“Local control” is becoming the most abused term in the Kansas legislature. Bills to change how judges are selected and link courts’ funding to anything other than what they need have more to do with school funding cases than “local control”.
“Sen. Jeff King, R-Independence, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the issue about how chief judges are named is a matter of ‘local control’ over district courts because chief judges have a great deal of discretion in allocating district court funds, hiring staff and even assigning cases to other judges…
“It leads me to only one conclusion, and that is that the Legislature is attempting once again to hold a gun to the head of the courts in an attempt to intimidate the courts into ruling in the school finance case in a way that pleases some members of the Legislature,” [Rep. John] Carmichael said.”
Read more here: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2015/may/18/bill-threatens-de-fund-kansas-judicial-branch/