Coming up on IGI, the 2024 Kansas legislative session is underway and our panel of experts is here to break down all the possibilities.

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(MUSIC) Hello and welcome to IGI.

I'm your host, Washburn University Professor of Political Science Bob Beatty.

2023 featured a rather tumultuous legislative session in Kansas with tense standoff between Democratic Governor Laura Kelly and a Republican supermajority over issues involving abortion, transgender policies, school vouchers, taxes.

Well, I could do this all day.

In the end, Governor Kelly issued dozens of vetoes with about half overridden.

But that's behind us now.

Or is it?

Well, this session be as successful as Governor Kelly's attempt at license plate design, or can the two sides find some common ground?

Here to answer those questions and more.

Our three Kansas politics experts from the Kansas Reflector, Senior Reporter Tim Carpenter and Statehouse Reporter Rachel Mipro, and from Washington University, Political Science Lecturer Bill Fiander.

Truly an all star panel.

And thank you all for joining me.

Before we get into our discussion, let's start with a clip from Governor Laura Kelly's State of the State address.

Now, many of you have been fighting this fight for years and you've got the battle scars to show for it.

I encourage you to remember the words of that great Kansan Ted Lasso, who said, you know what the happiest animal on earth is?

It's a goldfish.

You know why?

It's got a ten second memory.

So let's be a goldfish.

Let's all of us be goldfish and not let the divisions of the past prevent us from doing right by Kansans for the future.

Well, is that possible?

This a can we get all get along a moment before we get into the specific issues?

What about the last session?

I characterized that as tense, that here's the governor saying, hey, forget about the last session, let's get some things done.

But what was the last session like that She wants people to forget about it, Tim.

Well, Bob, she vetoed a bunch of legislation that the Republicans really wanted to get passed in the House and Senate in the leadership.

And so she tangled with them relentlessly.

And I think, you know, her sentiment in her State of the State speech this year is nice guy even got a chuckle out of Senator Ty Masterson, the Senate President.

But I think she's just in for that big a big fight like like she typically would have as a Democrat governor in a Republican legislature.

Rachel, you covered last year's session.

Is tense a good word?

I mean, is there is this just regular politics or do they really not like each other?

The two sides, I mean, sometimes that happens, right?

Well, I would go with the word tense.

And another word would be national, right.

Like most of the issues we saw that got the most coverage last year were issues that most states were having to deal with, parental rights, transgender legislation, things of that nature.

So it wasn't anything that was really relative to our state per se.

It was national intents.

And like looking at all the political things happening, you could see that debate unfolding in other states as well.

For many of the issues.

And so she's basically saying, hey, we're all politicians here.

It's a new year.

Maybe we can get together and can get a few things done.

And we'll see.

The big one is taxes.

It always is in this case, we have a governor who is just incredibly opposed to something that the Republican supermajority is incredibly for, which is the the flat tax.

And you know, who wants to jump in and sort of discuss start off by saying what that is and what it is that the flat tax means for Kansas.

So just briefly, there's various income tax levels that you and I might pay depending on how much we make.

The proposal is from the Republicans.

It's just sort of flat percentage, we'll say 5.1%.

And everybody, regardless of income, would pay that 5.1%.

They say it's efficient, it's easy to understand.

But really, I think the largest benefactor from that would be the wealthiest of Kansans.

So somebody making a modest income might save, you know, like $10 a month or something.

But to somebody who's very wealthy, maybe college professors, I don't know.

But those salaries but people who make a lot of money might benefit in terms of thousands of dollars a month.

And so the governor thought this was it really wasn't in the best interests of Kansans.

The Republican leadership in the House and Senate are going to come after this with both barrels and the flat tax.

You know, I guess I've been around a little too long.

I remember when Herman Cain, I think in 2012 or something he proposed.

And Tim, are you old enough, nine, nine, nine to remember that 9% flat tax for a national flat tax?

And I didn't know it had become a thing at the state level, but it's it's famous the flat tax for being, of course, regressive in that sense.

Let's take a quick look at what Governor Kelly said about the flat tax and a spoiler alert.

She's not a big fan.

Now, the flat tax came up last year.

I expect it will come up again this year despite the fact that it only benefits the super wealthy while doing little to nothing for working middle class Arkansans.

You know, Arizona legislators passed a flat tax in 2021 and now they're facing a significant budget shortfall.

Guess where the cuts are coming from?

Their public schools, their law enforcement and their infrastructure.

We have been down that road before and we don't want to go back.

Not back to Brownback, not back to 40 school weeks, not back to crumbling roads, falling down bridges, all because some politicians want to push through another reckless tax experiment.

Now, Bill, Governor Kelly, he does not want.

Obviously, that's not what the flat tax.

She wants what are called targeted taxes.

What are some of the taxes that she's interested in in this session?

Bob, she kind of covers all demographics here from homeowners to the seniors to families.

I mean, we've we've got we've got a smorgasbord, really.

And so some of the targeted cuts might be even at the upper middle scale with property tax relief families and lower end scale, we're looking at elimination of the food tax a little sooner than it was going to be.

Child care tax credits.

You have a school tax holiday.

So and then everybody gets a income tax deduction, raises the standard deduction.

So a little bit of everything, property tax, as well as let off her list of property tax cuts.

And so I think it's very equitable, very equitable, whereas you can compare that to the flat tax on the GOP side as as not being quite as equitable, being extremely targeted at the high end.

So that that would be a big comparison to me.

Now, flat I mean, property taxes, anyone who owns property, you know, like wealthy journalists or something of that nature, they don't.

Nobody likes to pay them.

But they're, of course, really important for for keeping government going.

So when Governor Kelly and we even hear Republicans talk about, hey, we want property tax cuts at the state level, is if that if they get those are individuals in Kansas who own homes going to see a big drop in their property taxes.

Great question.

You know, we see and hear so much debate about property taxes.

It's worth reminding folks that if you look at your property tax bill, about 99% of it is accounted for at the local level.

99 I just want to clarify.

That's a nine and a nine.

Okay.

Okay.

Even schools, even though some of the property tax goes back from the state back to the school districts, it's all accounted for.

You go to your school board to raise heck about what's going on with your school fund.

So.

So this relief that, interestingly enough, was the number one bullet point in her six or seven tax relief measures in her press release, because I think it's a bit of an isle crosser for for all the parties.

It it it the big thing is touting that you're only going to pay $20 or less on your property tax because of this cut.

Well, if you own a $250,000 house, you're paying about 40 right now.

It's not.

So you're looking at a savings of $20 on your tax bill.

If you have that $250 house or less, it's not going to break the state's bank.

It's not going to line your pockets either.

So it's a good step.

As as the House Leader Miller was quoted in her press release.

But, you know, does it move the needle?

No, I don't think so.

Let's let's go to a clip of the speaker, Dan Hawkins, on the Republican side.

And second, spoiler alert, he's a big fan of the of the flat tax and not a fan of maybe some of these targeted tax cuts.

Many of Governor Kelly's proposals mirrored Joe Biden's extreme approach spending money rather than cutting taxes for our families, all while chipping away at freedom, personal responsibility and public safety.

She wants billions in new state and federal spending to increase welfare for able bodied working age people in the form of Medicaid expansion.

She proposed creating a big new state agency to put government smack dab in the middle of child care.

After vetoing a reform bill just last year that would have cut government red tape and given parents more child care options.

And last year, Governor Kelly even vetoed a bill to ban human smuggling in Kansas, despite President Biden's border security failure.

That makes our families less safe.

Her agenda and actions have been a significant departure from her campaign promise to govern from the middle.

Last session, Kansas Republicans led the effort to put more dollars back in the hands of Kansas families by immediately axing the food sales tax to zero.

Lowering income taxes across the board and holding down property taxes.

Last year, we worked hard to meet the governor in the middle by passing a sustainable plan to reduce taxes.

Unfortunately, Governor Kelly chose to play politics and vetoed this measure.

Rachel, I'll go to you, there's a lot there that he's talking about, but your reaction to his response to Governor Kelly and her approach to the tax cuts?

First of all, we haven't really seen a lot of working across the aisle on either anything.

But one thing we didn't mention before with this new tax proposal is that Kelly did get some Republican senators to come over and say, hey, we support this as well.

So right off the bat, she was able to say, here's my tax proposal, here's some bipartisan support.

Here's also an independent, all joining together to say we endorse this plan, which is significant, to start off the session with that kind of support, because we haven't really seen that happen too often.

One of the issues for those three senators, an independent and two Republicans, stopped by her news conference and endorse her tax proposal was that it's going to be difficult to override her veto of a flat tax in the Senate.

If those three guys and maybe a couple other Republicans and conservatives bail out on the leadership.

So last last session, a couple of things.

One is, as the speaker mentions, hey, she vetoed ending the the the food tax.

But that's because they they bundle that they put it together with the flat tax.

And sure it was painful that she had she wanted that the end of the food tax and sales tax to end but she hated the flat tax even more.

But last year it almost passed, right?

I mean, the Republicans really came close.

And from my impression not being there, you know, watching as close as you two it was a bit of a shock to have a couple defections.

And now it looks like the reaction to that shock, which was I know, you know, stripping people of some committee chairman's and chairmanships and other sorts of things is only put pushed maybe some people into her camp on this issue, at least enough where it's going to be pretty difficult.

Right.

Personality conflict matters in some of these votes.

But one other thing is that the entire House and Senate is up for reelection this year.

And there's a number of legislators who are running for reelection, and they're just not they're not beholden to leadership's demands of them.

And so you had some people walk away from leadership last year on that tax bill and watch for it this year or two on a whole scope of issues.

Bill, you have something else to add?

I just wanted to throw in another mention of of Kelly's covering all the demographics we forgot to mention the folks that are in retirement, which is a huge constituency out there, particularly, you know, as you get out into rural Kansas, which she seems to be shrewdly targeting as well.

But eliminating the state income tax on Social Security is a huge thing.

So I'm again, I'm curious to see this is a this is a bit of a scattershot approach to appeal to a lot of constituents across the aisle, as witnessed by the bipartisan support of those legislatures that you talked about.

It's if you bundled all that together and that's what you're talking about, Bob, in the past, the Republicans have bundled bills, put a bunch of legislation in together, some of it great, some of it toxic.

And so she's got a whole bundle of tax reforms that she'd like them to consider, But they're never going to hand that to her because they don't want to give a Democrat governor a win.

But they're going to they're going to tack on a bunch of other measures that she would find objectionable.

And so it's this balancing act.

You have the votes you need to make your package work and so that's what we're going to come down to towards the end of the session.

But it is an election year.

And so you would think you would think of not Governor Kelly.

She's she wants to very clear she's never running for public office again.

But you have leadership of the House and Senate that have very clear political aspirations above the legislature.

You would think they'd want to.

If they can't get the flat tax, you would think they want to get something for that reelection to say, yes, of course we cut taxes.

I can't imagine Tammy, you think I'm naive?

I can't imagine if they don't get the flat tax, they're not going to say, all right, number three, for property taxes, either the two or three, which they took last year because there's always next year.

But I really think they need to make some progress on tax reform that's meaningful or they're going to have a difficult time.

Some of these people running for reelection.

Yeah, it'll give their opponents something to talk about.

We're going to move on to Medicaid expansion, and I'll start right off in saying I don't expect that to happen and we can discuss why.

But that being said, Governor Kelly but eight months ago decided she was going to approach this like it could happen and maybe in an alternate reality.

And she's been touring the state touting Medicaid expansion.

We want Medicaid expansion as if and then she did her state of the state, you know, saying here we want Medicaid expansion.

And I say it's an alternate reality because the Republican leadership has not said no.

They've said hell no.

So let's listen to the governor, Kelly, talk about Medicaid expansion, and I'll get your reaction.

Support for Medicaid expansion has grown by leaps and bounds.

We've seen leaders in communities like Hays and Russell, sheriffs and faith leaders, farmers and ranchers, and a cross-section of business leaders jump on the bandwagon.

But I've also heard the opposition's concerns about the cost and about the fairness.

Last month, I proposed a bill that was crafted with their concerns in mind the cutting health care costs for All Kansans Act.

For those of you who are worried that Medicaid expansion will allow able bodied adults to scam the system, the bill includes a work requirement with common sense exemptions for veterans, caregivers, students and people with medical conditions.

For those concerned that county jails have been shouldering the cost for medical care for inmates, this ensures that they can instead put that money towards public safety.

And for those concerned about cost, it's revenue neutral.

It comes at no additional cost to taxpayers.

Once again, health care coverage for 150,000 Kansans cost savings for most everyone.

We protect our rural hospitals, and Kansas taxpayers pay nothing extra.

That's a deal.

Just about anyone would take.

All right, Rachel, she said that's a deal, aboutt anyone would take, politically.

Then I'll go to Bill for the political question on this, too.

Seems like she's covered her bases, right?

Well, look at the face of leadership in the back of that speech.

I was looking at that, but this actually ties in to what we were talking about earlier with the election year is right after she promoted she basically came up with this Medicaid expansion deal with compromises for Republican leadership.

And they said, no, we don't want this.

This is still welfare.

This is smoke and mirrors.

And it will just essentially lead to greater welfare state.

So after that happened, they reject the plan.

Then she says, okay, I'm going to go take a different tact.

We're going to go on the whole election year status of this and pressure all the rank and file Republicans into getting this passed and say, hey, you're up for election, you better work on this or we're going to get you and try and replace those seats.

So she said again, like, we've tried the compromise, now we're going to just try to vote them out if that if nothing else works.

Politically, Bill, as a governor, Democratic governor, Republican state, she does seem to be going out of her way to and again, maybe they won't they won't agree, but to accommodate the concerns of the opposition, right?

Yeah.

Which is I don't know if we saw so much on that clip, but I know watching that she used the term rural constituents, rural your rural counterparts, her citizens over and over hammering the message that how can you walk away from this deal?

You have a great majority of the legislature representing a part of Kansas rural Kansans that would directly benefit from from this expansion.

And so almost in a way saying you you cannot walk away.

It's a deal too good.

And as you pointed out, that leadership sitting behind there, if if they've got if they're if they're trying to play to a national theme of the party and some advocacy groups, that's where the disconnect is coming in, because it certainly doesn't seem to be something that they're listening to the citizens beyond the urban areas.

Well, let's hear the Republican leadership again.

Speaker Hawkins, he's going to he'll tell us why he's not in favor of this on Medicaid expansion.

Republicans also favor lasting solutions that work for our vulnerable populations, things like higher medical reimbursement rates, support for community mental health centers, eliminating the intellectual and developmental disabled, waiting lists, and increasing access to care with support for charitable health care clinics.

These steps actually provide better care without growing the welfare state and dependency.

Limited resources should be reserved for the truly needy instead of siphoning them away to able body adult who don't want to work and and who have access to other health care options.

Now he's he's we heard that in the Brownback years, able bodied adults will be siphoning money off but sounded like in the in the Kelly clip that she addressed that she proposes she not in his she proposed a work requirement for the people being added to Medicaid that they have to prove that they're they have at least a part time job.

And but but it's not clear the federal government will whatever and the Biden administration will require them to actually implement such a thing.

So they the Republicans are saying that offer is disingenuous.

I can't keep coming back to the fact that 40 states have expanded Medicaid under this initiative adopted under Barack Obama and all the states around Kansas.

And I think the there's this bastion in the South that is reluctantly coming to it.

And so Kansas is Missouri is siphoning off medical care providers.

I mean, there's a real problem with being surrounded by the Medicaid expansion states when you're not.

So Kelly is saying, hey, I'll address your objections, which we heard in the Brownback years.

But it really does.

To your point, Rachel, sound like it's more of an ideological, you know, that the objections are there.

Yes.

But from what we heard from that clip from the speaker.

He's just saying, hey, this is this is expanding the welfare state.

Period.

Right, Exactly right.

Like we we constantly hear that rhetoric about the welfare state and one stat we always like to use when reporting Is that a single mother making minimum wage does not qualify for Medicaid or health care from the state government under what we have currently.

So that argument a lot of people find somewhat disingenuous, especially because almost 50% of Kansans fall into a health care coverage gap.

So usually in this show, I'd say you've got 20 seconds, come up with something.

We have a little more time this time, about a minute each, and before the show We talked a bit about some other issues.

So Bill, what's another issue that that caught your eye?

In the budget?

In anything, going on issue and from the governor, from, you know, any time I can combine sports and politics, I'm going to do it.

Bob.

She added $20 million in the budget for the World Cup.

The World Cup!

It's not happening for two years now.

And we've heard some pushback a little bit about, hey, we've my constituency out in south and western Kansas isn't going to benefit.

Why are we putting all this money?

First of all, this is economic development.

This is no different than Panasonic and Tegra.

All the other feathers in her cap that she's brought to job wise, that she's brought to Kansas as as well as her administration.

But also think about the goodwill that we're talking about.

Kansas farm and agricultural products, 5 to $6 billion in exports.

Guess who's playing in the World Cup?

48 countries and of the of the top exporters that we work with and trade with Japan, Canada, Mexico, Korea, all teams, Brazil, Brazil and the most famous soccer country of all will all be here.

And if we can get Taylor Swift to do a commercial with?

Rachel an issue or the thing you'll be watching this session.

Yeah, well, I stay away from sports whenever possible.

So what really got me was Dan Hawkins in his rebuttal to the state of the state.

He said that the Communist China Party is using drones to spy on Kansans.

And I would love love to get more on that.

I have been trying to find out where this come from, why he mentioned it.

That's my big one.

So that's this session we're going to be we'll be looking for you.

And as you dig into the the drone issue.

Tim?

This just goes beyond the session, really.

But I'm waiting to see everyone conclude before the end of the year that Kansas budgeting $45 million for a presidential preference primary on March 19th is a colossal waste of money.

The decision will be made.

Kansas is coming in after Super Tuesday.

We just found out recently here that basically Donald Trump is going to win the nomination and we know Joe Biden will as well.

It's over.

And why in the heck is taxpayer money being spent on this charade of an election in March?

Well, that's all the time we have for this episode of IGI.

If you have any comments or suggestions for future topics, send us an email at issues at KTWU.org.

If you would like to view this program again or any previous episodes of IGI, visit us online at: watch.ktwu.org.

For IGI, I'm Bob Beatty, thanks for watching and thanks to this great panel.

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