To the editor:

In her Oct. 12, 2022 letter “Amendment proposals are out of balance,” Dee Ann Grummon inaccurately claims that Kansas’s constitutional amendment proposal, Question 1 (HCR 5014), will do nothing to benefit voters if they approve the ballot measure this November. Giving legislators the freedom to unleash the American economy by addressing outdated, costly regulations proposed by the executive branch would greatly benefit Kansans. Doing so will require streamlining the state’s administrative code already containing more than 70,000 regulations. It must and can be done. The state recently lost an additional 1,200 jobs contributing to 40 years of stagnation and out-migration, proving its urgent need for a strengthened economy.

Opposing HCR 5014 would be a vote for continuing Kansas’s economic turmoil and runaway poverty. Economists have linked regulation to increased poverty rates in Kansas. When Kansas’s regulatory burdens increased by 72% in just 18 years, the state’s poverty rate soared 18% higher. The human misery of such an astonishing rise in poverty cannot be tolerated and Question 1 provides Kansans with a proven remedy.

Several states including Idaho, Arizona and Virginia have already said yes to measures reforming their regulatory codes and have enjoyed an increase in economic growth as a result.

The changes proposed in Question 1 also deliver a potent weapon to the Legislature that can mitigate inflation rates that have increased by 8.2% just this year. Kansans must say yes to prosperity, yes to beating inflation and yes to Question 1.

Elizabeth Patton

Topeka