Wichita-area Legislators Hear From Citizens Before Session Starts

Wichita-area Legislators Hear From Citizens Before Session Starts

Citizens from South Central Kansas gave their legislators plenty of ideas and opinions to take to Topeka for the upcoming 2010 Legislative session. State Representatives and Senators from Wichita and the surrounding area listened as 31 citizens expressed their interests and opinions for nearly two hours Tuesday evening in the jury room of the Sedgwick County Courthouse in Wichita.

Legislators will hear from several governments and interest groups Thursday afternoon during their annual meeting at Wichita State University. The public is also invited to attend Thursday’s meeting but will not be allowed to address the delegation.

Speakers at Tuesday’s meeting addressed a broad range of topics and nearly all thanked the delegation for their service. Many said they recognized the challenges legislators face in balancing the state’s budget during tough economic times.

Concerns about judicial corruption and children unnecessarily taken from their families by state agencies were the most common topics. About a third of the speakers asked for better checks on the state’s judicial system. Some made allegations of corruption and called for granting subpoena power to the Government Efficiency and Fiscal Oversight Committee chaired by Rep. Jim Morrison, (R-Colby) or creation of a citizen’s grand jury independent of the judiciary.

Several speakers said too many children are being taken from their parents by judges and state agencies. A few said a profit motive was involved and alleged collusion with contractors to garner childcare payments from parents as well as money from state and federal sources.

A recent Legislative Post Audit report (pdf) examined allegations that Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS) workers were “bullied” by district attorney’s offices. The audit found that about 80% of social workers statewide didn’t feel pressured to distort their reports but in Sedgwick County about half felt that way.

Recent hearings by the Joint Committee on Children’s Issues heard statistics and examples illustrating the problem.  Rep. Bill Otto (R-LeRoy) told KansasWatchdog, “the State of Kansas takes children away from parents — severing their parental rights — when the parent in question has committed no crime.  The child has committed no crime.  But they just didn’t do what the nanny state told them to. I think I need to do something about that.”

Possible tax increases were also on the minds of citizens addressing the delegation. Kip Schroeder of Wichita said it would be hard for legislators to balance the budget without tax increases as private sector employment falls and public sector employment increases. “I ask that as you go (to Topeka) you allow us the opportunity to persevere through adversity, that you not raise our taxes under any circumstances.”

John Todd, representing Americans for Prosperity, asked legislators to not raise taxes. “This is not a time to raise taxes on businesses and families that are struggling to pay their bills and trying to maintain their jobs. Economic recovery will come from the private sector, particularly small businesses that don’t need a rollback of hard-fought tax relief gained in previous legislative sessions.”

Kansas Policy Institute President Dave Trabert summarized recent research showing significant opportunities for savings through increasing efficiency and spending down cash balances before cutting services or raising taxes.

Several speakers asked legislators to cease or reduce funding for Planned Parenthood.

Speakers were uniformly courteous, though one speaker gave the delegation an earful of criticism. He named and facetiously thanked several members of the delegation for their votes in the last session against coal-fired electric plants in Western Kansas and in favor of wind-generated power, votes he blamed for rising electric bills.

“What were you thinking? Haven’t any of you toured electric plants? Didn’t any of you know the drawbacks of wind power? Did you know how much electricity costs from any power source?” He reminded legislators that wind-powered electric generators are heavily subsidized by taxpayers and that wind, even in Kansas, is not a reliable source of electricity.

Rep. Melody McCray-Miller (D-Wichita), who chaired the forum, extended the meeting beyond its scheduled 8:30 p.m. wrap-up to allow all who sighed up to speak to do so. The last speaker, Paul Rhodes of Wichita, thanked the legislators and noted the many hard decisions they would face in the upcoming session.

Rhodes, in effect, summarized the tenor of the preceding speakers by asking that legislators reduce the tax burden on citizens, provide better access to justice for all and “correction of high crimes under the color of law.”

“My belief is that under every bad economy is a moral or ethical problem. Some say the opposite of love is hate. The opposite of love is indifference.”