Both sides worked to fix a KPERS problem, but Republicans push to take all the credit

Imagine a work situation where a decision is made by your co-workers that you strongly oppose. But eventually, it comes to a point where everyone acknowledges that decision was a mistake (for the same reasons why you originally objected). Fortunately, everyone comes together unanimously to work to fix it.

Fair and honorable? No. Is that the way the game is played in Topeka by the House majority leader, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and others in Republican leadership in the Kansas Legislature? Yes.

Back in June of 2015, the Legislature skipped out on making the state’s fourth quarter payment to KPERS, the state pension fund, with the promise it would be made up in the first quarter of the next fiscal year. It wasn’t.

At the time, our state revenues had been repeatedly tanking year after year, with shortfalls to the tune of $600,000 to $700,000 because of the supply-side tax cuts targeted to the wealthy that were Brownback’s tax policy. Those tax cuts had been made with the promise that they would spur enough growth to make up the gap. But instead, Kansas declined by almost every economic measure when compared to surrounding states and the national average.

In 2015, protecting the tax policy was a higher priority for a majority of Republicans than fulfilling the state’s commitment to state workers, so they defaulted on making that fourth quarter payment to KPERS. Then in 2016, they did it a second time. Each time the debt was added to the balance of the unfunded actuarial liability of the KPERS pension fund. Several moderate Republicans and all of the Democrats in the House opposed the actions, me included.

Last week, both the House and the Senate voted unanimously to pay the missed $90 million KPERS payment from 2016 in one lump sum (except by now it had grown larger with interest to $115 million).

But now, the same Republicans who led the move to short KPERS in 2015 and 2016 are attempting to take all the credit by posting memes on social media with headlines, in all capital letters: “Kansas Republicans lead the charge to protect retirement incomes for public employees,” and “Under Republican leadership, Kansas House passed SB 9: 116-0, protecting retirement incomes for public employees.”

Some are speculating about an impure motive behind the Republican leadership’s change of heart. Was it done with the intent of using up our ending balance, thus coming up short of paying the final money needed to resolve the Kansas Supreme Court’s ruling on school finance, which is to come up with a method to keep K-12 funding up with inflation? Was it done to enhance the future campaigns of those in leadership who intend to run for Congress?

Another meme suggests the move was made in an attempt to embarrass the governor. Kelly has adopted a triage method of dealing with all the of negative fallout from the fiscal irresponsibility of the prior administration, and making this lump sum payment to KPERS was not a priority in her fiscal plan — although as a longtime supporter of KPERS, she gave her approval to all Senate and House Democrats to vote for the measure.

Despite what feels like an unfair slap in the face by my colleagues, I will follow our governor’s lead and remain committed to doing all that I can to work across the aisle to solve the challenges before our state. Much can be forgiven if others will genuinely commit to placing the interests of our state first before this type of political gamesmanship going forward.

Isn’t that the best way to govern — with integrity?