Topic: Spousal rape
Interview of Joan Wagnon, May 11, 2018
Interviewed by H. Edward (Ed) Flentje
Ed Flentje's interview of former Representative Joan Wagnon covers her 12 years in the state legislature, four years as Mayor of Topeka, and eight years as Secretary of Revenue. She talks about the work of the House Taxation Committee in implementing legislation after passage of a constitutional amendment classifying property for tax purposes. Wagnon discusses the 1992 school finance lawsuit which produced massive change in the school funding formula, including how the concepts were developed and what strategies were used to get them passed. Wagnon describes how the House Democrats interacted with Governor Finney in the 1991 session, when Show MoreFinney vetoed the major tax bill and the Supreme Court found the school finance formula to be unconstitutional. Wagnon served as facilitator for the Children's Initiatives Committee which Speaker Marvin Barkis chaired. That committee produced 14 bills that affected children and families. Wagnon discusses economic development issues in the last part of the interview. Those issues link Wagnon's legislative interests to her work as Mayor of Topeka: neighborhood revitalization, spreading the tax base from city to county for Washburn University and the Topeka Public Library, and developing economic development infrastructure to attract growth and new business for Topeka. She also discusses some of her eight years as Secretary of Revenue, particularly her involvement with the Streamlined Sales Tax.
A version of this interview is also posted on KansasMemory.org, the website of the Kansas Historical Society. Show Less