Kan. Governor Calls for Universal Health Care, Tax Cuts

January 12, 2007

Kan. Governor Kathleen Sebelius proposed tax cuts for businesses and promised the state will be more aggressive in promoting energy conservation and wind power as she outlined her legislative agenda Wednesday night.

And, two days after California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed mandating health insurance for all of his state’s residents, Sebelius called on legislators to draft a plan this year for eventually bringing universal coverage to Kansas.

Embarking on her second term, Kansas’ Democratic governor offered a broad mix of proposals in her State of the State address that she said would help secure the state’s future. She reiterated commitments to boosting spending on higher education, stimulating economic development and following through on previous commitments to more money for public schools.

Her proposals included ideas that Republican legislators and business and anti-tax groups have promoted, such as reducing the state’s corporate income tax rate. She also proposed cutting the tax employers pay to finance benefits for unemployed workers and reducing taxes for small businesses.

Those initiatives followed another burst of good economic news, that the state collected $60 million more in revenues than anticipated in November and December. Sebelius told a joint session of the Legislature that Kansans are “full of hope and ready to embrace the opportunities before us.”

“There’s a lot of common ground,” said Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence. “There are a lot of Republican ideas that we heard yesterday that came out of the governor’s mouth today.”

But universal health coverage doesn’t appear to be part of that common ground, with Republicans saying they’d rather focus on making sure workers can take health insurance with them when they change jobs.

Schmidt said while a call for universal coverage sounds bold, it’s difficult to achieve. Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, chairwoman of the House Health and Human Services Committee, said, “This isn’t Canada and it isn’t California.”

Sen. Phil Journey, R-Haysville, added: “I’ll be amazed when I see someone run the numbers and it’s not $1 billion or $2 billion or $5 billion to get that done.”

But Sebelius told legislators that the concept enjoys bipartisan political support, Schwarzenegger is a Republican, and widespread support among Kansans.

“We must commit ourselves to the goal that all Kansans will have health insurance, and we must begin now,” she said.

Sebelius said she also wants to lower corporate income taxes to make Kansas more competitive with other states. For weeks, she has been advocating lower unemployment taxes, something that’s possible because the state is collecting more money than it needs for jobless benefits.

She also proposed revising the state’s franchise tax, which firms pay for the privilege of doing business in Kansas, to provide relief to 16,000 small businesses.

Topics Kansas

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