Loud Light Kansas Politics Recap: Anti-abortion bill expanded, Brownback tax experiments, and Republicans target Black legislator

The Pitch has partnered with a local political awareness organization called Loud Light. Their goal is to engage and empower individuals from underrepresented populations to build community power. And impact decision-makers. Each week of the year that the Kansas statehouse is in session, they release a short video recapping what the legislature is up to.

Knowing the nitty-gritty of what’s happening with your representatives is the only way to stay involved with the way local government affects your life. You can donate to support Loud Light’s work by clicking here.

Here is this week’s video and transcription:

Intro

I’m Davis Hammet with Loud Light. Here’s what happened in week 9 in the Kansas Statehouse.

Fetal Personhood (HB2062) (Schmidt’s amendment)

This week, the Senate debated a bill that would add anti-abortion language into family law. The bill practically wouldn’t do anything now, but lays the foundation for “fetal personhood” which is a legal strategy to ban abortion by convincing the courts that a fetus has more legal rights than a pregnant person.

During the debate, Democratic Senator Patrick Schmidt introduced an amendment to include that same fetal personhood recognition into tax law, by expanding child tax breaks to fetuses– a policy which anti-abortion groups have wanted for years. Surprised and gleeful Republican Senators approved the amendment with Sen. Schmidt explaining his actions as making “lemonaid out of lemons.” The amended bill, which now establishes state tax IDs for and a registry of fetuses, raises significant abortion rights and privacy concerns. The amended bill passed the Senate on a party-line vote of 30-9 and could get a vote in the House as early as Monday.

Ethics Commission – Without Executive Director

The State Ethics Commission’s Executive Director resigned unexpectedly early this year. Then this week, only two months later, the interim Ethics Director announced they are immediately resigning leaving the ethics agency without a leader. This comes as Republicans are advancing several bills to radically overhaul and undermine the state’s entire ethics code. The ethics agency has been under tremendous pressure from Republican leaders, legislators, lobbyists, and lawyers due to an ongoing investigation of a 2020 money laundering conspiracy by top Republican officials and affiliates.

Expanding Brownback School Tax Credits (SB87)

(tax credit expenditure chart pg4) (first FN)

A bill expanding on a Brownback era tax credit program for private schools passed a House committee and now heads to the House floor. The bill expands eligibility for taxpayer funded tuition for private unaccredited and unregulated schools. Initially, Republican leaders described the bill as a tool for low income students in public schools, but eligibility is being expanded to include students regardless of income and removing a requirement that the student previously attended a Kansas public school. The tax credit or vouchers are currently capped at $10 million per year, but the bill would raise the amount of public tax dollars diverted to private schools on a yearly basis.

Flat Tax Moves out House Committee (HB2318)

As House Majority Leader Chris Croft promised in leaked zoom calls, a House committee passed a bill that would gradually reduce both income and corporate tax at an unknown cost to the state. The bill echoes the tax strategy used in the Brownback tax experiment which significantly cut income and corporate taxes leading to a billion dollar budget shortfall in the state. Of note, while most Republican legislators reversed course in 2017 to override Gov. Brownback’s experiment– Ty Masterson, who is now the Senate President, was part of the minority that refused to change course.

House Republicans vs. Rep. Ford Carr 

During debate a few weeks ago, Republican Rep. Hoheisel walked onto the Democratic side of the aisle, put his finger in Rep. Carr’s face, and shouted profanities. A House Committee investigating the altercation deadlocked on a party-line tie vote and therefore will take no action against Hoheisel. Immediately after the tie vote Republican Rep. Howell filed a complaint against Democratic Rep. Carr alleging Carr has created a “hostile work environment” and should be censured or expelled from the Legislature. The investigating committee will now begin an inquiry into Carr’s rhetoric and behavior. Only 5% of Kansas legislators are Black, yet half of the complaints ever filed have centered on comments about race between a Black Democrat and white Republican. This is the 10 year anniversary of a high profile investigation where several House Republicans attempted to expel Rep. Winn, a Black woman, from the Legislature for saying a bill targeting Hispanic students was racist.

Coming Up

The House and Senate will be on the floor debating bills almost every day as they approach Friday’s Drop Dead deadline where most bills need to have passed both chambers in order to stay alive for the year. Stay tuned, stay engaged, and until next time, thank you so much Kansas!