Legislative Update - Jan. 31

The secret lives of turtles, the flexible habitat of congressional candidates, Fentanyl testing strips, and tax shenanigans - like every year.

This week, I’m going to rely heavily on images and videos to relay a message about what happened in the Kansas Capitol this week.

But before anything else, I want to make sure you know about Dr. Benjamin Reed, who testified in the House Agriculture Committee about the plight of the Ornate Box Turtle.

Regular readers and listeners know that I had Rep. Jim Gartner on last week to talk about his bill to protect the Ornate Box Turtle from collection and foreign sales to people who want to use them as garden decorations.

The hearing on this bill was Thursday, and we had great people offering great testimony on the matter. I won’t go into a ton of detail, but trust me when I say it’s worth spending a few minutes watching this testimony from Dr. Reed. Not only will you learn something you didn’t know - you’ll enjoy the experience of seeing someone who is knowledgeable, passionate, and authentic share his love of turtles and why you should care about them too.

Here’s Dr. Reed’s testimony (I didn’t have time to much clean up on the videos, so I apologize they aren’t as edited as I’d like).

Math-y maps for the win

The Senate hastily pushed out new congressional maps, sending them quickly over to the House which summarily approved them as well - sending them to the Governor for her approval or veto.

Along the way, we heard about the value of math - and how drawing maps was little more than a math problem. It seems, however, that the legislature skipped over the basic lessons of addition and subtraction as it drafted maps that will last the next 10 years. It also appears that none of us has remembered a single thing from our middle school civics class - because the map that emerged - and the map that was anointed by the ruling party’s leadership - failed even the most basic tests of fairness.

The Ad Astra 2 map draws the city of Lawrence into the first district - setting the stage for a fun time as the more liberal population in Lawrence finds itself intertwined with the conservative elements of the far corners of Western Kansas. Likewise, Wyandotte County - the state’s most densely populated and ethnically diverse county finds itself roped in with the rural counties of Southeast Kansas - since they both have so much in common.

Anytime a district looks like a snake on the move, it’s probably dubious. When the people who drew it protest too much that it’s absolutely and unquestionably fair, it is most certainly not.

Also telling was how when I introduced my map - dubbed Prairie Dog - the arguments from opponents about why this map was unworkable sounded quite familiar to what we’ve heard from the Kansas City area. While the ruling party has jumped through the proverbial hoops to explain why Wyandotte County belongs in the same district as Mulberry and Walnut, Kansas, and why Lawrence belongs in the same district as Cheyenne and Morton Counties - they vehemently countered that the urban area of Wichita has nothing in common with Elkhart or Liberal - and that drawing a 4th Congressional district that did exactly that simply didn’t make any sense at all.

The business of drawing maps might be partisan, but it doesn’t need to be unfair, abusive, or disingenuous. And if we in positions of government ever wonder why there’s so much apathy and disenchantment with the work we do, we need look no further than the abomination that is these maps - passed off as a fair and genuine attempt to solve a math problem.

Here’s the end of my remarks during the House debate. If you feel like drowning your Chiefs loss sorrows in legislative debate, I’ve included the full version below this shorter version.

The full version - again, I didn’t have time to edit out all my smooth jazz and classical music YouTube playlists. ;)

I’ve always argued that this isn’t a job that should be done by lawmakers - and after this experience, I’m more certain of it than ever.

I also know that while an overwhelming majority in the House and Senate supported these congressional maps, my guess is that they might be a little more likely to be sticklers for the rules when it comes to efforts to gerrymander their house districts.

For example, I’ve included three maps below:

Above is the map drawn by the League of Women Voters of Kansas.

The map above redraws the 4th Congressional District into Southwest Kansas - which drew protest from the same people who did the same thing to KC Metro.

This is the map that passed. It puts Wyandotte County in the 2nd District, and carves out Lawrence to put it in the 1st District.

Fentanyl Testing Strips and overdose deaths

There’s a hearing next Tuesday in Senate Judiciary on HB2277 - a bill that adjusts the definition of possession. Last year, the Kansas House amended the bill on a voice vote to include a change the law of paraphernalia - by simply making sure it wasn’t a crime to possess fentanyl testing strips.

The evidence on this is clear - overdose deaths are on a dramatic rise across the country and in Kansas. And most of them can be attributed to fentanyl, which is a growing concern in the drug enforcement community. The DEA sent out an alert recently about the alarming number of counterfeit prescription pills that contain fentanyl. A small amount of the drug can be fatal, and most aren’t aware that the substance is in a pill or drug. Allowing access to testing will save lives - and it’s a step the legislature can, and should, take. It doesn’t make using drugs easier, nor does it lessen the penalties at all. It simply provides a way for people to have a fuller picture of the drug that’s in front of them.

We can make judgements about people who use drugs, about addicts, about kids who are experimenting, all we want. But the truth is that we know much more today about the roots of addiction than we did a generation ago. We are dealing with a completely new and dangerous substance. And we know that many former addicts move into recovery - where they lead full and complete lives - working, raising families, paying taxes, buying houses, and enriching their communities. But they can’t do any of that if they die because they unknowingly ingested a fatal amount of fentanyl.

Here’s a really good story that published Sunday on the issue.

Here’s the story about a 16-year old who died from mistakenly taking a pill with Fentanyl.

Here’s the information on HB 2277.

And here’s a really interesting conversation I had with Jacci Espinosa, who is in active recovery and now works to help others.

Taxing conversation

There’s a bill out there with the catchy name of APEX. It looks like some exciting company might have a soft spot for Kansas, and is willing to invest more than $1 billion and create thousands of jobs - so long as we’re willing to demonstrate in statute our commitment to a long-term relationship.

But on the Senate side of things, it seems the usual suspects can’t help themselves when it comes to doling out corporate tax cuts. Inside of what was originally an incentive bill to lure this company to Kansas, our esteemed Senators inserted language to progressively reduce the corporate income tax rate to zero.

Meanwhile, it seems most members of the ruling majority have forgotten the reckless abandon they carried in 2012 when they decided to raise sales taxes - twice - to pay for tax cuts for all their buddies. Now, many of those same people are gravely concerned about eliminating the state’s sales tax on food in a year when we’re looking at a nearly $3 billion surplus. Thus far, the effort has been delayed and toyed with - because there seems to be some new-found concern about budgets, tax policy, and what all that might mean in the out years.

Here’s a column I wrote about the state food sales tax for the paper, and a column I posted here when it was first introduced.

I don’t care where your politics lie - an unfair process delivers an unfair result, and this chronic abuse of power has led to general apathy of our democracy. We could’ve put more thought to our deliberations and drawn a better map. If we have the will, we can find a way to help the people of Kansas in a real and meaningful way - including cutting taxes for working families. When it comes to people oriented policy, it seems the only thing standing in the way, is the Kansas legislature.

Upcoming events

There’s a legislative forum scheduled for next Saturday, Feb. 5 at the Stringer Fine Arts Center. It will start at 8:30 a.m. and last until 10 a.m.