The Wichita Eagle, April 9
Welfare rules spark latest round of ridicule:
Every few weeks the nation’s eyes turn to Kansas, and not to gaze in admiration. The focus of the latest unfortunate round of ridicule and criticism has been a bill limiting how the poor can access and spend welfare aid.
When it passed the Senate 30-10 and the House 87-35 last week, the legislation looked like an unsurprising effort to codify and double down on the Brownback administration’s tightfisted approach to distributing federally funded aid for the poor.
It puts a lifetime limit of three years on welfare benefits, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, compared with the current state limit of four years and the federal allowance of five. Its rules also include a $25-a-day limit on ATM withdrawals with a Vision card.
But what has captured the nation’s attention is the bill’s absurdly long and micromanaging list of items that TANF money cannot be used for. Its banned expenditures involve not only booze, cigarettes, casinos and strip clubs but also movie tickets, tattoos, manicures, massages, fortune tellers, swimming pools, cruise ships and theme parks. The badly written and unenforceable bill also singles out jewelry stores and lingerie shops.
“Should the government care where people buy underwear?” MSNBC’s Chris Hayes asked one of the bill’s champions, Sen. Michael O’Donnell, R-Wichita.
The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank wrote that “the gratuitous nature of the law becomes obvious when you consider that it also bans all out-of-state spending of welfare dollars - so the inclusion of a cruise-ship ban is redundant in landlocked Kansas.”
Chicago Tribune columnist Rex W. Huppke wrote: “While the Kansas bill may say ’fiscal responsibility’ to some, to the poor it says: You are alcoholic, tattooed gambling addicts whose lazy bodies are riddled with piercings typical of cigarette-smoking vagabonds who sleep in movie theaters and ride the high seas. Oh, and you can’t be trusted.’”
Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik suggested the goal was to “crush the spirit of the welfare recipient.”
And “we rarely make similar demands of other recipients of government aid,” observed Washington Post blogger Emily Badger, mentioning beneficiaries of farm subsidies, Pell Grants, Medicare and mortgage interest deductions.
“Kansas, you cray,” declared Larry Wilmore on “The Nightly Show” on Comedy Central Tuesday. He noted how the state is “limiting how poor people spend their money” at the same time it is so low on funds that schools are closing early.
Proponents say the bill is about helping needy Kansans rather than punishing them. On MSNBC, O’Donnell cheerfully insisted it is meant “to get more people off of government assistance and into the workforce.”
So far, though, its main effect is to make Kansas look cruel, petty and clueless.
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The Hutchinson News, April 10
State shows hypocrisy in fighting Wichita marijuana vote:
The people of Wichita have spoken, and they want to see reduced penalties for people who possess marijuana.
Surely in a place like Kansas that means the government will pay attention to the voice of the people and recognize the right of self-governance. After all, our Kansas lawmakers love the U.S. Constitution so much they passed a law dubbed “Constitutional Carry” to allow anyone to carry a concealed weapon without a dab of training, because the government never has a right to interfere with the rights of the people, ever, for any reason whatsoever.
Turns out, not so much when it comes to pot. Attorney General Derek Schmidt - as he warned he would - quickly moved to file an injunction against the people of Wichita, claiming the will of the people runs counter to the laws of Kansas and that the laws of Kansas must be upheld.
Consider that for a moment. The people have voted and expressed their will, and the immediate reaction from the people’s government is to say the people are wrong. Even more laughable is that this group of Constitution-loving lawmakers and administration officials will rely on the state’s courts to usurp the will of the people - courts supposedly filled with so many “activist” judges that Sen. Mitch Holmes, R-St. John, introduced legislation to make it easier to impeach them if they don’t march in lockstep with the Legislature.
Such a response runs counter to the state’s conservative politicians’ incessant blathering about small government, local control and the rights of the people to decide their own fate. Once again, this group has shown it’s only interested in small government and upholding the will of the people when it’s deemed “right.”
The appropriate response would’ve been for the attorney general to ask the Legislature to reconsider its laws and open up an avenue for local voters to decide the issue. It’s not a foreign concept, rather one that’s been deployed many times in the past. In fact, this Legislature, scared to tackle expanding liquor sales in the state, has eyed throwing the decision down to the locals to decide the matter for their communities.
The idea of a government run by and for the people doesn’t stop when the government in power disagrees with the will of the people. If the conservatives who speak of the U.S. Constitution with misty eyes during election season actually believed what they told voters, we’d see a state government that was moving to make the will of the people law rather than working so hard to force the people to comply with the will of the government.
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The Topeka Capital-Journal, April 11
Law enforcement needs good people:
Topeka Police Chief James Brown thinks some young people who might otherwise be interested in a law enforcement career are hesitant to take the step due to what they see as “turbulent times” in the profession.
Brown also agrees that law enforcement is “under a microscope” as a result of the recent violence and unrest in Ferguson, Mo., and other fatal conflicts among law enforcement officers and citizens across the country.
Incidents that grab national headlines certainly put law enforcement in the spotlight, and happenings in Ferguson, Mo., New York and North Charleston, S.C., certainly could be indicative of “turbulent times.”
But that is no reason for young people to shun the profession. Rather, young people interested in serving and protecting are really needed now.
The Topeka Police Department hopes to host in June a training academy class from which it would like to hire 15 to 20 officers. The department has conducted four testing sessions for which it usually would have received about 700 applications. This year, the department has seen only about 250 applicants.
There may be other factors at play, but it’s not a stretch to assume news from across the country has dampened enthusiasm for law enforcement work.
However, people shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that for every law enforcement-citizen conflict that grabs the spotlight on the national television news, there are untold thousands of law enforcement-citizen encounters every day that begin peaceably and end that way. We don’t know how many local law enforcement officers there are in this country, but we know those who make the news for reasons that reflect badly on their profession represent only a very small fraction of them.
Law enforcement always needs exceptional young people. Those interested in a career that offers good benefits and upward mobility shouldn’t be afraid of checking out the opportunities in law enforcement. And those who normally would be interested but think the profession is under a cloud right now shouldn’t hesitate to step forward if they think they can help.
The opportunity to make a difference is available for those willing to serve.
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Salina Journal, April 8
The ’Yeah, but …’ governor:
With Gov. Brownback, it’s not wise to take what he says at face value.
For instance, years after he was elected governor, he was still running around bragging about how when he came into office the state was nearly broke, but under his leadership Kansas soon had a hefty reserve account.
The truth was that the state had a growing surplus by the time Brownback took office, and he had nothing to do with it. That was done by Democratic Gov. Mark Parkinson and the previous Legislature when they passed a 1 cent sales tax. In fact, Brownback criticized legislators for passing the tax he later took credit for.
Recently, the governor signed into law a new school funding measure that for the next two years will fund schools with block grants. Brownback noted that education funding will go from $3.98 billion this school year to $4.09 billion next school year and to $4.16 billion in the 2016-17 school year.
So, spending on schools is increasing. Yeah, but …
… the bulk of that increase is going into teachers’ retirement, or KPERS. We think KPERS should be counted as part of education funding, but let’s not pretend that it provides more money for school districts to pump into their classrooms.
For instance: State aid for the 2014-15 school year for Salina School District schools was supposed to be $51,055,711. But then the state, facing a steep revenue drop because of Brownback’s income tax cuts, cut that by $951,240 to $50,104,471.
Under the next two school years of the block grant funding program, the district is scheduled to receive $51,656,244 and $52,787,899, respectively, in state funding, leaving the district with a gain of $2,683,428 over the current school year, or more than 5 percent. Sounds great, until …
… you factor out the big jump in KPERS funding, which school districts don’t have access to. When that’s done, the increase from the current school year for the Salina district is $311,354, or 0.0062 of a percent. This doesn’t include money for bond payments or special education, which are outside the block grant funding.
With Brownback, always check the numbers. And more than likely the correct response is going to be, “Yeah, but … .”
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