The Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce held its first Legislative Coffee Saturday morning at the Sunset Zoo in Manhattan.
Several State Representatives including Sydney Carlin, Ron Highland, Tom Phillips, Vern Swanson, and Senator Tom Hawk, made their way to the Zoo’s Nature Exploration Center bright and early to talk about the ongoing Legislative Session.
One of the major talking points centered around the status of funding for education in Kansas. Representative Sydney Carlin of Manhattan said that law makers are still waiting for a decision from the Kansas Supreme Court on the issue, but doesn’t think the legislature will be able to provide more funding for education anyway.
“I don’t believe it is the legislature’s intent to provide more money for schools and I don’t know what the decision is going to be, so that is a big concern,” said Carlin. “We are going to have a very difficult time providing more money for schools because of all the cuts that have been made in our income tax structure.”
Representative Tom Phillips of Manhattan said law makers should work on adequately funding both public education and higher education in Kansas, but said it all depends on the Supreme Court’s decision. “It’s going to be very murky until the court case ruling comes down. We just don’t know what that’s going to do to our budgeting process. And that’s why we’re all kind of apprehensive about when they’re going to give the ruling and what the outcome is going to be”
When will the Supreme Court hand down a decision? It’s anyone’s guess at this point, but Carlin and Phillips believe it’ll be a Friday morning.
———–
Jobs
Saturday’s meeting also included discussion about the state of the economy in Kansas, and Representative Carlin expressed concern with data from the Department of Labor showing that Kansas lost 7,500 jobs last month and 16,000 since 2011. “We have the biggest job loss of any state in the nation other than Pennsylvania and New Jersey.”
Carlin attributes the job loss to a lack of focus on spending money to make Kansas an inviting place to live. “I see the energy in the state level is cutting expenses and we have cut things that hurt people. When we hurt people, it doesn’t invite people. Why would you come?”
Representative Phillips said the job loss numbers are attributed to several factors including the poor performance in the airline industry, the lingering effects of the economic recession and the drought. “Wichita is one of our biggest concern areas because of the airline industry, and that’s a cyclical industry. Until the national and international start coming up and the demand for airplanes grows, that area of the state will probably continue to struggle.”
Phillips does see signs of growth in Kansas and said he doesn’t think it’ll be long until Kansas re-gains its strength. “I think Johnson County is starting to see some grown indicators. The drought, there are other factors that are going to determine whether it will be a successful year in the agricultural industry. I think there are indicators we’re starting to turn the corner, but we’re certainly not out of the woods.”
———–
HB 2453
The group didn’t spend much time discussing the controversial “Religious Freedom” bill that made its way through the House on Tuesday. However the general consensus was that it wouldn’t pass through the Senate.
Representative Phillips said he is a strong proponent of individual liberties and religious freedom, but feels the bill goes too far in allowing discrimination based on someone’s sexual preferences. “Even though I had to stand up and vote against my own party and my own leadership, I think they recognized after a day or two of reassessment that this bill needs to be re-worked and re-thought and I think that’s what’s going to happen.”
Representative Carlin doesn’t support HB 2453 because she believes its discriminatory. She also said the “Religious Freedom” bill, is unnecessary because the Kansas Constitution already has the strongest protections for religious freedoms of any state in the U.S. “If you have deep, sincere religious feelings, you can be allowed under our Constitution to express those.
Does Carlin think HB 2453 will pass through Senate? “Well I think it’s not going to go through. I believe that the Senate president has seen the of its ways.”
