A legislative coffee with Kansas State Senator Mitch Holmes (R-St. John) and House Representative John Edmonds (R-Great Bend) was held Saturday at the Kansas Oil and Gas Museum with about 15 people present.
Chamber of Commerce President Jan Peters thanked everyone for coming and thanked Holmes and Edmonds for their service.
Edmonds opened the morning with discussion on the Gannon education ruling and a handout for patrons from the Kansas Legislative Research Department.
The flyer explained school finance and base state aid, which the Kansas Supreme Court  recently ruled that the current funding was unconstitutional. Edmonds went over the information.
Edmonds explained what he thought was going to happen. He said that there is a strong desire to make the issue go away in Topeka until after the governor’s election is over. He thought there would be a short term fix.
Both representatives were asked about the cutbacks in school funding at a time when social needs of students have grown enormously.
The Rose opinion, a court case in Kentucky, was cited in the Kansas Supreme Court decision in Montoy v. State, regarding adequacy for each and every child.
The Rose opinion states seven sufficiency’s for students. They are:
 •sufficient oral and written communication skills to enable students to function in a complex and rapidly changing civilization;
•sufficient knowledge of economic, social, and political systems to enable the student to make informed choices;
•sufficient understanding of governmental processes to enable the student to understand the issues that affect his or her community, state, and nation;
•sufficient self-knowledge and knowledge of his or her mental and physical wellness;
•sufficient grounding in the arts to enable each student to appreciate his or her cultural and historical heritage;
•sufficient training or preparation for advanced training in either academic or vocational fields so as to enable each child to choose and pursue life work intelligently; and
•sufficient levels of academic or vocational skills to enable public school students to compete favorably with their counterparts in surrounding states, in academics or in the job market.
Edmonds didn’t like the word “sufficient” and thought it was “weasel worded.” Holmes also questions on defining the word sufficient, but didn’t have a problem with any of the seven points.
On other issues, “We deal with tedious stuff,”  said Holmes when his turn came to talk. “We’ve done a lot of things this year,” and that “we’ve been busy and it’s hard to keep up.”
One item of interest, he said, was the Political Action Committee legislation.
Holmes said a bill passed that abolishes Political Action Committees operated by legislative leaders, both Democratic and Republican. These PACs have been keep people in line, Holmes said.  Legislative, “PAC’s are used as a tool of coercion.”
A death penalty bill has been proposed that would limit the time for defendants to appeal cases. Holmes was in favor of the reduction of the number of appeals, mentioning the Carr brothers’ case, brothers who killed five people. Currently, “you can appeal until you die,” said Holmes. “It’s not the ‘Kill ‘Em Quick’ bill,”  as some have described it.
Holmes also said that the endless appeals are not productive because he has heard patients in the Larned Sexual Predator Program regard a day in court as a positive and as a day out of prison.
He also spoke of KPERs. “KPERs is finally on-track,” said Holmes. KPERs has been out-of-balance for years  and “we’ll reach balance in 2019.”
KPERs is funded by participant contributions and tax funds.
A Foster Care Bill of Rights was passed and a bill on raffles.
Audience member Kent Roth asked about HB2210, which limits voters from switching parties from the time of candidate filing in June until after the primary. He said there is low turnout for the primary anyway.
Audience members pointed out that a good lot of elections are decided in the primary because the state is primarily Republican. Roth brought up the election of Jerry Moran and Todd Tiahart, which was a U.S. Senate election decided in the primary.
Holmes replied that the primary election belongs  to the party. Both Holmes and Edmonds voted for HB 2210 and said they do not foresee Gov. Sam Brownback vetoing it.