Good evening. I'm Representative Mike O'Neal, Speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives. Tonight it is my privilege to offer our perspective on the 2010 legislative session from the standpoint of Republican legislative leadership. While these remarks had to be prepared before receiving the Governor's budget message, we look forward to an open dialogue and productive working relationship with Gov. Parkinson in his first full legislative session - a session that will be one of the most challenging in Kansas history and one that will require a renewed commitment to do what is best for all Kansans.

If there is one thing all Kansans understand, it is weathering storms. As long as there has been a Kansas, there have been blizzards, drought, hail, ice, and tornadoes. All Kansans know what it's like to survey the wreckage after a storm. We all know the feeling, some much more than others, of picking up the debris and starting to rebuild. The unbelievably resilient citizens of this state have weathered countless storms and have always built something better in the aftermath.

The opening of the 2010 legislative session finds Kansas in the throes of a serious financial storm. We are facing profound challenges from a deep national recession and are struggling to pick up the pieces and chart a course toward recovery. But like so many Kansas stor
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