Moderation Thompson’s approach

Rep. Kent Thompson’s pragmatic nature is a burr under the saddles of ultraconservatives in the Kansas House, but he’s comfortable with positions taken, he told the Register Friday afternoon.
Thompson, a Republican, represents the 9th District, which contains most of Allen and parts of Neosho counties, including Iola and Chanute.
When the House vote on block grant funding for public schools occurred, Thompson was opposed “because it was going to hurt schools in my district,” in both years that it apparently will be the law. Passage occurred with 63 votes, the barest of minimums. Political arm-twisting, more than it ever had seen, was a constant exercise leading up to the vote, Thompson said.
 With Brownback touting block grant funding and the need for a new funding formula, the measure becoming law is assured.
Proponents claim the block grant funding would make more money available for the classrooms and increase school funding, although the increase apparently will come through the Kansas Public Employment Retirement System (KPERS), and not classroom enhancement.
Also, Thompson has said several times, the formula in place isn’t broken, just underfunded. He also thinks the screed that the current formula is difficult to understand is nonsense. “I understand it,” he said, and is certain many others do as well.
Late last week the House Health and Human Services Committee, of which Thompson is a member, heard pleas from proponents for Kansas to embrace federal funding that would substantially increase the number of the state’s poor who would receive Medicaid assistance. Two years ago Brownback turned down 100 percent federal funding for three years, with 90 percent funding beyond that.
In early campaigning last summer, Thompson softened a bit on that approach, he recalled, but then drop-kicked any change of heart with re-election.
A House initiative, subject of the committee hearings, would have reversed Brownback’s decision. However, Thompson lamented, it appears a dead issue.
“We didn’t even take a vote in the committee,” Thompson said, which left the measure as written dead in the water. That occurred, he said, after “the most impressive hearing I’ve sat in on” with “good Kansas people wanting to do the right thing.”
The only chance for a hearing on the House floor would occur if an amendment were attached to a bill already scheduled for debate, which Thompson thinks may occur. “I think it only right to have debate on the House floor,” he said.
The downside, for proponents, is that if the House were to act favorably on the issue, Thompson is convinced it would be derailed in the Senate, which he characterizes as now being more conservative than the House.
If the state were to accept federal funding, an outgrowth of the Affordable Care Act, many more poor Kansans would be eligible for ACA health insurance assistance, and, an outcome that would play big locally, hospitals such as Allen County Regional Hospital would see less default on charges made to people now without insurance. ACRH and other hospitals are duty bound to provide care to whomever darkens their doors, regardless of ability to pay.

TUESDAY legislators will begin hearings on the fiscal 2016 budget, which contains cuts and financial machinations that makes its initial deficit $133 million, Thompson said. For some time, the 2016 deficit has been more than $600 million.
“I’ll be studying the budget closely over the weekend,” handed to legislators on Friday, he said.
Initial figures put total expenditures at $15.467 billion, with $6.477 billion of that in the general fund. Of general spending, $4.1 billion would go to education.
If a tax increase occurs, Thompson said the one most discussed was a half-cent boost in the statewide sales tax, which would put the state share at 6.65 percent.
“I don’t think reversing any income tax cuts will be in play,” Thompson said, nor will statewide property taxes. The statewide levy to fund school finance is 20 mills, with the first $20,000 of residential appraised valuation exempted. Legislators have discussed removing that exemption, which would increase revenue from a 20-mill tax. At one time the statewide levy for school funding was 37 mills, then was decreased incrementally during times of robust revenue.
The distressing thing about increasing the sales tax, Thompson allowed, is that it is considered the most regressive. Everyone, regardless of financial circumstances, has to pay sales tax on retail purchases, including food.