1. Background

2. Proposals

3. Result

4. References

West Kansas was a proposed state of the United States, advocated by a short-lived secessionist movement in the 1990s.

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:^[1] Grant, Haskell, Hodgeman, Kearny, Kiowa, Meade, Morton, Stanton, and Stevens.^[2]

On September 11, 1992, a constitutional convention was convened in Ulysses, Kansas, at which it was decided to call the new state "West Kansas".^[4] A state bird (the pheasant), and a state flower (the yucca) were also chosen.^[1]

Result

The West Kansas secession movement ended rather quickly, and a formal petition for secession was never presented to the Kansas legislature.^[2] 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."^[2]

References

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• The Abduction of Europa (Rembrandt)
• The Aberdare Leader
• The Aberdare Times
• The Aberdeen Journal
• The Aberdeen Society of Architects
• The Aberdeen Strangler
• The Aberrant Years
• The Abhi Kathachitra
• The Abhi Pictures
• The Abide Guide
• The Abidjan Transport Company