(Updated to include Republican reaction with edits throughout)
Gov. Laura Kelly on Tuesday announced she was vetoing a bill passed during an around-the-clock session of the Legislature that restricted her ability to tackle the coronavirus pandemic gripping the state.
The governor said she would immediately issue a new 15-day emergency declaration to replace the one that expires at midnight tonight although the attorney general has questioned whether multiple emergency declarations can be issued for the same event.
She also is calling the Legislature into a special session on June 3 to extend the emergency declaration. The new declaration will expire on June 10.
This would be the 24th special session in Kansas history with the first in 1874 to deal with a grasshopper plague destroying crops
“The Legislature must come back, stop playing politics and extend the deadline of the new declaration,” she said.
“If the Legislature fails to act, the results will be disastrous to cities and counties,” she said. “We are not likely to get a third shot at getting this right.
“This should not be a partisan issue. We need legislation that reflects this.”
She also said that her plan for reopening the state’s economy is now guidance not an order, explaining that it would be up to counties to set their own limits on movement and mass gatherings.
“We are putting the authority and the responsibility for implementing safety precautions – whatever they may be related to businesses – on our county officials,” she said.
“I think our county officials have shown themselves to be incredibly responsible through all of this. If anything, they’ve instituted more strict restrictions than even the state.”
House Republican leadership – Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr., Majority Leader Dan Hawkins and Speaker Pro Tem Blaine Finch – said in a statement that Kelly’s announcement was only muddling the issue for Kansans.
“In times of crisis and fear, leaders have an obligation to provide stability and take steps to protect the people they serve,” the Republican leaders said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, the actions taken today…do nothing but create more uncertainty and less stability for Kansas,” they said.
Kelly conceded that allowing local governments to decide how to respond to the pandemic would lead to confusion.
“Unfortunately, this is a direct result of the Legislature’s unfortunate actions.”
Kelly is vetoing the wide-ranging bill that not only limits her executive authority during an emergency, but includes new legislative oversight on how federal coronavirus relief money is spent, changes in unemployment law, adds new civil liability immunity and requires nursing home inspections.
Officials said the Legislature cannot override the governor’s veto at the special session because it would be a new legislative session.
The governor’s veto marks the latest twist in an increasingly tumultuous relationship with the Legislature that started during Holy Week when she capped the number of people allowed at religious activities.
The divisiveness flared again last week after the Legislature convened overnight and hurriedly passed the broad legislation.
Kelly has been sharply critical of the Legislature’s work on the emergency powers’ law, saying it was driven by fierce political partisanship.
She was highly critical of how the Legislature raced through the dead of night to pass the legislation in the early hours of Friday morning without giving lawmakers ample time to digest what was in the bill.
“The process was messy, confusing and complicated, but it didn’t have to be,” Kelly said.
“This was not the work of the better angels of our nature,” Kelly said. “Instead it was symbolic of our ills – partisan, self serving and short sighted.”
Senate President Susan Wagle claimed victory after the Kelly’s announcement.
“We heard a lot of derogatory statements about the Legislature. She spent a lot of time condemning our work,” Wagle said.
“But we won. She’s just opened Kansas. That was our goal,” she said.
The Kansas Chamber of Commerce expressed disappointment about the governor’s veto of the bill.
“While not perfect, this legislation would have provided certainty for Kansans and for the state’s business community during these uncertain times,” said Chamber President Alan Cobb said in a statement.
“”It is our hope Gov. Kelly and the Kansas Legislature work quickly together during the special session to resolve the issues between them and provide Kansans and the state’s business community the assurances needed to safely move our economy forward.”
The Legislature was under pressure to pass a new law regulating the governor’s emergency powers after only agreeing to extend her second emergency disaster declaration through May 26. Her first declaration ended May 1.
Letting the current disaster declaration expire on May 26 threatened the executive orders she put in place to address the public health emergency facing the state.
The bill passed Friday would have extended the disaster declaration to May 31, after which the governor would need State Finance Council approval for a 30-day extension. The governor could return to the Finance Council for new extensions.
The bill also would have given the governor the authority to close businesses during a disaster declaration for up to 15 days with any extension not more than 30 days needing approval from a supermajority of the State Finance Council.
The bill also would have allowed counties to issue orders related to public health that could be less rigorous than the statewide emergency declaration.
Kelly said Tuesday she had no concerns about the legal questions raised about her issuing another emergency declaration.
Last week, Kelly pointed out that that the attorney general’s opinion “while valuable, is just that, it is an opinion.”
“The courts are the ones who make the rulings on whether something is constitutional or not,” she said.
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