TOPEKA — Citing an already heavy work load in the Kansas House, veteran local lawmaker John Edmonds resigned from the state House Appropriations Committee, relinquishing his position as its vice chairman.
“It was a tremendously busy job,” the 112th District representative said from his Topeka office Wednesday afternoon. “I just didn’t have the time to do it.”
Edmonds said his other legislative duties and outside professional commitments don’t leave him with enough time to serve on the budget-writing committee.
The vice chairman helps draft the final version of budget legislation. “That would be a full-time job if that was all I had to do.”
He volunteered to take the post as a favor to the House leadership. “But, it was more than I could chew.”
Edmonds sent a letter Friday to Appropriations Committee Chairman Ron Ryckman Jr. and Ryckman made it public Tuesday.
House Speaker Ray Merrick Wednesday appointed Sharon Schwartz (R-Washington) to fill the vacancy. Schwartz represents the 106th District.
Edmonds still serves on the Pensions and Benefits, Health and Human Services and Taxation committees, as well as the Robert G. Bethel Joint Committee on Home and Community Based Services and Kan Care Oversigtht and Joint Committee on Pensions, Investments and Benefits.
He has served on the Appropriations Committee in the past, he said.
Edmonds is a certified public accountant. He served in the House from 1995 through 2006 and decided not to seek re-election that year. But he ran again successfully in 2012 and was re-elected last year.