Sunset Zoo’s education center played host to yet another monthly legislative coffee on Saturday morning. The event began at 7:30 and featured four area legislative leaders: Senator, Tom Hawk; Representative of the 66th District, Sydney Carlin; Representative of the 67th District, Tom Phillips; and Representative of the 64th District, Susie Swanson.
The first topic addressed by the legislators was revenue enhancements, including the most obvious form: taxes. Phillips commented he only wants to increase taxes if he feels it will be a long term solution. He said he doesn’t want to kick the can down the road by filling gaps with taxes if they aren’t going to truly fix the issues.
Medicaid expansions and KPERS were two other popular topics. Swanson recently attended a few medicaid expansion hearings. She commented on something she learned during these hearings: “if the speaker of the house doesn’t want it to be heard, it won’t be”.
The KPERS concerns segwayed into discussing the future of Kansas State University funds. With the recent 3.3 million dollar cut that K-State could face, the legislators were asked to predict the future of university funding.
Carlin said she hopes for negotiations so they don’t have to take the full 3.3 million dollars. A portion of this large chunk of funding would go to Pittsburg State University.
“I’m really nervous”, said Hawk. He said if the vote on Monday is successful, the large cut is imminent. Hawk commended both K-State President, Kirk Schulz and K-State Director of Governmental Relations, Sue Peterson on their legislative efforts to work against these types of cuts.
The next legislative coffee will be held on Saturday, April 25th at the Union Pacific Train Depot.
