2018 State of the State Analysis

the state of our state is indeed strong and very promising governor sam brownback gave his eighth and final state of the state address this week and j mcintyre and today on tv are present we'll walk through his speech section by section what did the governor say why didn't he say in his remarks to lawmakers i'm joined by kbr statehouse bureau chief stephen koranda and professor bob beatty of washburn university will hear from them throughout the hour today starting less than one minute into the governor's remarks here is governor sam brownback and his two thousand eighteen state of the state address president before going to wrestle this legislative league is hard let's get these two leaders big round of applause for what they do members of the kansas supreme court and beyond the courts not easy either let's give them

around of applause at this was maybe a bit of a surprise to have governor brownback took his hat to the kansas supreme court hear well this is governor brownback stairwell speech and he's selling used be really nice in the entire speech and we have to put this in the context and again i've been to eight a brownback speeches in a number large numbers speeches he's attacking people and it was it's traditional to go after the supreme court justices in fact where i usually say it is right behind the justices and it's always a classic awkward moment they're sitting just about eight feet away from him and he would every set state of the state he'd say this is basically outrageous we need to stop letting these justices to the us and they'd sit there stone faced its tradition button in his farewell

speech he's like no they will mean at this time leaving its proto ii happened after restated the other thing about you know we're talking about tradition in the state the state is governor brownback traditionally would attack the century the policies of brock obama and most famously was a couple years ago but i know one speech he gave where i counted it seventeen or eighteen attacks and everything was obama's fault everything from the prairie chickens too bad health care is this speech washington dc is not even mentioned what i am now what whether you're a trump supporter and it had gotten it does a couple things that you know you probably could mention about washington dc so yeah that's the influence of party in iowa republicans is the president of everything's fine in dc but that was actually

striking for me to hear no mention of washington dc and in the speech where as in the past that sometimes that's all we're live at teaches political science at washburn university won't hear from him and from k pr stephen koranda throughout this hour as we analyze governor brownback final state of the state address given tuesday january nine and now we return to the governor's remarks legislators cabinet members friends all i want to start with the elephant in the room there is a question that's been often as this past year and it's a legitimate one question simply willie be back yes deals will be a peace but the you probably saw that one

coming in courses here with us tonight and invited in an opinion of many others he is the greatest coach in college football history fabulous fabulous is that it has a sidebar but i was at the case that i was they gave casey pulls it out of the nhl locker room afterwards and delighted to be there i i was a coach talk about it out ok and then remember what it took to win this game and later on in life you're gonna need that same determination to be a world where live video would do the things that you need to do the question that's exactly the message to say and that's why he's chairman of the kansas mentoring council because he still believes and mentoring and they need a mentor and we honor that mentoring work along with the coaching work that you've done over many years and limited ms brown thank you for doing them were listening to governor sam brownback eighth state of the state address and kate mcintyre we're going to

jump in here and talk about what we've heard with bob beatty professor of political science at washburn university we're so far well this is also my eighth sam brownback state of the state and so it's interesting to have to listen to his farewell speech and they are traditional a governor brownback breach from the teleprompter and sticks to the script and for the first time in a year is he went off script and you know it will well it was pretty good he told the story and that's just not his usual style but i think it reflects that this is final speech is not running for reelection and of course he told the joke about going to be back and to be honest having ghost rider in the gallery and governor brownback a tunnel story about it that was one of the highlights of the entire speech which is right off the bat later during the speech is going to be some moments

where there's not a lot of applause there especially from his own party but he really started out the speech or well it did make me think he probably should have done more of that in his speeches are state of the state he can be very personable one on one but use of quite engaging telling that story joking aside about the elephant in the room how awkward is this for the governor giving his eight state of the state address which by all accounts he had no intention of being here to give us now that governor brownback governor brownback now i am giving a speech that is lieutenant governor jeff collier really plan on giving this speech it obviously jeff collier is running for governor and then collier would've had that one moment where he would've gotten to walk down the aisle with the announcement please stand in the applause and then now

i'm standing up there as the governor to call your was was denied that there were some people that actually couldn't it be capital journal said that brownback owed it to call your fur for brownback to resign and given that moment obviously he didn't brownback has learned that looks like his lesson which is don't count on us senate to do anything it's surprising because governor brownback was a senator governor brownback put holds on people that governor brownback may have held up people's confirmation so there's a portable scientists says rather surprised that there wasn't more caution and this whole incident this assumption that he would be a sort of streamline through the confirmation process but he wasn't an md so it was a split basically surprised i haven't given this state of the state and he you know he joked about or out of the beginning but it still to that we still don't know if he will finish out his

term or if he'll be gone in a couple weeks i think that also really affected the state estate because i believe brown governor brown i don't want to go into some real policy detail because i think he wants call year to get credit for some of these things as just my guess and so if he was going to go into these policy details in the speech baby associate with him but if if he doesn't talk about them and they happen later than call your credit for soldiers or politics going on here as well that's bob beatty professor of political science at washburn university i'm j mcintyre today on kbr presents we're walking through the kansas state of the state address section by section and now we return to the governor's so two thousand seventy it was a very exciting year for our beloved kansas we had

another record for most kansans ever employed one point four million and the lowest unemployment rate we've seen since two thousand we opened the longest hiking and biking trail in the state the foothills nature trail from harrington those one hundred and seventy miles of beautiful kansas that's right and two thousand and sixteen kansas was the only state in the nation to reduce its rates of adult obesity rates still way too high the trends moving in the right direction are states childhood poverty rate has shrunk to the lowest level we've seen since before the great recession let's jump in here and talk about some of those things that governor brownback is highlighting as accomplishments of his tenure in office so far are baby what is one thing that you mentioned that a lot of people may not realize and it fits into what i viewed

over the last seven plus years as what governor brownback is most comfortable in office doing as a governor there's a well there's a number of things he doesn't seem overly comfortable with mean he often said he didn't like to veto things and he the only things he argues end of the time or medicaid expansion and his tax cuts but numerous cases he said i don't issue veto veto threats and in terms of a lot of specific legislation he would tell the legislature you come up with a bill all all sign it or you get to work on it and i'll sign in terms of legislative policy is a lot of a complaint he wasn't in the max ary wasn't there are you leading boy it was very colorful with doing is was that i called it is a life coach especially early on in his first four years yellow bog down the last two years without the tax problems but i say

life coach because he'd for example he grew a garden they are really enemies in his governorship and there's our publicity and done he mentions obesity and he's been he's been talking about this for years he's been challenging state employees without monetary incentives to lose weight and it is sort of a mess it's in his mode of almost being like a minister and this speech is that it falls into that very much the state of the state where he's imploring people to and be kind and then an almost like a pastor give it getting asylum and early on thanksgiving whole issue proclamations us forgive each other so you know i think is actually quite proud of the year on the obesity piece because he's been talking about three years but the sort of things have been lost because so much controversy our last eight years with actual policy but yossi most

comfortable talking about ways to make people's lives better in terms of like this ad is professor of political science at washburn university today on k pr presents we're analyzing governor sam brownback final state of the state address i'm j mcintyre you are listening to k pr press them on kansas public radio and i love this one as a grandfather of three young children are against that mortality rate sits at the lowest point in history infant mortality we open a new state of the art medical education building like a human will give us the opportunity to educate an additional fifty doctors each year we opened a because no pride facility in the united states in garden city kansas providing us with a great opportunity to export are growing very production american royal began says this

past year also saw the completion of the national soccer training center in kansas city three hunters are quail population is back with the highest levels and twenty years and the wind energy industry continues to grow dramatically with nearly thirty percent of our electricity now coming from the wind and they're days and you know those days it's over up over fifty percent and i've been blessed with the opportunity to travel this great state border to border with them various positions since nineteen seventy four i was elected state president of the future farmers of america and me and my f one hundred and three on the tree a pickup truck started travel on the back roads again since i've been travelling a pretty much ever since first it's a marvelous place it's for beauty and wonder our skies are mounted hour sunsets they bear the signature of god to those who can see a kansas is a truly amazing place

and no one ever goes along on a successful long journey and certainly i have not my wife mary and i've traveled this force together and would you join me in recognizing our incredible first lady for her contributions to the state the pain she doesn't like the limelight so that's the worst part of this speech for her is that lebanon family has been there to my parents bob and nancy or stooped and gray but still chugging along our children have added spice enjoy and now three grandchildren and that is clearly the best an arm are our son mark just became a marine in

december answering the call the duty and if re married were here now i can hear him in the background say they are joining us in the balcony this even a major general joseph martin and command sergeant major joseph kony olson from the first infantry division at fort riley the big red wine please join me and recognizing down as big i love the military lawyer men sit down for our state and this nation in this world if you're a veteran or current active duty guard or reserves also would you please stand and be recognized the

pope that's more veterans and people who serve that you find that you find in most legislative bodies and blood year kansas first responders were quick to answer the call to help our brothers and sisters in texas in the aftermath of hurricane irene over fifty personnel from kansas went to join the recovery effort and two of those selfless kansans are with us today paramedics landon woodward and firefighter chris stansbury you two gentlemen please rise and let's recognize their efforts ms ba power that was a doozy to pickup police officer aaron paul miller is also with us is saving officer bomer saved a four year old child with autism from drowning in upon live here

when asked about his roy get more jackie's simply humbly responded audibly they got them into that situation he allowed me to be at the right place at the right time officer please stand let us thank you for what you've done as billy beane the pittsburgh now i ask if any other current or former first responders from law enforcement firefighters are paramedics would you also please stand and be recognized yes and difficult times to court the hallway my dad learned robert had talked earlier from the kansas department of revenue and september court he was shot while doing his job in wichita he didn't

panic didn't break and then run robert unlike quickly jumped in action day they're injured coworker apply chernick a corneal are alert and a life really until merger see services arrived please join me and recognizing courtney holloway robert and mike for their inspiring and her role weak actions that ms ba power thank you gentlemen we're proud of you i've had many good friends with a journey as you have friends closer than a brother riding with me at a full gallop across the prairie if i have been blessed with the staff so loyal that they gladly take in the slings and arrows cast my way i'll be forever grateful for the contributions and dedication is that they brought to this office we all have great staff is less

likely than for making this place work that steven rinella keep your statehouse europe's eve to me that was sort of the one acknowledgement the governor brownback made that he's leaving the governorship or will be leaving the governor set him with a fairly low popularity level that is true and the other way that i also heard that made as my perspective as a reporter was somewhat of a combative statement about the media because while brownback compared to some politicians is a very good relationship with the media he's more available in some other elected officials to the media he has kind of had this like friendly a combative relationship with reporters so i took it as maybe also meaning matt about reporters and he's kind of argue that maybe hasn't you know that his tax policies didn't get a fair shake the other things we've heard from in the past

or have been criticized maybe for unfair reason so i think those are probably all different things that played a part in that same that you know the slings and arrows and his way have had impact of his staff take the applause now later in this session will be yelling so with all that i've mentioned i am the most blessed man that i know that when the stay so many years you give me lots of wonderful people with great stories to really stand out in rows harris was a hundred and one when i met her in pittsburg kansas has raised a very poor family she lived three she tried go through it all with really an uncommon faith and beauty i asked her when i met are the biggest lessons you've learned in life without hesitation she said it was when she was all little girl her dad went off to work in the mines she was left in charge of the house and younger children they were all hungry they had no food so rose went to the outhouse and

by god we need food stay back in her house and a neighbor lady was at the door she has to prose which earned her milk and butter rose said she would and she did a neighbor gave her some of the butter and a few coins for her work with the money rose went to the store and bought a few pieces of meat they have food rose said that from then on she always knew that god would provide for them from then on for life also the pleasure of meeting a one hundred and seven year old war or one veteran in marysville kansas uses and i was in the winner's in the summer hundred and seven leone lying was one of the very few want war one veteran still surviving at that time mentally sharp line in a deteriorated body i asked him what was the biggest change he had seen in this nation overall his ears again without hesitation he said when i was young we didn't have anything but we were a lot happier

certainly our material wealth of progress in his lifetime but has our happiness kept pace is a good question for us as policymakers to ponder so there's my last state of the state message i'll speak from the heart about dreams i've heard from others and i've had myself for a wonderful state know as a dad and i know that every parent's greatest dream is for their children to grow learn and succeed joint address the biggest issue of the session which a school finance we received the degree of the kansas supreme court and are putting forth a proposal to comply as we have done with the prior decisions my budget recommendations includes an additional six hundred million dollars in funding over the next five years the small tight year approach or by the time necessary for school districts to plan and spend this additional money more

effectively our proposal does not include a tax increase let's jump in here at though one real policy part of the governors state of the state address i'm kate mcintyre today and kbr present we're walking through the governor's address to lawmakers kicking off there two thousand eighteen session stephen koranda is k pr statehouse bureau chief steven did this recommendation surprise you it did because in the past he's been kind of critical of the court for these education rule aims he's said in the past you know it's it's the power of lawmakers to decide how much we spend on schools not judges so i was surprised when he said that because that is effectively just complying with the court by you know six hundred million dollars is the kind of estimate you would get from an education advocate who says we should tumble bunch of extra money in the schools to comply with a court that's the kind of number you hear so when he's saying that he is effectively saying ok let's just

do what we think would satisfy the court and part of that to me watching from the outside was maybe because this is his last speech he's not you know say let's fight the court lets go out i'm a go out you know with this big battle of the court he said okay let's propose amending the constitution which he also did so that we don't have these types of laws it's in the future but it's as he put it you know i think it's not an option you know we have to do this the schools have to stay open so let's comply with the court to yell we can do to prevent this in the future he also says let's do it without increasing taxes i would do that well all if you're one of the lawmakers study in the plan that he's unveiled now they would argue you don't do it because his proposal is two hundred million the first year of the big chunk of that is money lawmakers are he had already approved last year but he's saying bump up the first year year to two hundred million then another hundred million each of the coming four years but his budget proposal which is you know just for the coming year

only covers that two hundred million the rest on the road at administration says well we're hoping that growth and tax collection that we've been seeing will pay for the rest of that so lawmakers are looking at it saying he's asking for six hundred million dollars he's putting out there we should comply we should know put in the six hundred million dollars over five years but he's not really offering a concrete way to pay for them i want to make one thing very clear the people of kansas expect resorts the kansas state board of education will be responsible for making sure they get them i suggest they consider the following goals to do so first we should reach ninety five percent statewide graduation rate second a minimum of seventy five percent of our students should be continuing their education after graduation whether that be through attending college learning a postsecondary certification or join the military

there we should accelerate the movement of kansas schools to the kansans can model for school redesign was by the kansas department of education they help us stay on course to achieve its goals i propose five strategic objectives for k twelve education first kansas has great teachers we should have a higher average teacher pay than any of our surrounding states fb second we should increase the number of school counselors school psychologist in kansas schools where hundred and fifty positions each year third we should have at least fifty schools participating in the cans and scan school redesign project forth every kansas high schools should

offer at least fifteen credit hours of dual credit course work to every high school student at no additional cost to parents was a minimum and it's clearly something we can do yesterday through a partnership between high schools in the state's institutions of higher learning and fair i should also offer every kansas high school student again at no additional cost to parents the choice of taking uva ct college entrance exam or the work he's assessment his goal should be achieved within the next five years but something here again we've heard from stephen koranda about their six hundred million dollar proposal for a school finance that in this section governor brownback really gets into some specifics that what he'd like to see done in the area of k through twelve education one of the things he touches on he is dual credit coursework bob beatty from washburn university for

people who aren't necessarily well versed in k through twelve and higher education what is that dual credit course work and that this is a concept it's been talked about for a number of years and i heard it when i was in iowa during a presidential election to marco rubio and others and governor brownback can has been talking about it for several years and basically the idea is to get to a point where colleges is affordable and rather than the states subsidizing you know more of the of intuition costs that kay you're case they were ever it's to get the students to the state to pay for dual credit where they take a class in high school and it counts for college credit from his proposal sounds like in the state would pay for that so instead of paying for a student's classic k u they're paying for that seem in high school and then they don't have to take it

at k you and this is it part of a larger effort by some who want to get students essentially out of college quicker because in the end if to further state is offering to pay for a call to college class it's the same thing whether it's in high school or not so in the end which really about getting students at a college quicker and there's a big debate about that year what's been so that reframes our whole idea of what college is supposed to be about is is the place to you know really learned ours are just a place to get that degree and then they move on and we're seeing go beyond its attempts of her like this at least in kansas subsidizing now an online degree programs hundred percent on my do online degree program so it's really more of a move toward same college as a means to getting that

immediate job versus some who argue that another aspect of colleges and preparing people for a life long approach to work now rather than hey get that job train you get a job so now one of the more successful aspects of governor brownback policies last few years has been to try to help students go right to the technology skills and that is where that that can be really effective but it's much more debatable about whether it's in the best interests of the students to take care of a college english class in high school rather than college either way the state cannot pay for minor is better for and taken college because when you're twenty one you may you may figure elysees a lot more meaningful ways and when you're seventeen ok let's go back to governor brownback state of the state address and kansas public radio six hundred million dollars

is a very significant investment and kansans expect to see students in every story in our state dr and achieved particularly our students to the court cited has been inadequately served under our current funding we cannot we must not repeat the mistakes of others who have gone down the primrose path of taking that education results can be forced by massive infusions of taxpayer money to loan money by itself will not solve the problem the best illustration of the us wanted look no further than the kansas city missouri school district sometimes called america's most costly educational failure federal courts supercharge the district with nearly two billion dollars and little more than a decade and when it was all spent there was little to show an academic improvement

the scores are stagnant she gets remade and the dropout rate actually went up we must learn from this history additionally we must stop a never ending cycle of litigation on school finance i urge legislation to put a constitutional amendment on about this year addressing a school finance system the people need to be heard on the central issue of state government we're going to jump back in here as governor brownback urges lawmakers to take up a constitutional amendment on the role of the courts versus the legislature in determining school finance stephen koranda k pr statehouse bureau chief how likely is it that the kansas house and senate will do that it's very unlikely i would say because even when the legislature was more conservative a few years ago they did not have the votes for a constitutional amendment to basically say the courts can do this or the courts can close schools the votes weren't there then and

now the legislature has become more moderate with more moderate republicans and more democrats so unless they had some kind of a constitutional amendment proposal that was agreed to by people across the political spectrum i don't see how will happen and the governor didn't you know spend a ton of time talking about in the speech you know that wasn't a huge calls it we basically had a few cents is saying we should do this you didn't give any specific so what he'd like to see that he said we should do this so we are the set of fights in the future anymore it's something that he's wanted to see that some other lawmakers wanted to see like i said unless they can figure something out that would give people from across the political spectrum i don't see the votes are there cause it takes a two thirds majority and then a vote of the public if you're just joining us today on k pr presents we're walking through that two thousand eighteen state of the state address section by section i'm j mcintyre joining me on today's program are stephen koranda k pr statehouse bureau chief and bob beatty professor of political science at washburn university in topeka

you're listening to k pr presence on kansas public radio will return to the governor's speech right after this so porter gdr comes from kc beatty kansas city pbs with the latest news events and programming on twitter facebook and casey beatty dot org but kansas has a dreamer is paradise or brought horizons temp the mind expansion of friendly people and by collaboration accomplished during a spoken word creates an encouraging word produces encouragement a negative word negativity drain spoken sense of the architecture with a creative efforts of free men and women to build upon that is if that dream catchers their hopes for the future even if they can't quite see it yet many of us remember speech ronald reagan gave in front of the brandenburg gate we stated the collective dream of those in the west when he said mr gorbachev

tear down this wall there were no bulldozers they're ready to tear down the berlin wall but its foundation crumbled that day spoken word created solely speaker dreams dreams for our beloved state of kansas a dream for campuses to be the best place in america to raise a family and grow a business kansas's population is growing faster than the national average because we've created such a dynamic environment an environment that has many and diverse job opportunities in atlanta with the great and affordable quality of life that calls people to kansas so take time whole effort and creativity but it is achievable i dream of a kansas where poverty is on the run their jobs are plentiful challenge in a joint or wages and benefits are climbing a good education in the state is tailored to each

student's needs and desires select that student has a maximum chance to succeed there we have more educational options for teach k twelve students like we do now for higher education students i drew schools of the places of accomplishment with students and parents choose to go to learn to achieve and be challenged will the character for me places the backup the family produce a stronger person or patriotism flourishes civic duty is and still and all students achieve janzen strain of having a better cancer care everybody in this room has either been affected personally by cancer or know someone who has been whenever all represented rich ferraro is just come through cancer surgery you wish him godspeed in his recovery let's be

and you'll never find a nicer a bin laden account in developing new treatments to heal old melodies using our own adult stem cells that's a nice for some but also your heart and mind i dream of ending the shortage of earl physicians and dentists that as chronically played this day by we produce in kansas produce our own dentist and more doctors virginia governor jeff collier is a man is not only shapes health care policy and the state but is dedicated his life to service of others as a doctor when it's open a

disabled child in kansas with a cleft palate were malnourished refugee in places like sudan rwanda or syria my friend jeff to serve others in ways the name is only dream of just please stand let us recognize your service your fellow man let's jump back in here i'm with stephen koranda keep your statehouse bureau chief at this plane steve man the governor recognizes the man who's about to take over his seat early so we think a lieutenant governor jeff collier he and yes he said some nice things about the lieutenant governor but i'm a little surprised he didn't say more because as you mentioned the lieutenant governor will very soon be the governor he's been with brownback his whole term and it seems to me that brownback would be wanting to boost his effort to stay in the job because collier is it said he's running for governor so i actually was expecting a brownback to lay a little more praise on collier maybe kind of you know start lay in the

path for him to really be the person the lawmakers are dealing with we didn't do that he said a lot of nice things about the lieutenant governor but he didn't really you know dwell on it that much and the more i think about it you know the more that does kind of in some ways makes sense because in the past brownback has often stay out of republican primaries and so this is an example where the tanning governor jeff collier is in this crowded republican primary and so the governor isn't necessarily endorsing him he said some positive things about him and on the flipside you might say would you want a governor brownback send us because his approval ratings aren't that high so i thought oh that i'd never play a little more role in the speeches with our stunt my initial feeling when i heard that but the more i thought about it the more tammie made sense that it wasn't a big focus on the lieutenant governor and the focus really was on the governor because this is i think as he put it his swan song what's more a dream of the future kansas x forty window

at trustee across america kansas known as the renewable state it could well be but in the future those who have the wind resources will flourish like those who now have oil were growing as an energy state green with mabon although our preferred that never runs dry because the us is sustainable of our reservoirs dredged renewed in supplying the water we meet in times of severe drought abbas having a legal binding allotment of water from the missouri river and in our kansas river with water in its full course these are possible we can do it dream with me of a growing to diversify their capital of the world with thousands of new jobs the latest technology in a magnet for precision manufacturing we will expand a commercial and general aviation we will build their friends and engines into extensive maintenance work we will grow into financing commercial aircraft manufacturing and

in drone technology all the major aircraft manufacturers will have major operations here because kansas leads the way in aviation the pope they will say why is it mostly from wichita we could be an unmanned aerial vehicle hobble or the latest you at technologies developed tested and manufactured we can be two unmanned aerial systems or we now our general aviation i dreamed that kansas will continue to be and grow as a major financial services up that's now happening in topeka in johnson county we have even more outside in this building we're feeding the world needs and read will expand our place at the table include milk

you drink exits read of moving up the value chase with the high places known as the place for animal agriculture is done because we do it bigger and better than any place else in the world i do go to businesses and cattle genetics will headquarter in kansas city around the world of agriculture kansas city will be the capitol the dream for the legends unwind a county as it is for it to be a new kansas city if you know our state's history you know kansas is where the fight to end slavery began and now we have another chapter in that saga of man's horrid treatment of each other we will have to pay jerry journalist that has

been a champion in this fight is human trafficking generally pleased and allies recognize yours and the legislative effort has taken us thus far and move the song for attorney general the pain i do a reconciliation between the races or our problems are ignored been addressed the people of good will be the past and the present with clear eyed honesty and resolve to make things right this is an honest discussion our country desperately needs in kansas family let's jump back in here steven friend a k pr see her spirit see if that improvement to race relations maybe got off to a little bit of a bumpy start this week things to a lawmaker from ulysses kansas we did have a representative steve all third make these

comments at a town hall meeting that i'm paraphrasing here that effectively said part of the reason drugs were made illegal because african americans quote because of their genetics and heritage are more susceptible to abuse drugs that blew up but that was all after mean that may was made public after the governor made those statements the governor's statements in the speech didn't come as a surprise to me the governor has been criticized by people don't agree with him on policy issues but when it comes to actual issues of you know religious tolerance and peaceful negotiations and things like that he's often because of his spiritual base he's always been big on reconciling getting over differences and trying to get past differences we may have had every year he has around thanksgiving he signed a proclamation saying look everyone i know we have differences but this is a time of year where we should try it passed out evans's with our own family members or their friends our community we've had conflicts in the

past we should we should really make an effort to get past those things so that is kind of the theme that he is put out in the past and so it wasn't a surprise to me to hear come up in there you can finally i dream of a culture of life where every life at every stage is celebrated and cherries but you've already done much to create this with all the legislation protecting an honoring like you passed there have been seventeen thousand fewer abortions in the past six years than in the prior six years seventy two thousand bison are go back into rabbit has consistently than strongly pro life and in this his final state of the state address he once again called on lawmakers to continue to reduce the abortion rate in kansas this is one of the areas where there

were major changes under the governor because before governor brownback for a long time we had democratic or more moderate republican governors who were not as friendly to abortion restrictions so there was kind of this pent up demand for these abortion regulations that when governor brown i came into office people who wanted those changes were able to say here we have it if we fight and get these things through the legislature the governor will sign so he really did you know over see a significant change in that area these are all dreams for kansas if they capture any of your own sense for our future or lettuce band together democrat republican to make them so the big lesson of the people are so wary of political jousting and just wanna see something done what's ay yi journey together with a friend is a

thing of beauty let me end with a story about one of your former colleagues joe and paul's friend of mine on the journey you know again she serve in this body for over twenty years with distinction and grace unable legislator with her husband ron always at her side she never lost sight of her values and what was important to her she lost her last election when she wouldn't compromise rise in less than a year later she lost her life funeral was a celebration of a warrior gone home to her eternal rest love been beloved her life was well lived with a god she served i seen her life in a hospital bed three weeks earlier gone where the earthly worries that so easily distract us she was at peace than any of us i asked her anymore less than a month after jim's passing her replacement in the legislature patsy carroll also passed away unexpectedly you know a moment of

silence for both of them it's big what a striking reminder that life is fleeting dellinger center size to fulfill our purpose without delay and every day we live in these bodies is important it is a reminder to live with purpose and a walk in love and service with our brothers and sisters here in kansas that is our way of life so because of our good people this good land called kansas and the blessings of almighty god i can report to you that the state of our state is indeed strong and very promising god bless you all governor brownback speech was three components it was thanking everybody who you know

or that helped again and through the years it was the school finance and pay hundreds of millions of dollars let's go which so shocked the republicans and i should add at this point that in a year is i don't think i've seen them so many smiles and democrats face to hear that money going to education but the third part was the i have a dream part i talk to younger brownback after the speech and asked them about this as a group the squeeze quite different really than many of his early speeches he said he's been wanting to give a speech or years and sort of thinking about what kansas can be doing now this is really important in his most famous speeches are especially early on for governor brownback he would say that what he wanted for kansas was to be a beacon for the rest of the country to show the rest of the country that

conservative ideology and taxes and social policy and other things can work he was a reaction to the election of broccoli bomb on an especially in health care obamacare to resist resist obamacare and also cut taxes and he said several of his state of the state speech is will show everybody else to look at kansas rather than looking to the democrats and obama for not hearing this here these are relatively small name it was so boring but more practical dreams for the state and their doable and in the budget they've been a later prison after the speech you know lots of bits of millions of dollars for these things cause this it's not going to be billions like the tax cut would take its not rejecting billions like rejecting medicaid expansion a few million dollars to try to be absent get more innovation into

our wichita in and revive the airplane industry its water and here again he talked to me after the speeches he's really excited about water well who's exciting to water your number many people your average kansas isn't that people out it's very important to the state and he spent a lot of time on it but that's not something you sell to the rest of the nation when i care kansas water supply is as vibrant health care it is important to kansas when electricity in a renewable energy is really important in the state of kansas so i had one legislators say after the speech they liked a lot of these things they talked about and they said i wish this would've been his speech in his first year and some issues might've been sort of came true that's bob beatty professor of political science at washburn university will finish up this hour with some last thoughts about the two thousand eighteen state of the state address

and the next day his proposed budget from k pr statehouse bureau chief stephen koranda well so the way or it's his as you mentioned we'd is going to get some broad strokes in the state of the state address them the next day sean solomon governor brownback budget director go before lawmakers and gives them a detailed outline of what the governor is proposing so what he ultimately proposed is this plan to boost education funding but as i said before not with a really specific way to pay for the first chunk of it would be paid for or partially by using some of the things we've done in recent years by shifting highway money not pain that delayed capers payments those kind of things then down the road and not detail plans on how would be paid for in the future so the plan that i'm not exaggerating to say a hugely negative response from lawmakers including moderate republicans who said melissa rutgers a minor republican i've talked to said we had proposed this kind of boost in funding last year and we've done it maybe the court would

have agreed with that and we wouldn't be here now the situation where democrats say he no he just putting this out there without a way to pay for it some conservatives have that same kind of sentiment is putting us out here without a way to pay for it the senate president susan wagle even though she didn't support the tax increase last year she had supported some kind of tax bill and she was very mad that the governor fought them on tax policy last year and then now he's coming back with a bunch of new spending that wouldn't even be close to possible without that tax bill so that's such a negative response at the end of the day the governor's office issued a new statement with the governor basically saying look i realize people on all sides of the aisle are criticizing this but it's not an option to respond to the court he basically reinforced what he said in the speech we have to respond and this is a way to respond that almost surely the court would agree to some people think the court might not accept a multi year plan but there are a

lot of people who think if you say here we have some solid funding plans for the next few years maybe the court would accept stephen given the kind of reflective tone of the state of the state address given the governor's office was surprised by the negative reception they got the fact that he issued a new statement later in the day makes me think they were a little surprised but the governor's budget it's not just this governor all governors they're just a starting point for the legislature so they're often not given the legislature what will ultimately become law they're kind of this blueprint that lawmakers then change a lot of the difference here was the main core issue that he has laid out for this session the six hundred million dollars was just getting this brutal response to the point where he had to say you look we're gonna work with you on something else if you want to do it but we have to respond to the court i'm saying we should do with this much now let's figure out how to do it stephen koranda is k pr statehouse bureau chief a special thanks to steven and to professor bob beatty of

washburn university for their analysis of governor brown bats ate and final state of the state address i'm kate mcintyre k pr presents is a production of kansas public radio at the university of kansas