Dear editor,
It was quite a show.
Americans for Prosperity (sic) was called out at a Salina legislative forum this past weekend by a State Senator. Kudos to the Senator. Such confrontation is unusual, perhaps even uncomfortable. But a frank confrontation with facts is often necessary to get the whole picture.
Here’s the “rest of the story” area readers – and voters – should know.
Many Chambers of Commerce traditionally host “legislative forums” for give and take with constituents. For this vital service, the Chambers have our gratitude.
But.
If citizens and media are to get a complete picture, procedure is everything.
Present Salina procedure allows only written questions, selected and read by a Chamber moderator. No one else has a sense of where the question comes from, control over questions asked, nor control of time consumed by legislators’ responses.
At the previous month’s legislative forum, nearly half the questions were submitted by AFP field director Rob Fillion of Wichita (not Salina, not Abilene). No citizen attending knew. Thus was AFP able to cloak itself in a righteous pro-citizen mantle, while promoting only its own members’ interests. And he was back again this month.
Who is AFP? From Wikipedia: “According to NBC News, The New York Times and others, some of AFP’s policy positions align with the business interests of the Koch brothers and Koch Industries, including support for rescinding energy regulations and environmental restrictions, expanding domestic energy production, lowering taxes, and reducing government spending, especially Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.”
Most recently, AFP has advocated for SB22, thus handing over $187 million of our tax dollars to the big boys that already run your life. They also oppose Kansas’ expansion of Medicaid. After all, their clients already have health insurance they can afford, and would rather put your money in their coffers, not save some 150,000 Kansans — not to mention community hospitals — from medical disaster or death.
These policy initiatives match almost exactly Republican legislative leadership’s. And for good reason. AFP’s motives are matched by muscle.
In 2018, among all Kansas lobbying groups, AFP was the No. 1 spender, dispersing a skinny thousand bucks short of a quarter-million. If this figure doesn’t stop you in your tracks, consider this: That quarter-million is almost exactly 10 times more than any one of the next three top-spending lobbying groups in 2018.
How’s it spent? Perhaps, for field directors’ attempted intimidation of legislators unfriendly to their mission.
If the amount still seems obscene (and it is), remember that this is just an investment, and AFP’s return on investment is phenomenal. If they get their hands on even a portion of that $187 million, their return will look like a five-bucket jackpot from playing the quarter slots at Prairie Band Casino.
Long story short, you don’t matter to them. They can outspend you every day of the week. And unless you demand it and see through it, now and at election time, their curtain of secrecy will keep you in the dark.
Here’s what the Chamber should do. Allow questions from the audience directly, with a time limit for questions, say four minutes. Allow legislators to answer, but not filibuster, as one local legislator is wont to do, by creating a five-minute time limit.
Present procedure leaves difficult questions unasked – and unanswered.
One thing citizens can do, more than halfway through the ledge session, with little done, is ask why there’s so little action on vital issues. It’s time to push back against failed Republican leadership, and help our legislators avoid becoming “ledge-is-laters.”
Real citizen input can help, along with democratized forums that should hold both lobbyists and legislators accountable.
David Norlin
Salina
