The Kansas City Star, July 21
Kansas should press pause in battle over school funding
The constitutional dispute over what is and isn’t a “suitable” education in Kansas continued last week at the state Supreme Court.
Lawyers for several school districts told the judges an additional $488 million for schools during the next two years won’t be enough.
Instead, the lawyers suggested, an additional $900 million would do the trick. Others have argued for $600 million more.
Kansans strongly support their public schools. Years of underfunding and unfair income tax reductions have hurt a generation of students.
Yet it may be time for the state and the judges to pause for a year or two to see if the $488 million infusion, coupled with a new formula for disbursing the money, will work.
We don’t say this lightly.
The state Supreme Court plays an essential role in determining what is and isn’t a constitutional education in Kansas. If the Legislature and the governor agreed to spend, say, $20 on the state’s schools, the court would clearly need to step in.
At the same time, the judges must be keenly aware that taxpayers’ ability to pay for education has a limit. They must find the sweet spot - somewhere between $20 and $20 billion - in order to meet their own responsibilities.
To find that balance, the judges consider evidence. Kansans should be confident the court has reached past decisions on that basis.
But lawmakers listen to evidence, too. They consult with experts. They listen to arguments for and against additional school spending.
Unlike judges, though, legislators must consider school spending in the context of other state needs and the demand on taxpayers.
This year, legislators approved a two-year tax hike of $1.2 billion. Telling them to consider another increase would be an extraordinarily aggressive decision.
We hope the judges won’t take that step. School districts, even those with poorer students, need certainty in their budgets.
Let’s see how the new formula and spending work out. Then, Kansans can be heard at the ballot box in 2018. We’re confident voters will make a choice as wise as the state’s highest court.
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The Lawrence Journal-World, July 24
Kansans are not well served by a pay policy that essentially restricts who can be a legislator.
It would be reasonable for the Kansas Legislature to pursue a pay increase in a future session.
Legislators currently earn about $8,000 in salary plus $142 per day in expenses when the Legislature is in session. The low pay has been cited as a significant contributing factor in the increasing age of the members of the Legislature.
The median age of a Kansas legislator is 60.4 years. Of the 165 current members of the Kansas House and Senate, only 12 are younger than 40, and only 32 active legislators are younger than 50.
And the Legislature’s younger generation is losing a member in 33-year-old John Wilson, a Lawrence state representative who announced on the final day of the 2017 session that he would resign his seat after 2.5 terms in office.
“I think there’s a reason why there aren’t a lot of 30-something lawmakers like me,” said Wilson, the fourth-youngest member of the Legislature. “We’re starting our families and building our careers. And let’s be honest. How many employers are as generous as mine that allows me to work part-time for five or six months - or seven months, or whatever it’s going to be - out of every single year? There’s not many.”
Lawrence Republican Rep. Tom Sloan who, at 71, ranks 14th from the top on the age list, said the current structure effectively limits who can participate.
“By category, the largest group of legislators are retired,” Sloan said. “Then I would say the second largest group are supported by someone else. In other words you have a spouse, or a brother maintains the farm.”
Kansas is not unique in only paying its legislators for days when the Legislature is in session, but at $88.66 per calendar day, Kansas has one of the lowest rates in the country. Among some of the higher rates, Kentucky pays $188.22 per day, and Utah pays $273 per day, according to information from the Council of State Governments. Many states pay lawmakers a regular annual salary, ranging from $7,200 in Texas to $104,118 in California.
Legislators are recognizably hesitant to enhance their pay, especially when the state faces a budget crisis like Kansas has in recent sessions. But Kansans are not well served by a pay policy that restricts who can represent them in the Legislature. Increasing legislative pay should be a priority in the next session.
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The Topeka Capital-Journal, July 22
Working together to combat human trafficking
Our community has done an excellent job coordinating anti-trafficking efforts
While it’s extremely difficult to get accurate data on the scale of human trafficking in the world, the International Labour Organization (a specialized U.N. agency) estimates that profits from forced labor and human trafficking were around $150 billion five years ago. Almost $100 billion was generated by sex trafficking and exploitation alone. This means human trafficking is the third-largest criminal activity in the world - there were just under 21 million victims as of 2012, but this number has almost certainly grown since then.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security defines human trafficking as “modern-day slavery” - a horror many people can’t even imagine in 2017 (particularly in countries like ours). However, the ILO ranks “developed economies and EU” second only to the Asia-Pacific region in “annual profits of forced labor per region.” While there are far more trafficking victims in Asia-Pacific countries, traffickers in that region only bring in an annual profit of around $5,000 per victim. In more developed countries, this number surges to almost $35,000. It’s also clear why sexual exploitation is so common - sex traffickers make an average of $21,800 per victim every year. Labor exploitation is the second most lucrative at $4,800 per victim.
While it may be unpleasant to read through these numbers - these prices on human lives - it’s important to understand this disgusting enterprise as thoroughly as we can. And it’s essential to recognize that human trafficking isn’t confined to other parts of the world - it’s happening right here in Kansas.
This is why we’re grateful that public officials, law enforcement agencies and nonprofits are battling human trafficking in our state every day. In the last fiscal year alone, more than 1,000 Kansas police officers received training on how to identify and combat human trafficking - training that half of the law enforcement officers in the state have undergone since 2013. In Shawnee County, law enforcement agencies have been working with organizations such as the YWCA Center for Safety and Empowerment, the Topeka Rescue Mission, Washburn University, USD 501 and local health care providers to assist victims and expose trafficking operations.
Between 30 and 40 organizations comprise the Topeka Shawnee County Human Trafficking Coalition, which was established in May 2016. This collaborative approach to addressing human trafficking is vital because so many different parts of our community can contribute. Our police officers know what to look for, our health care providers are better informed about victim services and advocates in Topeka, groups like the Rescue Mission and the Center for Safety and Empowerment have stronger connections with law enforcement, etc.
Gov. Sam Brownback and our lawmakers have taken an aggressive line on human trafficking, as well. After both chambers of the Legislature unanimously approved Senate Bill 40 this session, Brownback signed it last month. The bill created the crimes of “promoting travel for child exploitation, internet trading in child pornography and aggravated internet trading in child pornography.” These measures will make Kansas a more dangerous state for traffickers.
Since the Center for Safety and Empowerment started tracking the number of trafficking victims in 2014, the number has increased every year. Last year, the Topeka Rescue Mission reported that the number of survivors seeking assistance doubled from 2015. It’s clear that our state is right to make the resistance to this heinous crime a major priority.
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The Wichita Eagle, July 18
Editorial: Sen. Jerry Moran’s interesting 24 hours
Jerry Moran began last Tuesday as a hero to Kansas moderates, the Sunflower State Republican who took a stand against a second Senate health care bill by criticizing “the closed-door process.”
He listened to his constituents, they figured, being one of the few senators to have a town-hall meeting during the July 4 recess.
Which makes the rest of that Tuesday so oddly interesting.
Half a day after effectively killing the health care bill with Utah Sen. Mike Lee, Moran said he would support a vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act - with a two-year delay and no plan to replace it. It was the Republicans’ plan for Day 1 of the Trump administration, but it went nowhere.
Three other Republican senators said they wouldn’t support a vote to repeal Obamacare, possibly ending another round of drama, though Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said a vote could still come.
Moran noted a repeal should “be followed by an open legislative process to craft health care policy that will provide greater personal choice, protections for pre-existing conditions, increased access and lower overall costs for Kansans.”
He didn’t see that in the GOP’s second bill. Nor the first, when he held a July 6 town-hall meeting in Palco (population less than 300). The youth center there was made to accommodate 65 people. About 150 showed up.
Some were from Rooks County; many others made drives from Wichita, Kansas City and elsewhere to get their one chance to tell Moran what they thought of the first bill. Though he made no indication what he heard there influenced his decision to opposing the second bill Monday, it had to be in the back of his mind.
The rejections by Moran and Lee were the start of another wild week in the health care carnival. A bill that was getting support in the teens has died. The votes aren’t there yet for a repeal-only solution. Calls from both sides are beginning for bipartisan study of health care.
Moran has done enough to make many Kansans happy and ticked off at the same time.
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