“It’s a pit, isn’t it?” Brownback said of the hospital. “Parsons (State Hospital) is worse than Osawatomie. And so you’ve got these state assets that we haven’t put any money into for years.”
Brownback’s candor about the poor condition of state facilities and their underfunding came minutes after the first of two votes by the U.S. Senate to approve his nomination for ambassador at-large for international religious freedom.
Basking in the dual triumphs of the prison project’s approval and his impending ambassadorship, Brownback pushed back on the suggestion that as the state’s governor since 2011 he had responsibility for the underfunding of state hospitals and prisons.
“For 155 years? No,” Brownback said.
Pressed again on the fact that he had been governor for seven years, Brownback replied, “And we got a new prison, didn’t we?”