Freshman Kansas representative asks: Why won’t GOP bosses focus on state’s cost of living?

Suzanne Wikle, a Democratic representative from Lawrence, wonders when the Kansas Legislature will get serious about addressing the state’s cost-of-living crisis.

“I think one of the things that’s been most frustrating for me, and perhaps most telling about priorities of Republican leadership, is that we haven’t really done anything this year on the floor that I feel like really helps bring down the cost of everyday life for most Kansans,” she told me Monday.

“I certainly don’t think that we can control how much eggs cost, right? But I do think we can do other things to take pressures off of other aspects of budgets. So those would be things like making health care more accessible and more affordable, bringing down the cost of prescription drugs. Obviously, Medicaid expansion is something I talk about a lot. We could do a lot more around affordability around child care and some of those early learning expenses. We could do a lot more around housing. … There’s a minimum wage bill out there that hasn’t been heard.”

Those in charge at the Statehouse have made other choices. Harmful ones. That makes Wikle’s job and the jobs of others like her even more challenging. They have to keep going, keep working for positive change, and keep working for constituents. There’s no other path forward.

I’ve been following Wikle during her first term as a Kansas lawmaker. We first checked in with her on Jan. 29, as she settled into her office and new role after a long career in advocacy.

In the weeks since, she has navigated an intense calendar and a Republican supermajority concentrated on its own partisan agenda. Members have indulged in conspiracy theories, plotted power grabs and used private school kids as political props. That’s not much of a surprise, to either Wikle or me, but it can discourage nonetheless.

“I feel like any bill that is brought to the House floor … it’s safe to say it’s going to pass, right?” Wikle said during a conversation in late February. “In my first stint in the Statehouse on the other side, that was not always the case. There were votes that were very close, and sometimes you didn’t know if a bill was going to pass before final action was taken on it. And I just feel like that’s very different now.”

In other words — and this is just me speaking now — the fix is in.

Wikle told me that she had enjoyed robust feedback from her Lawrence constituents. I wondered if that had been prompted by the high political drama in Washington, D.C., but the representative said the calls and email messages focused on state issues.

“I have heard a lot about opposing the elimination of the three-day grace period for mail-in ballots,” she said. “… I’ve heard when we were were focused on Senate Bill 63, the anti-trans legislation. I heard a lot from constituents in Lawrence about opposing that. I’ve heard a lot about opposing the changing how judicial selection happens. I’ve heard a lot about school funding and special education funding.”

Working as a state legislator may sound exciting. You do get a title, after all, and an opportunity to work in the soaring halls and chambers of the mighty Kansas Statehouse. But it’s hard work for those who take the job seriously, as Wikle does. When I’ve talked to her for these stories, she’s either finished with one hearing or another, heading home, or planning for the next day. The work doesn’t stop — at least until next month.

As we careen through the second half of the session, I asked what Wikle was looking for as lawmakers wrapped up their work. Would everyone come to their senses? Or would the bad vibes persist through April?

“I’m hoping that at the end of the day or end of the session, we are able to meet our like obligations as a state for school funding,” she said. “The budget right now does not have adequate funding for special education. I think that’s a huge concern. And I hope that if there is a tax package that passes, that it doesn’t put in jeopardy the state being able to meet our required obligations.”

Good luck, then. To the representative, to her colleagues and to all of us.