Kansas is a study of contrasts. THE FLIP SIDE to this synergy and energy is the growing sentiment that Kansas is increasingly hostile to business. TO PICTURE the situation, imagine yourself a young, single mother working part time at Herff Jones while trying to complete your GED at Allen Community College. NEED ANOTHER example? THERE ARE THOSE who say if you don’t like the direction Kansas is moving, then leave. Kris Kobach, Kansas secretary of state, recently was quoted as saying, “Americans can vote with their feet, and choose a state that reflects their values and the way of life they’d like to enjoy. If a person wants to live a San Francisco lifestyle, they can go there. If they want to live a Kansas lifestyle, they can come here.”
On the one side, it has hopes of becoming Silicon Prairie — the hub of incredibly fast fiber optics thanks to Google Fiber willing to invest millions in Kansas City, Kan.
A KC Startup Village is offering short-term rent-free facilities to prospective clients — typically very young entrepreneurs — to attract like-minded people to get the ball rolling.
Kansas City, Kan., the poor stepchild of Kansas City, Mo., is working very hard to promote itself as the hot spot of interconnectivity where high-tech products are launched. KC competed with 1,100 cities around the world to be host to the lucrative Google Fiber initiative. Now it’s selling itself as a mecca for creativity, where forward- and fast-thinking entrepreneurs will feel not only welcome but also they are in like company.
No amount of tax breaks can overcome the negative vibes being sent out by an administration that courts harmful policies to education, the elderly and the poor. People and businesses locate to an area because it is welcoming in all aspects.
Already, all state agencies have had to deal with a 10-percent cut to their budgets, resulting in fewer mental health workers, fewer social workers and fewer case managers for seniors who receive home-based care and reduced staff and services at county health departments and early childhood services, just to name a few. Today, 2,200 Kansans who are developmentally disabled are on a waiting list to receive services.
State agencies are again bracing for another round of cuts because the current budget is on track for a $237 million deficit due to Gov. Brownback’s tax cuts.
Currently, you can receive a few hundred dollars a month in state assistance to help with childcare as long as you work 20 hours a week.
For 2014, the Kansas Department for Children and Families is proposing you must work 30 hours to receive state aid.
The result?
You can’t cut it. There are simply not enough hours in the day to juggle all three responsibilities. So you forgo the state aid because you cannot work that many hours at Herff Jones. Which forces you to drop out of school because you can’t afford the childcare without the state assistance.
Today, 8,800 young Kansas families are in this kind of a situation. It’s projected the longer work weeks will force 1,900 of them to drop out of the program.
In its report, the DCF recorded that as “saving” the state $4.8 million.
So yes, if we look at forcing people into abject poverty as a savings, we’ve got a bigger problem than just reconciling an insufficient budget.
Gov. Brownback continues to say he will not participate in an expanded Medicaid program. That’s six years of 100 percent federal dollars to cover an expected 130,000 Kansans whose incomes fall below 133 percent of the federal poverty level and who have no health insurance. Beyond the initial six years, states would assume 10 percent of the responsibility to provide the services.
Kansas already ranks among the lowest of states in providing Medicaid benefits. Eligibility is currently 30 percent of the federal poverty level, or individuals who make $5,964 or less a year. Shameful.
Under the Affordable Care Act’s expanded Medicaid provision, a family of four that makes $29,327 or less would be eligible for assistance.
A rally in Topeka on Friday in support of the Medicaid expansion program held placards aimed at Brownback, saying, “What would Jesus do?”
Indeed.
Boy, that’s inviting.
Truth is, most of us want Kansas to be a place where anyone would want to come because we are honorable people who provide a good place to raise families and do business.
But until we get the message straight in our own heads, we’re going to have a tough time selling it to others.
— Susan Lynn
