West Kansas
West Kansas was a proposed state of the United States, advocated by a short-lived secessionist movement in the 1990s.
Contents
Background
In May 1992, Kansas Governor Joan Finney signed into law a new school finance formula that adversely affected several south-western Kansas counties.[1] These laws raised taxes and shifted state education funding away from rural school districts and into more urban areas. In reaction to this, a group headed by Don O. Concannon advocated the secession of a number of counties from the state.
Proposals
The group organized a series of straw polls that demonstrated widespread support for secession in nine counties from south-western Kansas:[2] Grant, Haskell, Hodgeman, Kearney, Kiowa, Meade, Morton, Stanton, and Stevens.[1]
On September 11, 1992, a constitutional convention was convened in Ulysses, Kansas, at which it was decided to call the new state "West Kansas".[3] A state bird (the pheasant), and a state flower (the yucca) were also chosen.[2]
Result
The West Kansas secession movement ended rather quickly, and a formal petition for secession was never presented to the Kansas legislature.[1] Seventeen affected school districts filed lawsuits, but at the end of 1994, the Kansas Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the 1992 act.[3]
Peter J. McCormick noted in 1995 that "the real differences between the southwest and the rest of Kansas remain, however, as do issues of school control and unfair taxation."[1]
References
