Dave Trabert, author for the Kansas Policy Institute - a right wing Kansas local think tank took to his online blog to declare the Kansas Legislature was prepared to abdicate their duty.
http://cjonline.com/...
A very sad but not uncommon process is playing out right now in the Kansas Legislature that is designed to avoid transparency and prevent citizens from knowing exactly where their elected representatives stand on important issues.
Legislators were publicly encouraged yesterday in the House Republican caucus to allow this stripped-down version to go to conference to avoid a series of “gotcha votes.” It wasn’t put in these terms, but legislators were essentially asked to subvert the full legislative process for their own re-election purposes...and possibly prevent some from having a say in tax policy.
Trabert, who has argued for across the board cuts instead of taxes is contending has contended that the move by Kansas Legislators to check out of the process was clearly political cowardice as Republicans refused to make the kind of cuts that the right wing favors.
Republicans took turns bashing Governor Brownback for his lack of stewardship on the tax and budget issue:
Sen. Melcher (Johnson County), took turns in caucus railing against his fellow Republicans for refusing to take the hard votes and leadership from the governor offering no plan. With Sen. Wagle (R-Wichita) telling the conference that Republicans in the house did not - under almost any circumstances - to be forced to take line votes on issues, it would be important for them to get the bill to a conference committee so there would be a straight up or down vote.
Sen. Wagle, citing the concerns over future elections, especially amongst freshman senators led Sen. Melcher to comment: "We're doing this to save the freshmen? They are the ones who caused this mess." While Sen. Melchers comment was satisifying, it failed to account for the fact that the Kansas Freshmen were not in office when the 2012 budget, so it is not likely they were responsible for the current mess in the Kansas state house. Instead, what Melcher was referring to was the lack of interest by moderate and conservative elected (R)s in the house to enact broad new taxes on agriculture interests, which Sen. Melcher told the caucus "must be changed for us to move forward".
The contentious morning, however, came to a quick stop as house Democrats did the unexpected - the folded their tent and went home.
House Democrats had been expected to run a series of amendments on the budget bill, in order to get Republicans on the record with votes on issues such as sales tax reduction on food. However, house Democrats in a surprise decided to sit on their hands and let the legislation move toward to a conference committee rather than get Republicans on the record on the issues.
http://www.kansas.com/...
House Minority Leader Tom Burroughs, D-Kansas City, defended his decision to help GOP leaders avoid debate, arguing that lawmakers were putting policy ahead of politics.
“We may not always like the process, but at least we’re finally making progress,” he said in a statement.
Not all Democrats were happy with this decision:
http://www.kansas.com/...
“I would say it was an act of legislative cowardice,” said Rep. John Carmichael, D-Wichita, one of the only lawmakers to oppose the motions. “It was an example of legislators avoiding their responsibility.”
“Our constituents will never know where legislators really stand on these issues unless we debate these issues on the House floor in public,” Carmichael continued. “And what took place here today is an attempt, sadly I fear on the part of both parties, to obfuscate the issues so the electorate doesn’t really know who voted for what, when and where.”
Several moderate Republicans pointed out they were shocked - and resigned to the outcome, given the sudden change in Democratic tactics in the house, which put continued debate at an end.
A conference committee will now meet and craft the official budget for the state, a budget that cannot be presented for amendments and will not be altered. Through this process, Republicans and Democrats effectively avoid ever taking on the record votes about specific issues regarding budget or tax policy, a decision designed to help them with their election efforts.
This is viewed as a solid win by Republicans who wanted to avoid any votes; who had lobbied so heavily in their caucus to avoid votes in the house that members commented openly:
That groundswell of "We do NOT want a vote on the record" was persuasive enough that without leadership from Democratic opposition, the Republicans managed to get their wish despite their internal fractures.
Today at 11AM, Governor Brownback has announced he will release his "new budget plan" that most expect to become the defacto conference committee report, thereby rendering the legislature a rubber stamp for a budget they haven't seen or debated.