John Milburn/AP - Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas is a career politician. He has served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
The Kochs “have been handed the keys to the governor’s office,” said state Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Democrat. “They have a tremendous amount of influence in Kansas politics and nationally.”
Melissa Cohlmia, the director of corporate communication for Koch Cos. Public Sector, said the Kochs have given generously to Brownback because they share similar ideals related to free-market economics and fiscal responsibility.
Bill Kassebaum, a Republican former state representative and son of former U.S. senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-Kan.), said Brownback has struck a tone that, so far, has resonated with many Kansans.
“I would say the majority of voters are happy with it,” Kassebaum said. “I don’t think the realities or consequences of pursuing these policies have kicked in yet. When they do it’s going to be the age-old question, ‘What do we want as far as services from the government?’ ”
“I think a lot of people don’t realize the role government plays in their lives until it’s gone,” he added. “They may not be happy with what’s left.”
In a windswept corner of the prairie, Julie Britton is the economic development director of tiny Rawlins County — population 2,519. She voted for the governor. But she is also a member of an arts group that works in the isolated rural counties that lost $9,000 in cutbacks. As a result, her town will have just two shows this year, a guitar concert and a children’s performance of “Chicken Little.”
“We all expected him to have to make some changes,” she said. “We didn’t expect for him to make as many drastic changes as he has made.”
Aggressive cuts
One of Brownback’s top lieutenants was Robert Siedlecki Jr., a former legal adviser on faith-based initiatives in the George W. Bush administration. Brownback hired Siedlecki this year to be Kansas’s secretary of social and rehabilitation services.
Siedlecki cut dozens of jobs, closed offices, doubled the size of the team that investigates welfare cheats and rewrote state contracts to encourage providers of state services to promote pro-fatherhood and pro-family ideals. He also hired a Florida pastor, Rick Marks, to head the state’s new healthy-marriage initiative. Marks has been described by some as the state’s “marriage guru.”
After less than a year on the job, Siedlecki resigned this month. But some of his legacy remains.
To help fund its new fatherhood initiative, Kansas has shifted $600,000 from an Early Head Start program in Riley County, which has double the state’s percentage of residents in poverty. Head Start officials said they already have strong fatherhood programming in place and that they would rather have used those funds to get children off the waiting list for day care.
“Dr. Marks — we have a ‘marriage guru’ now — came out to our program, and he was shocked at all the things we do at Head Start,” said Korey Hensley, the director of Heartland Early Education in Salina. “He said, ‘Oh, you do family preservation!’ I said, ‘Absolutely.’ ”
As the opening session of the state legislature approaches in January, officials are preparing for another bruising budget battle. Brownback plans to revamp the state’s tax system with cuts to the income tax rates and plans to change the 20-year-old funding formula for schools, a move that opponents fear could benefit wealthier districts.
“It will be a bloodbath,” said state Sen. Laura Kelly, a Democrat. “There’s going to be a raft of things that will come, but details are lacking. It’s all been so clandestine.”
For his part, Brownback sounded a triumphant note during his recent speech in Wichita.
“We’ve started our reforms,” he said. “It’s going to take some time. We’ve gotten off to a good start.”
Staff researcher Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report.
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