A more conservative Kansas Legislature renews pursuit of abortion limits, tax cuts
The Kansas Legislature will reconvene Monday for a session likely to be defined by two things: a more conservative membership and a still-raging, politically divisive COVID-19 pandemic.
Lawmakers’ first job will probably be to extend or amend the Kansas Emergency Management Act, which limits Gov. Laura Kelly’s power to manage the pandemic. Republicans will also renew their pursuit of tax cuts and a constitutional amendment allowing restrictions on abortion.
These measures fell short in the House of Representatives last year. But with the exit of some Democrats and moderate Republicans, unseated by more conservative lawmakers, GOP leaders say they see a clearer path forward.
“Those were the primary issues in the primaries of 2020, and the people clearly chose a particular direction on those,” Senate President Ty Masterson said.
Abortion
The anti-abortion “Value Them Both Amendment” is an early priority, Masterson and House Majority Leader Ron Ryckman said.
The measure seeks to place before voters a constitutional amendment establishing that Kansas law does not guarantee the right to abortion. It passed in the Senate but fell short of the required two-thirds majority in the House as four moderate Republicans joined Democrats in opposition. The amendment’s name refers to supporters’ interest in protecting both mothers and unborn children.
Passage became increasingly likely after all four moderate Republicans lost their seats to more conservative lawmakers in August’s primaries.
“The most striking thing that’s different is we have a different Legislature. We have different people that were elected to be in the House,” said Wichita Republican Rep. Susan Humphries. “I think that the election gave us an indication where the state is.”
Rep. Stephanie Clayton, an Overland Park Democrat, said that unless more Republicans cross party lines, the amendment will pass.
“That’s because you know, unfortunately, a lot of people in the Kansas City area didn’t turn out to vote for moderate Republicans in the primaries, so when you don’t vote in primaries, this is what happens,” she said.
Supporters of the measure say it guarantees lawmakers the ability to regulate abortion after the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the state constitution guarantees a woman’s right to end her pregnancy. Opponents, however, argue that the amendment allows lawmakers to strip women of their right to abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.
“Given the fact that the makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court has shifted so dramatically over the past few years there are serious concerns about the future of (Roe v Wade),” said Rachel Sweet, regional director of public policy and organizing at Planned Parenthood Great Plains. “The right to abortion in our state constitution is still important. There are restrictive policies already in place that make it harder for people to access care.”
Jeanne Gawdun, director of government relations for Kansans for Life, said the regulations protected by the amendment are meant to help women and the unborn, not ban all abortion.
“Kansans know that unlimited abortion hurts women and babies, and they support reasonable regulations on the abortion industry, such as no taxpayer funding, parental notification for minor’s abortions, full informed consent for women, and minimum health and safety standards for abortion facilities,” Gawdun said in an email.
Emergency management
The Kansas Emergency Management Act, passed over the summer to sharply limit Kelly’s emergency powers during the COVID-19 pandemic and shift decision-making to county governments, is set to expire along with a state of emergency on Jan. 26.
By that time, lawmakers will need to extend or alter the measure.
Kelly told the Associated Press last month that ceding so much power to local government was a mistake.
“I would hope that rather than look at this through a political lens, that they would really look at it through lessons learned,” she said. “If they look back, one of the things we learned is that a patchwork approach to a pandemic does not work.”
Her spokeswoman, Lauren Fitzgerald, reiterated that sentiment in a statement.
“To guide our state’s recovery, Kansas must be able to leverage a comprehensive response to COVID-19 — anything less would be harmful to our economy and public health,” the statement said.
Ryckman and Masterson disagreed with that assessment.
“We believe that the locals know their communities better than the folks in Topeka do,” Ryckman said.
Masterson said lawmakers should extend the order before working out details.
Rep. John Carmichael, ranking minority member on the House Judiciary committee, acknowledged that many in both parties objected to the existing legislation. He said the bill should be extended nevertheless in the event that lawmakers have to recess — as they did last year — because of the pandemic. Fred Patton, the chair of the committee, agreed.
“We need to, rather than anticipating that this will be business as usual, we need to get in. We need to extend the emergency management act and we need to recess until members are vaccinated because otherwise we are creating a super spreader event in Topeka, Kansas,” Carmichael said.
The Legislature has set up several additional precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 through social distancing, sanitation and testing. Mask use, however will not be required.
Ryckman, of Olathe, said he opposed a mask mandate but believed 95% of lawmakers in the House would wear masks.
Tax cuts
With a more conservative supermajority, Masterson and Ryckman said they would revisit tax cuts vetoed by Kelly in 2019. The leaders pointed to the measure as a way to spark the state’s economic recovery from COVID-19.
“This is the decoupling, letting Kansans take advantage of the Federal cuts that happened two years ago,” Masterson said.
The measures, which would have reduced the state’s revenues by $245 million over three years, sought to lower the state’s food sales tax, one of the nation’s highest. It allowed Kansans to itemize deductions on their state tax returns, regardless of whether they did so on federal forms, and permitted multinational corporations to return overseas profits to Kansas without taxes.
When Kelly vetoed the measure, she said it would “decimate the state’s ability to pay our bills and invest in our people” just as the state was recovering from deficits left by former Gov. Sam Brownback.
In a statement, her spokeswoman said the governor would not say whether she’d sign the bill until she reviewed it. However, Fitzgerald said, the governor is focused on investing in services, such as education, to help Kansans recover from the pandemic.
“The economic recovery of the state is the Governor’s top priority. Dangerous tax experiments will push us backward — not forward,” Fitzgerald said.
This story was originally published January 11, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
