That Podcast in Hutch - Tom Sawyer

And a smattering of first-week legislative news and updates

This week’s edition of That Podcast in Hutch features Rep. Tom Sawyer, who represents the 95th House District in Wichita, and currently serves as the House Minority Leader.

Since I’ll be spending most of my time in Topeka for the next several months, I hauled some recording gear up with me and will try to keep the show running during the legislative session.

For this episode, I visit with Tom about his years of experience in the Kansas Legislature, as well as his involvement in politics from a young age. He’s full of good stories, and we barely scratch the surface. But I think you’ll enjoy hearing his perspective on the changes he’s seen throughout the years.

To listen to my visit with Tom, subscribe to That Podcast in Hutch at Salt City Sound or on your favorite podcast streaming service.

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News from Topeka

The first week of the session is generally slow moving, with a smattering of events to mark the start of a new legislative year.

Tuesday night, Gov. Laura Kelly delivered her fourth State of the State Address. It was a hopeful speech, that touched heavily on the values that have shaped Kansans for years - steadiness during tough times, working through challenges, responsibility, and hope in a better tomorrow.

In addition to being the sort-of kick off to the new session, the speech also marks the introduction of the governor’s budget. You can go through the budget here. If you want the Cliff’s Notes version, go here.

What’s drawn the most attention is the governor’s plan to eliminate the state sales tax on groceries, popularly known as “Axe the Tax.” Her budget also calls for a one-time rebate of $250 to individual taxpayers - $500 per couple - that would be paid out this year. The food sales tax cut is expected to cost around $450 million, and the rebate around $460 million. This will all be financed through a revenue surplus that’s estimated to be upwards $3 billion. That’s billion. With a B.

Here’s the speech if you want to watch.

And here is the response to the speech from Speaker of the House, Ron Ryckman.

You can watch, and there’s about a 100 percent chance people will think whatever they want to think. But I’m going to address a couple of things from the Republican response that beg for correction.

On the claim that the governor vetoed income and food sales tax cuts before: Yes, yes she did. Because what the Republican legislature passed was not really a food sales tax or huge income tax cut - it was a fraction of the overall sales tax on food, and an income tax cut on the wealthiest taxpayers in Kansas. And as is quite common in this building, it was bundled with a bunch of corporate tax cuts - so that they can give their donors what they want, and at the same time print post cards that say the governor or whoever they don’t like the legislature voted against tax cuts. It’s old and tired.

Now that the governor is proposing a total elimination of the state’s tax on groceries, the majority party has suddenly developed grave concerns about what might happen if we cut taxes too fast. We all might have wished they’d possessed such forethought when they worked to eliminate income tax for the state’s wealthiest corporations. And let’s not ever forget that your sales tax was raised twice so these same people could give money away to wealthy corporations. It seems that everyday I learn about some new tax or fee being paid that was put in place to help pay for that Brownback tax cut.

On the claim that the governor used state tax money to pay unemployment benefits to overseas fraudsters: Well, it was mostly federal money, since the feds stood up new programs at the outset of the pandemic. And it was those new programs that were ripe for abuse - largely because Republicans deep-sixed efforts years ago to modernize the unemployment system to make it more resilient to fraud. And it didn’t just happen in Kansas - it happened everywhere. To hear it told by partisan hacks, they’d have you believe that Kansas was an anomaly, and that every other state had it all together and didn’t suffer fraud abuse. That. Is. Not. True.

And let’s not forget that these same people have spent years making it harder for people who need unemployment to get it. And they also fought at the end of last session to force the governor to end federal enhanced unemployment benefits - wrongly claiming that was the cause of the workforce shortage. That was never the underlying cause for a workforce shortage - and the fact that we still have a workforce shortage, with record number of people quitting their jobs amid pre-pandemic unemployment numbers - is evidence of that.

There are some things that ought to transcend party, and this food sales tax cut thing is definitely one of them. If you believe in broad based tax reduction that reaches the most Kansans possible, then you ought to be on board with eliminating the state’s sales tax on food. And we have the money to do it this year. There’s no question of that. If you have always thought the food sales tax ought to go, but suddenly you’re not sure it’s such a good idea, you might want to take a moment to pause and ask yourself what has changed. Because the argument for getting rid of it has only grown stronger, not weaker, in the past year. And there is no single tax cut that will reach more Kansans, more regularly, than cutting taxes on the food they buy everyday for their families. Political leanings won’t change that fact.

I will save the rest of the budget details and other legislative happenings for another time. But there’s a lot to keep a look out on this year - including education policy, taxes and budgets, redistricting, marijuana reform, and Medicaid expansion to name a few.

Speaking of Medicaid Expansion and marijuana reform - we announced plans to introduce Constitutional amendments to allow Kansans to vote on Medicaid Expansion, medicinal marijuana, and recreational marijuana. Kansas doesn’t have a ballot initiative or referendum, so this is as close as we can get. The amendments would require the legislature to take action on these policies and get them done. And since we know about 70 percent of Kansans want this, yet the legislature has failed to act, we’re looking to let the people vote, and force the legislature to do what it should’ve done a long time ago.

On the Medicaid front, the common response from the opposition is the tired refrain that expansion will provide healthcare to “able-bodied” adults. This term makes my blood curdle, because it’s false and it’s derogatory to working people who don’t make a ton of money.

The truth is that in Kansas you have to work to qualify for Medicaid. The income threshold is incredibly low, something like $8,400 a year. Anyone who works even a little likely makes more than that. And if you work, but don’t make more than 138 percent of the federal poverty level, you don’t qualify for federal insurance subsidies. For a family of four with a caregiver working full time, you’d have to make $17.58/hour to get out of the gap. So everyone who works, but makes more than $8,000 a year and less than $17.58 an hour is struggling to find adequate, affordable health coverage.

I’ll gladly take any of these true believers to meet some of my “able-bodied” friends who are working harder than any legislator.

There’s room to debate policy, and to have discussion about whether something is or isn’t a good idea. But if you have to beat down and insult people who don’t have lucrative careers to make your argument, you’re not winning.