Kris Kobach will pay his contempt order with Kansas taxpayers' money
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) will use taxpayer money to pay the costs associated with being held in contempt by a federal court for failing to register eligible voters.
On Tuesday, the Kansas City Star reported that state lawmakers abandoned an effort during negotiations over the state budget to force Kobach to pay for the contempt order with his own money, rather than state funds.
Sue Becker, an attorney with Kobach’s office, wrote a letter to leading GOP lawmakers, claiming it would be illegal to ban the use of state money to pay for contempt fines because Kobach was sued in his professional capacity and not his personal capacity. Despite the fact that most of the state House was supportive of the prohibition, voting 103-16 to keep it in the budget, the legislature removed it shortly after Becker’s letter.
Kansas taxpayers will be footing Kobach’s bill even though the state is still coming out of a severe budget crisis. After he was elected in 2010, former Gov. Sam Brownback (R) conducted “a real, live experiment,” as he called it, slashing tax rates for the wealthiest Kansas, reducing other income taxes, and cutting sales taxes. As a result of the failed experiment, the state’s economy shrunk significantly.
https://thinkprogress.org/kris-kobach-will-pay-his-contempt-order-with-kansas-taxpayers-money-ba2edb3deeb6/
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