Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson wasn't alone in in his big cave-in to coal last week. After all, Kansas lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to approve the new governor's hastily announced deal with Sunflower Electric Power Corporation to build just one instead of two new coal-fired power plants in western Kansas, thus ending two years of legislative scrapping.
In the Senate, WyCo Democrat David Haley was out of town so he didn't vote. Everyone else in our local delegation voted yes: Democrats Kelly Kultala and Chris Steineger, and Republicans Karin Brownlee, Jeff Colyer, Julia Lynn, Tim Owens, Mary Pilcher-Cook and John Vratil.
In the House, Democrats Lisa Benlon, Tom Burroughs, Stan Frownfelter, Cindy Neighbor, Mike Peterson and Milack Talia went along with Parkinson. As did Republicans Anthony Brown, Pat Colloton, Owen Donohoe, Terrie Huntington, Mike Kiegerl, Lance Kinzer, Marvin Kleeb, Ray Merrick, Connie O'Brien, Jill Quigley, Arlen Siegfreid, Sheryl Spalding, Kay Wolf, Ron Worley and Kevin Yoder.
Among the lonesome 18 House members who voted against the deal were locals Dolores Furtado, Broderick Henderson, Margaret Long, Louis Ruiz, Mike Slattery and Valdenia Winn.
When he got back to town, Haley told me that last week's news "isn't such a big deal for Parkinson because it's pretty close to what Sebelius offered Sunflower last year: one plant instead of two."
"The whole issue was costing us time and money to defend," he added. "Clearly, whether it's the correct decision or incorrect, the overwhelming majority of the Legislature was for it, though it might not jibe with politically correct opinion. It was time to move forward with the issue. It may not be the best legislation, but it certainly brings resolution."
For what it's worth, here's an accounting of who took campaign contributions from Sunflower last year.
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Thank you for writing this article and letting people know how our legislators voted. The power of the vocal constituent is tremendous. Being in the Kansas Senate for the vote, Sen. Wysong voted no saying it was what his constituents wanted. Sen. Francisco put up a valiant fight to amend the bill and argued for others to vote no. She was also a consistent no vote in the Senate Utilities Committee where the bill, Senate Substitute for HB 2369, was developed in less than 3 days. Since the Governor's agreement with Sunflower was contingent upon this bill passing, anyone voting for it was voting for a 895 MW coal fired power plant to be built.
Please, keep up the good work letting people know what is going on.
Tom Thompson
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