While most Kansans are getting ready for summer, considering just where it might be relatively safe to take a few days off for a vacation and considering whether you are actually going to open the front door to hear from candidates for the Legislature, there is some big news coming up…for some of us.
For that small group of Kansans who spend their summer in the Statehouse watching government at work, this is the week that we’ll see just how legislative leaders respond to about $400 million in transfers of federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act money to 103 of the state’s 105 counties.
And we’ll find out whether this initial distribution of that federal money turns out to be a routine funds transfer or a political issue that will show up in Republican and Democrat legislative primary elections. Will the governor get to make this first relatively non-controversial transfer of federal aid to counties, and how will candidates for the Legislature characterize it?
Basically it is designed to take some pressure off of counties and cities and other small governmental units which have seen their operating costs increase because of the time off, the stay-home order, the closure of businesses that possibly on a state- or nation-wide level aren’t “essential” but which are essential to their owners and the employees who work there.
That initial $400 million is expected to be relatively non-controversial, except if you are running for the Legislature and want to publicly support it or publicly assert that you want the public to dissect each of those counties’ receipts to learn whether the first months of the pandemic actually cost each of those 103 counties $194 in in extra costs for each resident.
That $194? Well, it’s tricky, but Sedgwick and Johnson counties, which aren’t part of the $400 million pool because they are big enough (population 500,000 or more) to receive direct payments from the federal government, figured that their direct aid will pencil out to about $194 per resident. And that has become the floor for state distribution of the initial $400 million to the rest of the state’s counties.
Because, by this time unless you are closely following COVID-19, most of us are starting to enjoy the weather and not spending as much time worrying about masks and gowns for the people who shield us from the pandemic. That’s not good, but many Kansans are getting tired of the pandemic.
Running for the House from, say, Thomas County, or Cowley County? Want to tell your potential voters that they’ll get less of that federal money because, well, they aren’t Sedgwick or Johnson County? Tell a voter that, and you better back off of their porch so you can make sure they don’t push you off their property.
This week’s first round of disbursing those federal funds – about $600 million remain to be dispersed through the state in two separate actions more narrowly focused on economic recovery—may spawn issues for the upcoming primary elections. And that means what in non-pandemic times would be widely characterized as a bonanza for counties, instead will be high-publicity millions of dollars that most of us won’t characterize as any real boost in prosperity.
You’ll notice, of course, that there wasn’t much in the way of money coming out of the Statehouse to Kansans or their local governments this session. No income or property tax relief, and not even much in the way of transparency which some candidates believe is also a popular campaign verb.
We’ll see how this works out, and how candidates manage to use it as a campaign issue…
Syndicated by Hawver News Company LLC of Topeka; Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver's Capitol Report—to learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit the website at www.hawvernews.com