This is the time of year when many organizations and municipalities cobble together some sort of “legislative platform.” This year, Sedgwick County passed its own 2023 legislative agenda, but we also adopted a joint platform with several of the larger local entities like the Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce.
I have read many of the various organizational and municipal legislative platforms, and it is interesting how many topics are raised. If we compiled the ideas across the platforms, we would say the collective goals are, more AND less government, more AND less regulation, more spending and less taxes. These ideas are obviously conflicting and considered together is impossible.
Only in Washington can government spend money that doesn’t exist. They magically create it out of thin air or they just add their magical spending decisions to the nearly $32 trillion dollar debt pile. We all know this is insanity but Americans continue to demand the feds expand the size and scope of federal government with no intent to ever pay for that irresponsible spending.
In contrast, state and local governments must actually produce balanced budgets every year. It is perplexing that the Kansas Legislature is getting pressured with conflicted messages, so no matter what they do they will be criticized for not acting like Washington, which they cannot legally do.
This year’s county platform was developed over a four-month period and is a combination of policy changes and appropriation requests for funding. The policy change legislation is usually easier to pass than requests for funds. Most legislative platforms are chock full of requests for more spending.
Sedgwick County has quite a success record introducing and shepherding legislative bills through the process to the governor’s desk. We have limited the number of priorities and included several legislative priorities that are simply policy issues and do not need funding from the state.
The one unanimous issue that has crossed into every platform is a call to place a new regional state mental health hospital in this area. This is one of several parallel efforts to address the chaotic growing mental health crisis.
As a part of that crisis, I believe the juvenile justice system needs an urgent tweak. In 2016, a total rewrite in the juvenile justice law was pushed through the legislature. This new law removed or drastically limited the consequences that could be meted out for criminal behavior. Many of these troubled youth then end up in the foster care system which should be reserved for abused or abandoned kids.
The frontend savings lured the state into this policy but the consequences and costs on the backend are uncalculatable. We must do better as a state.
(1) comment
To all the people who say this country is going to heck in a handbasket: most of the headline grabbing issues can be traced to mental health issues, which we as a country in the 1980’s decided we weren’t going to fund anymore. Glad to see this guy now understands the root of the problems. Behavioral care is desperately in need of proper funding. Let’s raise those taxes and get back to being a country to be proud of!
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