will be hurt by receiving less state dollars and will be forced to increase local taxes to make up the difference. I call that a tax increase. I worked for fiscal responsibility, fought to keep your taxes down and tried to decrease the size of ever growing state government. The problem was that we could not quite come up with a majority for this view.

At the beginning I mentioned my intern. Tim Edwards was the third legislative intern that I’ve had in the five years that I’ve been in the legislature. I’ve appreciated all my interns but Tim was clearly the most motivated to learn about the legislative process and I very much enjoyed our talks about the process and the issues of the day. He is a political science major at Washburn University in Topeka. He grew up in Fredonia and, it turns out, was in kindergarten class with my daughter, Abigail. Having served in the Marines, with three tours in Iraq, in some of the worst of the action there, he has more perspective on life than most people I meet. It is encouraging to see young people who truly care about the values that this country was founded upon. These are the leaders of tomorrow.

Let me know your concerns at repnox@gmail.com or call me at home, 785 783 5564.