By JOHN HANNA
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Laura Kelly called Tuesday for another freeze in tuition at Kansas colleges in a State of the State address that portrayed the state as booming economically and previewed what are likely to be major themes in her reelection campaign.
Click here to read a transcript of the address
Click below to watch the address.
The Democratic governor didn’t provide details about her college tuition proposal in the annual address, saying only that it is part of the proposed state budget that her administration will outline Wednesday. Kelly already is pushing to eliminate the state's sales tax on groceries and give a $250 rebate to every Kansas resident who filed a state income tax return last year.
Her proposals on taxes and college tuition come ahead of a tough reelection race with three-term state Attorney General Derek Schmidt as the presumed Republican nominee. Kelly will need support from moderate GOP and independent voters to win another four-year term in her Republican-leaning state, and she's been making moves to appeal to them that include opposing federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates from Democratic President Joe Biden.
Kelly suggested that the state's improved finances and the coronavirus pandemic warranted a tuition freeze at state colleges.
“You heard that right: No tuition increases whatsoever,” she said in the version of her speech prepared for delivery. “The virus took something from our students. And, we are going to give them something back.”
The governor's tuition proposal follows years of concerns about rising college costs — and efforts by both legislators and the state Board of Regents to contain them. The board, which oversees the state's higher education system, last year froze fall tuition at the state's six universities, except for Kansas State University. At some universities, tuition has been frozen three years.
Yet costs for students and their families are much higher than they were 15 years ago and now approach $5,600 a semester in tuition and academic fees at the University of Kansas for a full-time Kansas undergraduate — almost 82% more. At Kansas State, the same costs for a similar student have grown 80% and now top $5,200 a semester.
In the GOP’s official response to Kelly’s address, recorded before she made her tuition proposal public, state House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr., an Olathe Republican, said, “It’s not enough to talk about goals.”
“Many Kansans say they have grown tired of broken promises,” Ryckman added in remarks prepared for delivery.
Much of Kelly's address to a joint session of the GOP-controlled Legislature focused on the state's financial recovery despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic — and after persistent budget shortfalls that followed a nationally notorious GOP-led experiment in cutting income taxes starting in 2012.
Kansas has seen its monthly tax collections exceed expectations in all but three months in the 4 1/2 years since bipartisan legislative majorities repealed most of the previous tax-cutting experiment championed by GOP Gov. Sam Brownback. With no tax cuts or huge surge in state spending, it's on pace to end June 2023 with roughly $3.9 billion in cash reserves.
“The people of Kansas are getting back on their feet,” Kelly declared. “The state of Kansas is getting back on track.”
Schmidt and other Republicans argue that the good times are being fueled mostly by the billions of dollars in pandemic relief funds sent to the states by the federal government. Schmidt on Sunday proposed dedicating $1 billion to shoring up the state pension system for teachers and government workers — echoing comments from top Republican lawmakers.
Republicans have suggested that Kelly's tributes to business growth ring hollow when she shut many businesses down for five weeks last year — an action she took to check the spread of COVID-19 early in the pandemic. Republicans also have questioned Kelly’s commitment to cutting taxes because she vetoed three GOP proposals in three years after suggesting the measures would tank the state’ finances.
Schmidt also has called for cutting or eliminating the state's 6.5% sales tax on groceries. With bipartisan support, Kelly said, the only obstacle to passing the proposal is “the same type of toxic political games that have poisoned Washington, D.C.”
“We are better than that in Kansas,” she said. “Let's not overcomplicate this.”
However, Ryckman said Republicans want to “ratchet down” the sales tax, not only on groceries but “on everything else our families need to buy.”
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Kelly wants to eliminate the state’s 6.5% sales tax on groceries so that a family buying $200 worth of groceries a week would save $676 a year. Lowering or ending the tax has bipartisan support, and about 100 groups, food pantries, businesses and faith organizations, along with several hundred individuals, sent a letter Monday to lawmakers urging them to eliminate the tax. But lawmakers might consider alternatives, such as lowering the tax on all consumer goods.
In December, she proposed giving Kansas residents who filed state income tax returns last year a one-time rebate of $250, dropping the idea on a skeptical Republican-controlled Legislature as she faces a tough reelection race.
On Thursday, the governor eased or suspended Kansas licensing rules for medical personnel and nursing home workers in hopes of making it easier for them to attack staffing shortages during a surge of new COVID-19 cases.
Kelly issued two executive orders. One allows hospital staff to perform a broader range of duties. The other makes licensing of nursing home workers more flexible so homes can hire people whose licenses have lapsed and fill less-skilled jobs with workers who have relatively little or no previous training. Kansas previously was under a state of emergency from March 2020 until June 2021.