By RACHEL MIPRO
Kansas Reflector
Republicans say change would help keep constituents informed
TOPEKA — Legislators are asking to more than double state funding for their newsletters, in an attempt to keep voters aware of their Statehouse actions without tapping into campaign funds.
During a Wednesday meeting, the Republican-controlled Legislative Coordinating Council advocated raising allotments for postage and printing costs, following increases in post office prices.
The U.S. Postal Service raised first-class stamp prices to 66 cents in July, the latest in a series of increases to make the service more profitable.
Committee lawmakers said the state budget should reflect the change. State representatives were allotted $1,439 for postage, with $4,317 in postage set aside for senators in the 2024 fiscal year. The 2024 printing allotment is $1,000 for representatives and $3,000 for senators.
House Speaker Dan Hawkins proposed combining the allotments and setting a newsletter allotment of $6,000 for representatives in the fiscal year 2025, with $18,000 set for senators.
Hawkins said many members of the Legislature had to use campaign funds to keep their constituents up to date on legislative actions. Hawkins said he had to pick and choose which families he sent updates to.
“Just me for an example, I usually send only to registered Republicans and some unaffiliated voters that I believe are active and certainly voting,” Hawkins said. “And so I probably do not hit half of the households in my district. Even with cutting it down to that point, I’m still having to write a check for 5, 6,700 bucks to pay for what I do.”
“I know a lot of us also do email, but we typically like to send out a newsletter after a session or sometime in the interim, letting our whole district know exactly what we did during session and some of the key points,” Hawkins added. “The current structure just does not allow that to happen.”
Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, said increasing the allotment would help lawmakers stay in touch with the communities they serve.
“We believe every elected representative should have at least one communication ability with every registered household,” Masterson said.
Final action on the proposal is likely to come next week.