Last week was a prelude to the next two weeks, where we are told to expect a flurry of bills and hearings and possible late nights. This shotgun approach is meant to both end the session early (a campaign bonus in an election year after last year's record long session) and to confuse and bewilder the public. “We are in trouble,” Rep. Rooker says of state’s financial condition - PV Post
But we won't stand for it.
What can we do? We can stay vigilant, listening to the legislators who are moderates, both Democrats and Republicans, and heeding their warnings about bad bills and committee scheming.
What can you do? You can let your legislators know just what is important to you. Get out and do the work, support your challenger or your incumbent, march in those rallies, send those emails, donate your time and money. Talk to your friends and family about what is important to you. Get informed, so you can better get involved.
What can we help you do? We can keep you informed, alert you to action, and give you the opportunity to make that difference. Our past forums—including one on the war on public education attended by 300 people—are available for you to watch. Our upcoming forums on the Kansas budget, the Kansas courts, and health care will lay out the facts, and help you ask the questions you need answered. Our legislative tracker gives you a place to look for information on recent bills and how they fare in the Legislature. Our alert emails, tweets, and Facebook posts let you know when your voice is needed.
Working together, we are making a difference.
Kansans are speaking out
Two weeks ago we asked you to send emails about several bad education bills. After over a thousand emails, those bills were pulled (for now). Last week, Kansans stood up and contacted their legislators about more bills, and again, they were tabled or returned to their committees for "reworking." And just this weekend, a massive groundswell of opposition to a tax bill that puts our public libraries in jeopardy has resulted in a packed and overflowing committee hearing today in Topeka.
Kansans are standing up
Today, hundreds of parents, teachers, and children convened at the Statehouse with the participants in Game On For Kansas Schools' annual walk to Topeka. Greeting the walkers, who came from Merriam, Emporia, and Manhattan, they assembled in the Capitol to chant and cheer and make themselves heard, even in the far recesses of the legislative chambers.
There is a tide turning
There is a current beginning to turn the tide. Kansas have had enough. Attack the Kansas Courts? A poll shows that Kansans trust the courts more than they trust either the legislature or the Governor. Commit multiple attacks on public education? Parents rise with a fury, joined even by members of their communities without children, who understand that education is the single most important building block to success. At health care forums across the state, state officials try to defend their failed stewardship of KanCare, while hurrying to assure seniors that state-owned Medicare won't suffer the same fate.
Join this movement, to rescue our state from a bleak future, where revenues never meet even reduced expectations, and the Governor mutters, "What me, worry?" while his appointees desperately shuffle money, steal funds and mortgage the future to keep us afloat.
This is how you make a difference:
- Get informed - know the issues, spread the facts, counter the lies
- Get involved - volunteer, donate, run, work for what is important to you
Do more than vote.
