Oletha Faust-Goudeau

Oletha Faust-Goudeau is a Democratic member of the Kansas Senate, representing the 29th District since 2009. She was previously a Kansas Representative. She was appointed to this position in 2004.

Oletha Faust-Goudeau
Member of the Kansas Senate
from the 29th district
Assumed office
January 3, 2009
Preceded byDonald Betts
Member of the Kansas House of Representatives
from the 84th district
In office
January 26, 2003 – January 3, 2009
Preceded byDonald Betts
Succeeded byGail Finney
Personal details
Born (1959-08-05) August 5, 1959[1]
Wichita, Kansas
Political partyDemocratic
ResidenceWichita, Kansas
Occupationcommunity activist

She is a community activist from Wichita.

Committee assignments

Faust-Goudeau serves on these legislative committees:[2]

  • Ethics and Elections
  • Federal and State Affairs
  • Joint Committee on Arts and Cultural Resources
  • Joint Committee on Children's Issues
  • Commerce
  • Joint Committee on Economic Development
  • Local Government

Major donors

Some of the top contributors to Faust-Goudeau's 2008 campaign, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics:[3]

Kansas National Education Association, Kansans for Lifesaving Cures, KTLA Consumer Civil Justice, Kansas Contractors Association, AT&T

Labor interests were her largest donor group.

Positions

Faust-Goudeau's chief activity has been in protecting rights and services for seniors, the disabled, and children, and in promoting business/development interests. Some legislation which Faust-Goudeau introduced, which became law:

  • "Grandparents' Rights" bills, 3 of which she introduced, became law in 2006-2012—latest became law in 2012 with unanimous Legislative backing—essentially forcing the State and the courts to consider grandparents' for possible custody requests in most child-custody cases in which the State has intervened (e.g.: foster care cases). Prior laws she introduced required grandparents to be heard in foster-care cases, and—if caring for their grandchildren as foster parents—to be reimbursed by the state the same as foster parents.[4][5][6][7]
  • Firefighters' Insurance bill — became law in 2012 with unanimous Legislative backing—ensuring that the families of firefighters killed in action are able to continue receiving protection under their firefighter's insurance coverage for the first 18 months following their firefighter's death in the line of duty.[6][8]
  • Drug paraphernalia prohibition bill — outlawing the distribution of certain kinds of drug paraphernalia, became law.[9]
  • Poor/Working-Class Issues - Representing the inner-city area of Wichita (the state's largest city), Faust-Goudeau frequently takes the lead in speaking out on, and advocating for, the needs and interests of poor and working-class Kansans. Examples include:
  • Opposing welfare restrictions. When the newly-libertarian Kansas Legislature in 2015 began a series of "attacks on the poor," these included bills introduced with exceptionally detailed lists of restrictions on welfare recipients, forbidding a wide range of purchases with welfare money, and limiting welfare cash disbursements to $30 per day, severely complicating bill-payment and other financial management issues for welfare recipients -- unusual restrictions which drew international attention. Faust-Goudeau was the most frequently cited opponent of the proposed restrictions.[10]
  • Food sales tax elimination bill. With the increasingly-libertarian Kansas Legislature in 2014-2015 opposing taxes at every turn, Faust-Goudeau joined with new Republican/libertarian legislator Michael O'Donnell to propose the elimination of sales taxes on food (widely decried as a "regressive" tax disproportionately affecting the poor and working class families, and outlawed in several other states). Specifically, their Senate Bill 263 would have eliminated the state tax on fruits and vegetables. At the time of the bill, the Kansas sales tax on groceries was among the highest in the nation (second only to Mississippi), further aggravated by Kansas localities often adding additional taxes to groceries. However, during a growing state funding crisis brought on by Republicans' previous tax-cutting measures, the grocery tax-relief bill faced little support from the Republican/Libertarian-controlled legislature and Governor. But, at the close of the 2015 Legislative Session, a variation of Faust-Goudeau's plan passed the Kansas Senate, and (at this writing, June 8, 2015) awaits House approval.[11][12][13][14][15][16]

Recognition

"Legislator of the Year Award, 2011," by the "Silver-Haired Legislature"—a prominent Kansas senior-citizens' lobbying organization. [17]

"10 to Watch in 2010"—list of 10 noteworthy leaders cited by the state's largest newspaper, the Wichita Eagle.[18]

"Perfect Attendance" record—appearing for all Senate votes, in 2010, 2011—according to various press releases by the Senate Minority Leaders' Office, and other sources. [19]

Memberships

Current & former board memberships

[20]
  • Wichita Habitat for Humanity executive board,
  • Legal Services of Wichita executive board,
  • League of Women Voters
  • KPTS (public TV station) Community Advisory Board,
  • NAACP Wichita Branch
  • City of Wichita Human Services Board
gollark: Not everything can be redone in the RAM-limited combinatorial-logicky way.
gollark: For the tasks computers do, which would probably be nontrivial to rework with the very different capabilities of FPGAs, CPUs on dedicated silicon can't be beaten *by* FPGAs.
gollark: I'm pretty sure they're essentially required to be somewhat worse power/perf-wise than ASICs implementing the same thing.
gollark: Semiconductor production is literally the most capital intensive industry.
gollark: You can't.

See also

Oletha Faust-Goudeau on her:

References
  1. http://www.kanfocus.com/FMPro.php?-DB=House_Profiles_KS&-Lay=Contact&-format=Contact_Senate.html&Name=Oletha%20Faust-Goudeau,%20D-29th&-find
  2. Profile from the Kansas Legislature
  3. Oletha Faust-Goudeau 2008 campaign contributions
  4. "Senator pushes for grandparents' rights," February 25, 2012, CJonline.com, Topeka Capital-Journal newspaper
  5. "State Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau files for re-election," April 26, 2012, Wichita Eagle newspaper, Topeka bureau, by Dion Lefler.
  6. "Grandparents, firefighters celebrate bill signings," June 1, 2012 excerpt from "Author Archives: Dion Lefler", WichiTopekIngton archives, Wichita Eagle newspaper.
  7. "Good work on grandparents’ rights," June 10, 2012 excerpt from "Category Archives: Child welfare", WE Blog, Wichita Eagle newspaper.
  8. "New Kansas laws help seniors, families of firefighters killed," June 3, 2102, Tulsa World newspaper (from the Wichita Eagle)
  9. "NAACP Wants Drug Paraphernalia Out of Shops," Jan. 19, 2007, Wichita Eagle, reprinted on Media Awareness Project at mapinc.org
  10. Marso, Andy, "Kansas Senate Passes Passel Of Welfare Restrictions" Apr 2, 2015, KCUR-FM radio news.
  11. "Wichita senators seek to eliminate grocery sales tax", Wichita Business Journal, Oct 22, 2014
  12. "2 senators seek to eliminate food sales tax in Kansas", The Salina Post, Oct. 22, 2014
  13. Weeks, Bob, editor, "Kansas sales tax on groceries is among the highest", October 21, 2014, WichitaLiberty.org (prominent Wichita Libertarian news blog)
  14. Wingerter, Justin "Legislators Debate Sales Tax on Food", June 3, 2015, Topeka Capital-Journal in the Salina Journal
  15. "Kansas Senate considers eliminating food sales tax", Feb. 24, 2015, WDAF-TV "Fox 4 KC"
  16. "Kansas Senate approves tax increases, state budget", June 7, 2015, Wichita Eagle in Kansas City Star
  17. "Silver-Haired Legislature Names Faust-Goudeau 'Legislator of the Year'," October 13, 2011, The Oskaloosa Independent newspaper, Valley Falls , Kansas
  18. "10 to Watch in 2009: Oletha Faust-Goudeau," Dec. 28, 2008 item listing under "10 to Watch" articles in Wichita Eagle archives, on Newsbank.com
  19. "Nearly half of Kansas Senate had perfect voting attendance," June 21, 2011, by Earl Glynn, KansasWatchdog.org
  20. "Blogger profile: Oletha Faust-Goudeau - Representative District 84 Kansas House, 2008"
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