ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Watkins Public Strategies has played an important part in getting the voice of Southwest Kansas heard for multiple years, and this past Kansas Legislature session kept them quite busy.
“This session, we saw the election last fall of all 165 House and Senate members, so we have a new legislature coming in, and there are many of those who are returning, but we still saw almost one-third of the legislative body as newcomers,” Watkins Public Strategies Vice President Jessica Lucas said. “On top of the changes of elected officials, we also had a new schedule in how the Legislature has decided to go to a 90 calendar day session as opposed to a 90-day session – in the past, we would have seen our work extended into May, and I've been there before when it was extended into June. This year, we were done and totally wrapped up by April, so it was a much speedier process. And then, to add a new layer to the session, the Legislature also decided they wanted to have their own budget – historically, a budget would have looked like the governor creating a product and then all of the work was built off of that. The Legislature would examine the governor's budget and then say 'We like this, we'll keep it in' or 'We're going to take X away' or whatever the situation ultimately calls for. But everything was done from the governor's budget. This year, the Legislature basically took the governor's budget, set it aside, and started from their own work product, which resembled the 2024 budget pared down from everything that had any type of what they called one-time expenses. It was just a different year that resulted in a lot of fast-paced movement and many, many changing dynamics.”
One particular request Lucas said she is proud of was for Liberal’s Stepping Stone Shelter.
“Last year, we were making a request of $250,000 for Stepping Stone Shelter and after some work post-session, Nathaniel [Blank] and I came out and met with people from the City of Liberal and Stepping Stone Shelter and discovered there was more need there that, had we been successful in 2024 in getting those resources, it would not have done what was needed at the time, so I appreciate the work they did to get us a better sense of things,” Lucas said. “At the end of the day, the Legislature did agree to $650,000 in resources and I want to say, it is a testament to the work we'd been doing and continue to do this year. This is the only money that was in the budget to provide any support or services to the homeless population. That has been an area the Legislature has not really been willing to go, but we stressed really hard how obviously and incredibly important this was, and quite frankly the only allocation I saw in the budget for Southwest Kansas. That continues to be something that is a personal priority of mine, and you will continue to see that. You will see through the budget process how many people come through with requests for a variety of things, and they get funded. And a lot of those are concentrated in the northeast part of the state and south central part of the state, so it was a personal conviction and source of pride how we were able to ensure even on something that was difficult to get buy-in for. Many people believe there are other roles and responsibilities for state dollars than that area, and I appreciated how we were able to get policymakers to get to 'Yes,' and then the shelter receive that allocation for $650,000.”
However, Lucas admitted, the money came with a new wrinkle.
“The new wrinkle is, in this budget, as a way to try and exercise additional cost-cutting and fiscal responsibility, the Legislature also included a request for agencies to cut their budgets by 1.5 percent, and we received a call that allocation would be impacted by that,” Lucas said. “While in the budget line items that amount was $650,000, the actual amount Stepping Stone Shelter will receive is just slightly less than $610,000. The state's budget always starts July 1, so we're technically able to receive that money now. What the process will look like is they will create a contract Stepping Stone Shelter will ultimately have to sign off on, and the piece we are engaging with is what the distribution of those funds will look like, and I already told the state about the importance of that money coming as much as possible on the front end. Obviously, we're not dealing with an organization currently sitting on a lot of additional resources, and we know the importance of getting those funds in and making sure we can get what we need at the lowest possible costs and make sure there aren't really too many additional costs down the road. That's the next step of this process, us working with the state to make sure we can get that language in such a way for it to free up those funds as quickly as possible as much as possible. At the same time, the state has a responsibility to make sure if they're releasing funds, those funds are being used correctly, which can be a real balancing act. But I’m very glad we were able to bring those funds into a very important and very necessary part of the community. And with the budget process, we're seeing everything accelerated again, so the Legislature is going to continue creating its own budget, so that means they're going to be meeting starting in September to talk about what that looks like.”
Fellow Watkins Public Strategies representative Nathaniel Blank added there were multiple bills taken on by the Legislature this past session.
“This year, we actually did see quite a few bills that were attacking local government authority across the state coming from several different committees,” Blank said. “One of the first ones was HB2088, which would have required a 60-day turnaround for all building permits, including residential, commercial and industrial. We were able to water that one down pretty significantly so it now only applies to single-family residential property. We also worked on HB2152, which was brought up by the Bank Association and designed to direct more funds toward local banks but at the cost of the return on investment by local governments. We were able to again reach a compromise on that bill, which also allows the public moneys pooling method to secure deposits above the FDIC limit. One bill we were able to defeat was HB2343, which would have created the No-Impact Home-Based Business Fairness Act, which would have essentially deregulated any in-home based business that did not increase traffic and parking on streets. We saw that one last year and it didn't really get too much traction, but this year, it was run through a different committee and passed the House but not the Senate this year since they sat on it and took no action, but we expect to see it again next year.”
And did work did not stop there, Blank said.
“STAR Bonds were again extended, and they were also expanded in the budget this time around to allow former shopping malls to be eligible for STAR Bond projects for remodeling and that type of work,” Blank said. “One bill that did pass but we were able to slightly improve was HB2289 – originally, the House had sought to completely eliminate the Affordable Housing Tax Credit match from the state. They're facing basically a $250 million annual bill if the match stayed at its current rate, but we were able to maintain that 9 percent federal credit match at $8.8 million capped annually, but that will also sunset in 2028. Going forward, we are tracking KDOT'S local consult process, and those meetings will begin in October, with a meeting right in Liberal Oct. 14. We will be across this district and District 5, which is the Wichita area advocating for the expansion of U.S. Hwy 54. Also, in November, the mobility study for the Southwest Kansas highway mobility and expansion will have its next public meeting then to discuss their findings and host more public hearings.”
Lucas said she and Watkins Public Strategies are always on the lookout for ways to help make sure Southwest Kansas is represented properly.
“It truly is our passion to make sure the powers that be recognize the value of this part of the state and know we're not just putting our resources into only a couple pockets, and we're happy to continue helping be a voice for Southwest Kansas,” Lucas said. “We're always looking to highlight ways the Legislature can continue supporting Southwest Kansas, but they're not going to do so just because, they need to hear your voices and your stories, which I think is happening through the great representation you have here.”
