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Anthony Hensley
DWon the General, 2016 Kansas State Senate District 19
Won the General, 2012 Kansas State Senate District 19
Kansas State Senate, District 19 (1992 - Present)
Member, Democratic Precinct (1976 - Present)
To be claimed
Member, Workers Compensation Fund Oversight, 1993-present
Former Member, Assessment and Taxation Committee, Kansas State Senate
Former Ranking Minority Member, Education Committee, Kansas State Senate
Former Member, Kansas Security Committee, Kansas State Senate
Former Member, Pensions, Investments and Benefits Committee, Kansas State House of Representatives Senate
Former Ranking Minority Member, Select Committee on Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS), Kansas State Senate
Former Member, Subcommittee on Education, Kansas State Senate
Former Member, Transportation Committee, Kansas State Senate
Member, Mayor's Commission on Affordable Housing, 1990-1994
Chair, 2nd District Democratic Committee, 1991-1992
Chair, Shawnee County Democratic Central Committee, 1981-1986
Vice Chair, Confirmation Oversight
Ranking Minority Member, Interstate Cooperation
Member, Judicial Subcommittee
Member, Legislative and Elected Officials Subcommittee
Member, Legislative Coordinating Council
Member, Legislative Post Audit
Ranking Minority Member, Select Committee on Education Finance
Member, Subcommittee on Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS)
Member, Subcommittee on Labor and Human Rights
Member, Subcommittee on Regulatory Boards and Commissions
Member, Ways and Means
Names of Grandchildren:
Brighton, Lily
— Number of Grandchildren:
1. Abortions should always be illegal.
- No Answer
2. Abortions should always be legal.
- No Answer
3. Abortions should be legal only within the first trimester of pregnancy.
- No Answer
4. Abortions should be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape.
- No Answer
5. Abortions should be legal when the life of the woman is endangered.
- No Answer
6. Prohibit public funding of abortions and of organizations that advocate or perform abortions.
- No Answer
7. Abortion clinics should be treated like surgical centers and regulated by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
- No Answer
8. Other or expanded principles
- X
1. Education (higher)
- Slightly Increase
2. Education (K-12)
- Greatly Increase
3. Environment
- Maintain Status
4. Health care
- Greatly Increase
5. Law enforcement
- Maintain Status
6. Transportation and highway infrastructure
- Maintain Status
7. Welfare
- Maintain Status
8. Other or expanded categories
- No Answer
1. Alcohol taxes
- Maintain Status
2. Capital gains taxes
- Maintain Status
3. Cigarette taxes
- Maintain Status
4. Corporate taxes
- Maintain Status
5. Gasoline taxes
- Maintain Status
6. Income taxes (incomes below $75,000)
- Maintain Status
7. Income taxes (incomes above $75,000)
- Slightly Increase
8. Inheritance taxes
- Maintain Status
9. Property taxes
- Greatly Decrease
10. Sales taxes
- Slightly Increase
11. Vehicle taxes
- Greatly Decrease
12. Other or expanded categories
- No Answer
13. Should Internet sales be taxed?
- No
14. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Do you support the creation of a limited number of state-owned "destination casinos" in Kansas?
- No Answer
2. Do you support allowing slot machines at Kansas's five pari-mutuel racing tracks?
- No Answer
3. Do you support offering as many as five video slot machines to each of Kansas's two hundred forty veterans and fraternal clubs?
- No Answer
4. Other or expanded principles
- I support allowing voters to vote on all three of these proposals.
1. Do you support the current limit of two consecutive four-year terms for Kansas governors?
- Yes
2. Do you support limiting the number of terms for Kansas state senators and representatives?
- No
1. Individual
- No
2. PAC
- No
3. Corporate
- No
4. Political Parties
- No
5. Do you support requiring full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information?
- Yes
6. Do you support imposing spending limits on state level political campaigns?
- No
7. Do you support adopting statewide standards for counting, verifying, and ensuring accuracy of votes?
- Yes
8. Do you support prohibiting the reporting of media exit polling results until all polling locations in Kansas are closed?
- No
9. Should Kansas's Liquor Control Act apply uniformly to all Kansas cities and counties?
- No
10. Should Kansas issue temporary driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants?
- No
11. Should Kansas recognize civil unions between same-sex couples?
- No
12. Should Kansas restrict marriage to a union only between a man and a woman?
- Yes
1. Other or expanded principles
- j) It already is restrictedCurrent Kansas law, enacted in 1867, defines marriage as a civil contract between one man and one woman. I support current law.
1. Increase state funds for construction of state prisons and for hiring of additional prison staff.
- No Answer
2. Support the death penalty in Kansas.
- No Answer
3. Support programs to provide prison inmates with vocational and job-related skills and job-placement assistance when released.
- X
4. End parole for repeat violent offenders.
- X
5. Implement penalties other than incarceration for certain non-violent offenders.
- X
6. Decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana.
- No Answer
7. Strengthen penalties and sentences for drug-related crimes.
- X
8. Minors accused of a violent crime should be prosecuted as adults.
- No Answer
9. Increase state funding for community centers and other social agencies in areas with at-risk youth.
- X
10. Increase funding for state and local emergency agencies to prevent and to respond to terrorist attacks.
- X
11. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Support national standards and testing of public school students.
- No Answer
2. Provide parents with state-funded vouchers to send their children to any public school.
- No Answer
3. Provide parents with state-funded vouchers to send their children to any private or religious school.
- No Answer
4. Increase state funds for school capital improvements (e.g. buildings and infrastructure).
- X
5. Increase state funds for hiring additional teachers.
- X
6. Support teacher testing and reward with merit pay.
- No Answer
7. Endorse voluntary prayer in public schools.
- No Answer
8. Require public schools to administer high school exit exams.
- No Answer
9. Provide state funding to increase teacher salaries.
- X
10. Increase funding for Head Start programs.
- No Answer
11. Provide state funding for tax incentives and financial aid to help make college more affordable.
- X
12. Support sexual education programs that include information on abstinence, contraceptives, and HIV/STD prevention methods.
- X
13. Support abstinence-only sexual education programs.
- No Answer
14. Support in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants who are Kansas high school graduates.
- X
15. A district judge has ruled that Kansas' system of financing schools is inadequate. What are your proposals for increasing Kansas' aid to education. Please use forty (40) words or less.
- I supported Governor Kathleen Sebelius' Education First Plan EXCEPT her proposal to increase the statewide property tax mill levy. I opposed increasing property taxes statewide and locally. We need to reduce property taxes. Money needs to go directly into the classroom.
16. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Increase funding for state job-training programs that re-train displaced workers and teach skills needed in today's job market.
- X
2. Reduce state government regulations on the private sector in order to encourage investment and economic expansion.
- No Answer
3. Provide low interest loans and tax credits for starting, expanding, or relocating businesses.
- X
4. Provide tax credits for businesses that provide child care for children in low-income working families.
- X
5. Increase state funds to provide child care for children in low-income working families.
- No Answer
6. Include sexual orientation in Kansas' anti-discrimination laws.
- No Answer
7. Increase the state minimum wage.
- X
8. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Public employment
- Yes
2. State college and university admissions
- Yes
3. State contracting
- Yes
4. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Promote increased use of alternative fuel technology.
- X
2. Support increased production of traditional domestic energy sources (e.g. coal, natural gas, and oil).
- No Answer
3. Use state funds to clean up former industrial and commercial sites that are contaminated, unused, or abandoned.
- X
4. Support funding for open space preservation.
- No Answer
5. Enact environmental regulations even if they are stricter than federal law.
- No Answer
6. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Maintain and strengthen the enforcement of existing state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns.
- No Answer
2. Ease state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns.
- No Answer
3. Repeal state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns.
- No Answer
4. Allow citizens to carry concealed guns.
- X
5. Require manufacturers to provide child-safety locks on guns.
- X
6. Require background checks on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows.
- No Answer
7. Require a license for gun possession.
- No Answer
8. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Ensure that citizens have access to basic health care through managed care, insurance reforms, or state-funded care where necessary.
- X
2. Transfer more existing Medicaid recipients into managed care programs.
- No Answer
3. Limit the amount of punitive damages that can be awarded in medical malpractice lawsuits.
- No Answer
4. Support patients' right to sue their HMOs.
- X
5. Support patients' right to appeal to an administrative board of specialists when services are denied.
- X
6. Guaranteed medical care to all citizens is not a responsibility of state government.
- No Answer
7. Legalize physician assisted suicide in Kansas.
- No Answer
8. Allow doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes.
- No Answer
9. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Support increased work requirements for able-bodied welfare recipients.
- No Answer
2. Increase funding for employment and job training programs for welfare recipients.
- X
3. Increase access to public transportation for welfare recipients who work.
- X
4. Limit benefits given to recipients if they have additional children while on welfare.
- No Answer
5. Redirect welfare funding to faith-based and community-based private organizations.
- No Answer
6. Use federal TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) funds to extend health and child care subsidies to the working poor.
- X
7. Support marriage promotion programs for welfare recipients.
- No Answer
8. Eliminate government-funded welfare programs.
- No Answer
9. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
Please explain in a total of 75 words or less, your top two or three priorities if elected. If they require additional funding for implementation, please explain how you would obtain this funding.
- No Answer
Type: bill Chamber: upper
Type: resolution Chamber: upper
Type: resolution Chamber: upper
By Tim Carpenter A national bipartisan organization of state legislators led by a Kansan is nervous about the possibility of Congress rolling back federal spending without eliminating corresponding policy mandates on states. Lawmakers from around the country serving in the National Conference of State Legislatures are keen to influence U.S. representatives and senators embarking this fall on a high-stakes debate about how best to cut $1.2 trillion in federal appropriations. The topic of unfunded mandates and a handful of other points of emphasis were raised with congressional leaders by NCSL in a letter signed by Kansas state Sen. Steve Morris, a farmer from southwest Kansas who holds down duties as president of the national advocacy organization. "Unfunded mandates have been an issue for a long time," Morris said. "Requirements without funding. That's certainly a possibility." Kansas Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, said Morris was correct to be wary of federal officials dumping more responsibility on states. He said the situation highlighted the folly of a decision by Gov. Sam Brownback to return $31.5 million to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services earmarked for development of an exchange system to help Kansans research, enroll and buy health insurance to comply with federal law. "That was a funded mandate," Hensley said. NCSL member committees requested Congress reshape the budget in ways that didn't grind down federal investment in transportation programs to improve highways, bridges, airports, harbors and rail systems. These initiatives are capable of putting people to work throughout the nation, Morris said, but not enough of the recent federal stimulus funding found its way to infrastructure targets. "One of the big disappointments I've seen in the last three or four years," Morris said. Other areas of concern to NCSL: ■ Medicaid: Continue funding to states and develop a trigger to expand spending amid economic downturns. ■ Sales tax: Improve fairness of collections on Internet sales. ■ Public safety: Designate federal auction of communications spectrum to support local first responders. ■ "Pre-emption:" Uphold states' authority in areas of medical malpractice and public employee retirement systems. Brownback, a Topeka Republican, said broad reductions in federal funding would be applied to programs throughout the state government. "Almost every federal official I've talked with recently is talking about budget cuts in their area," the governor said. "Everybody is going to take a cut." Brownback, a former U.S. senator, said he was concerned more with precisely how federal officials filtered reductions down to Kansas. Some deductions from federal aid, he said, could be more damaging to the state than others. Federal crop insurance, for example, holds greater significance to the state's farm economy than other potential reductions in agriculture, the governor said. Brownback said the best approach would be for the joint House-Senate committee responsible for developing a budget-reduction plan to determine financial targets in each area of government. Regular congressional committees can best determine how to trim spending, he said. That conforms to the thinking of U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, who is apprehensive modification of U.S. Department of Agriculture programs could damage Kansas. "The federal debt and deficit are out of control," he said. "All USDA programs should be under consideration in a budget review, and the agriculture committees with the best experience and knowledge of those programs should lead in that effort." U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., said $650 million in federal funding was hanging in the balance for the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility. The new government laboratory on the Kansas State University campus in Manhattan would be built to conduct research on animal diseases capable of being transmitted to humans. If operational as planned in 2015, it would replace an aging facility in New York state. "I think it moves ahead," the congressman said. "You've got to do the research."
