Rep. Penn: Gov. Kelly’s incompetent Department of Labor costs us big | Commentary
It’s been a tough few months for Gov. Laura Kelly.
Her own incompetence and failed decisions are starting to catch up to her, and Kansans are taking notice just a couple months out from the November election. But there’s one important anniversary that shouldn’t go overlooked among the recent Kelly gaffes and gaslighting.
That would be the anniversary of reports that Laura Kelly’s Kansas Department of Labor was so incompetent that they lost nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in just one year.
On Wednesday, the Unemployment Modernization and Improvement Council held a hearing with KDOL officials where we learned that the total payout to fraudsters was at least $466 million. That money came from the federal government and from Kansas - which really means: you, the Kansas taxpayer.
In the hearing on Wednesday, more bombshells about incompetence were uncovered from Kelly’s KDOL than we originally knew. The KDOL knew that they were compromised and then tried to cover up their blunder. We also learned that when a Kansans’ identity is stolen through the KDOL system, KDOL does not notify the person whose identity has been stolen. Don’t they have a right to know if their private personal information has been compromised?
At the very least, Laura Kelly should take the wise advice of Derek Schmidt, who urged her to provide credit monitoring services to all Kansans to ensure the problem does not get worse. So far, not a peep from Kelly on if she will implement measures Schmidt has called for.
When truly examined, the complete and total incompetence is staggering. How can we trust Laura Kelly, whose job it is to appoint the heads of these agencies, to carry out the business of the state when this is how her departments operate?
Not to mention, Laura Kelly has increased government spending as much as the previous four governors combined. What are Kansans getting for all of their hard-earned money being spent? A seriously hacked KDOL system and incompetence at the highest levels.
Kelly has supported Joe Biden’s reckless spending agenda that has inflation hovering around a 40-year high, gas prices to record highs and a student loan bailout that would exceed $1 trillion. It adds insult to injury that her Labor Department has saddled Kansans with even more debt due to their incompetence.
The Kelly administration was warned over 40 times about the fraud that was occurring and did nothing to fix the problem. Now, Kansans are on the hook for Laura Kelly’s $466 million dollar mismanagement that saddles Kansans with more debt heaped on their shoulders from reckless and inept Democrats, with seemingly no recourse.
To illustrate just how bad it got at KDOL, the department spent upwards of $50 million to hire more operators to field calls from business owners during the pandemic to improve their service.
Yet after spending all that money and hiring 250 new employees, KDOL call response times did not improve. Due to their inability to field calls, Kansans were forced to call their state representatives, who also had difficulty getting results for their constituents due to the ineptitude of the Department of Labor.
The only way to get the attention of the agency seems to be to go to the media, which one small business owner recently did and quickly received a call back from the KDOL. Things got so bad that even fellow Democrats weighed in to urge Kelly to fix the issue. Action was only taken to correct the issues when Republicans stepped up to give the Legislature oversight of the department.
Kelly’s first term has been plagued by gross incompetence and scandals that are disqualifying. She doesn’t represent Kansas values and no amount of gaslighting will make Kansans believe she does.
It’s time for new leadership that will put our state back on the right track and fix the mess Laura Kelly has created.
It’s time to elect Derek Schmidt for Governor of Kansas.
Patrick Penn, a Republican, represents District 85 in Wichita in the Kansas House of Representatives.
