If State Sen. Dick Kelsey, R-Goddard, has his way, people could not use state funds to, in turn, sue the state.
Kelsey introduced a concurrent resolution in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday that would ban the use of state funds to be used in suing the state.
The issue stems from the group Schools for Fair Funding that filed a motion earlier this month with the state Supreme Court arguing that Kansas should be spending more money on public education.
"Basically, we don't use taxpayer money to sue the legislature for more money," Kelsey, who is running for Congress, said. "The idea is that anyone can sue whenever they want, but if you were going to tell me that you were going to sue me and want me to write you a check to do it, that is just not right."
The motion filed by Schools for Fair Funding says that the state is not in compliance with the court's 2006 ruling that forced the state to increase funding for public education by $1 billion.
The initial ruling in 2006 was something that Kelsey was not in favor of from the start and should have been appealed to federal court.
"We just accepted the ruling," Kelsey said. "It was ready to get really ugly and we were between a rock and a hard place."
But, Kelsey said that the resolution can apply to more than just the recent school funding issue.
"It applies all the way around," Kelsey said. "We took a bunch of Medicaid money away and do we want people to use the Medicaid money they do have and sue us? I don't think so."
He said that his point in introducing Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 1621 was to, at least, start the discussion on the matter.
His belief is that, if the measure reaches the Senate floor, it will garner "significant" support.
TOPEKASen. Kelsey —
