Late on 26th April, Tim Carpenter of the local Topeka paper reported that the FBI were investigating the activities of former close aides of Governor Sam Brownback who were acting now as lobbyists for his KanCare policy.
Sources: FBI examines lobbying by Brownback loyalists | http://t.co/lNxwxh0S2y http://t.co/2IG0lliN1R
— neditsimple (@neditssimple) April 28, 2014
On the 28th of April, at town hall type meetings in Goddard and Derby KS, towns outside Wichita, citizens expressed frustrations at attending legislators.
KS speakers at SC #ksleg forum are just plain pissed off. These legislators really managed to make people angry. WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED!
— Steve Maack (@SteveMaack) April 29, 2014
At SCKs Leg forum, spkrs now talking about how extremist lgslatrs have hurt KS hlth care, especially 4 disabled. Man, they r catching hell.
— Larry Smith (@LarrySmith259) April 29, 2014
'you legislators have committed Pearl Harbor on Teachers. And we know how that turned out. See you in November!' #ksed #ksleg
— tmservo433 (@tmservo433) April 29, 2014
This of course, had followed a couple late night session of the House of Representatives in Topeka which passed an education bill by April 8. That budget bill did pay for some things, expanded others, but also did away with the 'due process' portions of public teacher's contracts. Essentially they can be fired now by local administrators without the longstanding legal protections that teachers have been able to rely on for decades. These protections, once fought for, have now been stripped by state fiat and this new policy was then added to a larger budget bill which was signed by Governor Brownback on May 2.On the 29th and 30th of April there was further news that the state had lost credibility on a couple issues. One was from the Kansas Health Institute that claimed the state was indeed suffering from having refused the Federal Medicaid Expansion $ allotted to the state to cover those not covered through the ACA, aka Obamacare.
"Decision to pass on #Medicaid expansion costing state, panelists say"
http://t.co/zoDV7Avlak #Brownback #KSLeg
— KS Democratic Party (@KansasDems) April 29, 2014
The other came the following day when it was discovered that state revenues had fallen $93 million short of expectations. Expectations that the Republican majority and the Governor expected and crowed about as expectations for months.The very next day, Thursday May 1, came news from Wall Street that the rating agency Moody's had downgraded the state's bond buying capacity because of its budgetary problems.
Moody’s downgrades Kansas’ credit rating, citing sluggish recovery, risky tax plan http://t.co/fg2wa94QDX #ksleg #UniteBlue
— Turn Kansas Blue (@UniteBlueKS) May 2, 2014
Almost predictably, the Governor blamed the president. But, Moody's didn't downgrade other states for their fiscal policies.
Literally everyone told Gov. Brownback tax cuts would cripple state revenue. Now that it's happened he blames Obama pic.twitter.com/d4MHJxKhqQ
— ksleg problems (@kslegproblems) April 30, 2014
Meanwhile others are having problems from state government some of whom want to make it more difficult to utilize sun and wind for energy production.
Kansas, which has neverending wind, wants to repeal energy standards bringing in jobs: http://t.co/syhhYLM1Lb Why? Kochs prefer oil. #ksleg
— Matthew Calcara (@matthewcalcara) May 2, 2014
The very next day, May 2 was a Friday and Congress in Topeka decided to cut the spring legislative session short and pass as many bills as they could. Without warning. The KCStar reported on it the next day.House, Senate pass $14.6 billion budget http://t.co/v2i0x1DDdO via @kansasdotcom
— neditsimple (@neditssimple) May 3, 2014
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