On license plates, Laura Kelly listened to Kansans. Why doesn’t the Legislature? | Opinion

Turns out, it’s not “my way or the highway” with Laura Kelly.

Last week, Kansas’ governor introduced a new standard license plate design that the Department of Revenue would begin issuing next year. It was simple and graphic: an all-caps “KANSAS” at the top, with two stars at the sides and a stylized “to the stars” — a translation of part of the “Ad Astra per Aspera” state motto — at the bottom.

But the colors, we reckon, were a problem for some. The plates featured “wheat-yellow,” black and “midnight blue.” And that combination screamed University of Missouri to a lot of people. Star reporter Lisa Gutierrez tallied up a lengthy list of complaints from X.com, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Best thing Kansas can do is release a black and gold license plate. #MIZ,” wrote one typical Mizzou-loving faultfinder.

Of course, we’re talking about social media in 2023, where overblown outrage is the currency of the day. People have always loved to whine and moan, and despite its name change, X is still the forum of choice for venting spleens. Culture warrior extraordinaire Attorney General Kris Kobach even took the opportunity to make graphic design partisan, bleating: “First our NY born Gov brings NY policies. Now NY plates!”

(For the record, our regular opinion correspondent Joel Mathis welcomed the new design, which he found “fun, distinctive and exciting to look at.” We rounded up reader responses, too. Read some of them here.)

But Gov. Kelly was listening to the grievances. “I promised to be a bipartisan governor, and I think we can all admit — I succeeded at bringing Kansans across the political aisle together in disliking this new license plate,” she wrote in a statement Tuesday. So her administration will be sharing a new set of plates for Kansans to vote on, and we’ll soon see what the public wants to put on its cars and trucks.

In other words, responsive leadership. Paying attention to what her constituents are asking for, even in a matter so ultimately trivial. Because, sure, we understand people who see Tigers black and gold first in the proposed new plates. And we’re all for putting it to a vote.

But let’s not forget that you’re hardly limited to just one look on your bumper. The state already offers almost 50 “Kansas Distinctive License Plates.” Want to boost the Pittsburg State Gorillas? Tell other motorists that you “Choose Life”? Or display your disdain for government (oh, the irony) with a coiled snake on a yellow “Don’t Tread On Me” Gadsden flag? There are plates for all those, and many more.

So no drivers were going to be forced to bolt on plates they objected to. Yet the fact that Kelly changed course is sadly novel in Kansas today — and we wish the Legislature would take note.

An overwhelming majority of the population supports expanding KanCare, the state’s Medicaid program. As it is, Kansans keep sending money to the 40 other states that have already taken this crucial step toward reducing everyone’s health care costs by making it easier for people with low incomes to see a doctor when they’re sick. But Republicans in Topeka keep saying no.

Voters saw through the misleading “Value Them Both” amendment last year that would have allowed the GOP supermajority to further restrict reproductive rights in the state, knocking it down by a wide margin. But GOP lawmakers keep introducing unnecessary new antiabortion laws.

Things aren’t much better across the state line, where the Republican-controlled General Assembly got to work immediately trying to overturn the “Clean Missouri” open records law voters passed in 2018. And it keeps trying to thwart the public will via initiative petitions.

Kansas License Plategate was over swiftly. And it was no big deal.

Now, imagine what it would be like if we could rely on everyone in Topeka and Jefferson City to follow the will of the voters on the issues that really matter.