On Saturday, we had over 500 people gather in downtown Overland Park for Walk the Vote, our event to kickstart the 2018 elections. That's right, more than year from the those elections, 500 people got up, got out, raised money and marched to keep the momentum going in Kansas. We could go on about how many people were there, and about how much money we raised, but that would bury the real story here.

Everyone knows that 2018 will be a critical year in the future of our country. In Kansas too, it will be pivotal. All the gains we made this session will hang in the balance. Will we elect a new Governor like Kris Kobach, who will double down on ultra conservative policies? Will we hold the legislative seats we won in 2016? Will we send more help, so that good bills aren't held hostage to the veto or the "Truth Caucus?"

Today’s guest post is brought to you by Heidi Holliday, Executive Director of Kansas Center for Economic Growth.

Today is Day 108 in the Kansas Legislature. After a weekend of stop and go action on budget, school finance, and tax plans, the Legislature is starting the sixth week of the veto session having yet to resolve these three crucial issues.

Yesterday, members of the House K-12 Education Budget and Senate Select Committee on Education Finance Conference Committee reviewed a proposal to bundle an income tax bill into the school finance bill. The proposal also included a “trailer”, or companion, bill that was sent to Tax Conference Committee to address credits, deductions, and some economic development policy components.

Today’s guest post is brought to you by David Smith, MainStream Coalition Board Member and Chief of Public Affairs for the Kansas City, Kansas Public School District.

Wednesday, May 24, 2017 was the 100^th day of the 2017 Kansas Legislative Session (the last day that was budgeted for in the 2017 session.) Interestingly, it was also the last day of school for the Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools. And with the failure of the Kansas Legislature to pass a new school funding formula that meets the constitutional test for adequacy, a budget for either FY 18 or FY 19, or a tax reform package that provide sufficient resources to fund either the new formula or the state budget after June 30, 2017, our district and districts across the state are left in a state of suspended animation. School districts do not know what their budget for next year will be, nor do they know if the Legislature will pass (and the Governor will sign) a constitutional funding formula which will allow them to continue to operate after June 30, 2017.

Wednesday will be the 100th day of the 2017 Kansas Legislative Session. In the last three weeks, while there has been a lot of work on tax reform and school finance, there has been no actual movement. We've seen threats of late nights and weekends that end instead in early Fridays and weekends spent in home districts. And it all begs the question, why?

This is MainStream's written testimony opposing SB 251, a bill to finance public schools that does not meet our requirements to fund an excellent education for all Kansas children. We also delivered written testimony at the hearing today. You can download a copy of our testimony here.

The same story repeats again. Last week, the Kansas Senate tried to pass the same tax reform bill, and was rebuffed. Annoyed, the Senate's Con leadership announced no further work until Monday (today) and then threatened once again to work long nights and weekends until the work is done. Meanwhile, the House did the people's work, albeit slowly, on the education finance bill.

Last week, the Kansas Legislature accomplished very little. Budget issues waited in the wings and school funding got some pretty obvious advice from their $50,000 advisor ("More money is needed to resolve school funding"), while tax reform issues struggled to gain any traction. Several proposals and votes were scheduled, but withdrawn, several meetings arranged then cancelled. Witness, the most significant work done on tax reform was yet another flat tax proposal.

Tax reform has been having a rocky road this session. The shiny new Legislature passed tax reform early in the year, only to have it vetoed and that veto sustained by just three members of the Kansas Senate. Now, in the last gasp veto session, tax reform is back, but a bill introduced Monday was withdrawn quickly Tuesday, and then another introduced that raised a smidgen more money. Were all the objections just about how much it raised? Are there other problems? What is going on?

The Kansas Legislature has returned to work today. Ahead of them are several challenging issues, not the least of which is how to ensure the future stability of our state. With a yawning budget gap of almost $1 billion for 2018 and 2019, and a possible need of up to $750 million to fund public education, there is a clear need to put the state on solid revenue footing. No trickery will do, no hand-waving flat tax, no couch-digging utility fees, no "taxes are theft" attitude. Kansas quite simply needs to restore the revenue stripped away by Brownback's irresponsible policies.