Senate Republican Wants Local Officials To ‘Feel Some Pain’

By Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector

March 19, 2021

TOPEKA — A Senate Republican expressed reservations Friday about using federal aid to compensate businesses impacted by the pandemic because local officials need to be punished for enforcing public health orders.

Attorneys who sued the state on behalf of a fitness gym in Wichita endorsed legislation that would direct $100 million from the federal stimulus package into a fund administered by the Attorney General’s Office. Under Senate Bill 286, any business could ask for an income tax refund or loan forgiveness to offset the cost of local restrictions on their capacity or hours of operation while under an emergency declaration. The bill also considers any mask mandate enforced beyond May 1 of this year to be a restriction that warrants compensation.

Gov. Laura Kelly and lawmakers who serve on the State Finance Council would sign off on deals brokered by the attorney general.

Sen. Mark Steffen, a Hutchinson Republican who refused to wear a mask and favored essential oils to the science driving public health orders, said he was cautious about resolving business complaints “too easily” with federal money.

“If our leaders don’t feel some pain, they’re not going to learn anything from this,” Steffen said. “We were in a situation where we had a lot of divergent information on what was in the best interest of society. The Kelly administration charted one path, and it was a very, very detrimental path to our economy. To just wash that away, and make it white as snow, doesn’t teach anybody.”

Kelly imposed a monthlong stay-at-home order in April 2020 as the deadly virus began to accelerate across the state. She also placed limits on mass gatherings and, with the help of legislators, asked counties to adopt a mask mandate.

Studies repeatedly underscored the effectiveness of face coverings for slowing the spread of COVID-19. City and county orders to promote physical distancing and other safety measurers were based on advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Steffen said the public health directives should have been recommendations rather than mandates.

“The levels of the government that interceded in our economy with marginal, marginal, marginal to non-existent scientific data, they got to feel pain. They got to feel pushback on this,” Steffen said.

As of Friday, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment has reported 4,842 Kansans have died from the virus. Another 299,510 have tested positive for the virus, exposing them to potential long-term health problems because of the way the virus attacks internal organs.

The pandemic also took its toll on the economy. Restaurants, bars and fitness clubs in particular had to limit their occupancy and hours of operation.

Ryan Kriegshauser, an attorney for Omega Bootcamps, told members of a Senate tax panel that his proposed legislation represented a compromise that would relieve government at all levels from the financial liability of restrictions imposed while under an emergency declaration. The Wichita gym filed a lawsuit against the state last year seeking compensation as outlined in the Kansas Emergency Management Act.

“No one was filing these claims,” Kriegshauser said. “Businesses were complaining about being shut down, being used by the government, and so we decided to take up the procedure that exists in current statute.”

He agreed in December to put the lawsuit on hold while giving the Legislature a chance to consider ways to settle potential claims for thousands of businesses. A competing proposal would force county governments to reimburse businesses for property taxes and lost revenue.

Kriegshauser said the aid package recently passed by Congress includes $1.6 billion for Kansas governments. He envisions as “simplified process” of settling claims through the attorney general’s office, instead of presenting arguments in district courts across 105 counties.

“This is a way to get that federal money to businesses to compensate them for liability that already exists,” Kriegshauser said.

Sen. Caryn Tyson, a Parker Republican and chairwoman of the tax committee, said she was bothered by the idea of limiting settlements to a $100 million fund. She said Kriegshauser wasn’t looking at actual damages to businesses in the state.

“It is massive. I’ve often said that the financial fallout is going to be much worse because of the way — I’m not going to point fingers, but we all know what happened. I’ll let you guys point fingers,” Tyson said.

Sen. Molly Baumgardner, a Louisburg Republican, said it makes sense to approach the liability issue as a class action lawsuit. But, she said, more people need to be involved in the deal, including representatives from all levels of government and different types of businesses.

“My fear, quite frankly, is we’re kind of running out of time,” Baumgardner said. “We need to get moving on this, and the right people need to be at the table.”

She said lawmakers “really need to be looking at this as the opportunity. This is going to be one of the key building blocks for the state to recover from COVID.”