WICHITA — Few Kansans can name the lieutenant governor but Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson may have broken the mold. Parkinson is the first lieutenant governor to be elevated to the top spot for more than a few months and when he succeeded Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who was named as a member of President Obama’s Cabinet, he faced severe budget problems and a controversy over proposed coal-fired power plants in western Kansas that had the Statehouse virtually paralyzed, said Ed Flentje, professor at Wichita State’s Hugo Wall School of Urban and Public Affairs. After announcing he wouldn’t run for re-election as governor, Parkinson stepped out boldly. Within weeks, he had negotiated deal on the coal-plant proposal and gave a major boost to the alternative energy industry, then immediately faced a $400 million shortfall in state revenues, Flentje said. Democrat Parkinson made deep cuts in state spending and after another $200 million shortfall, forced through the Republican-dominated Legislature a temporary sales tax increase, he said. Parkinson will leave the state in better stead than he found it, Flentje said. Parkinson recently announced that starting in January, he will become president and CEO of the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living.
Monday, Sept. 27, 2 p.m.
