Kansas City, Mo. - Kansas Lt. Governor Jeff Colyer is days away from being sworn in as the state’s next governor.
Colyer sat down with 41 Action News this morning to talk about his plans as the next governor.
“Its a new day in Kansas. We have a lot to do in our state and we are in a new time,” said Colyer.
Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence had to break a 49-49 tie in the Senate to confirm outgoing Governor Sam Brownback for his new post in the Trump administration.
Brownback will soon head to D.C. to be the next Ambassador at Large for Religious Freedom.
We asked Dr. Colyer about his vision for Kansas. He says he won’t focus on the past drama, but instead will focus on how to move the state forward.
“We are working to prioritizing growing the economy,” he said, “making sure we have good schools and fiscal responsibility.”
In Brownback’s “State of the State” message, he talked about school funding. The big question has been how will the state pour more money into schools.
In October, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the current school funding system is unconstitutional and doesn’t provide enough money to properly educate Kansas students. The court also said the state doesn’t distribute money to schools fairly.
The court ordered the legislature to fix the problem by June.
Colyer says he will accomplish this without raising taxes, but didn’t give any details on how he will do it.
“Short answer is no. What we need to do is prioritize schools, we will look at the budget. We will make sure our schools stay open and grow. I am looking at the long run and I am committed to working with parents, school and the legislature to get this done.”
Colyer also addressed transparency in the lawmaking process. Some have been critical of the way the Kansas Legislature votes, saying that lawmakers are not transparent in the way they introduce bills and that they don’t vote on the record. In response, earlier this week Kansas House Speaker Ron Ryckman (R - Olathe) ordered an end to bills that don’t identify the sponsors.
This morning Colyer said, “I believe in transparency. Information is critical to folks. You will see a lot of proposals from us on the executive side. It makes you a better manager, it makes you get accountability, its not always pretty how its done, but we will get that result.”
Brownback is expected to resign sometime next week, at which point Colyer will be sworn in as governor.
