What do you see as the three greatest challenges facing Kansas right now?
“Our reputation, our tax structure in reference to education and developing our economy into a 21st century economy. If you solve the third, you’ve also solved numbers one and two.
“As far as our reputation, Kansas is fodder for jokes on late-night TV. We have a guy in Topeka who disrupts military funerals across the nation. We have a school board that’s getting involved in the minutiae of the science curriculum. Kansas is a joke. We deserve better than that.
“With our tax structure, we have to provide for the future without mortgaging the past. I have an idea — a ‘shock absorber’ on property taxes where you can defer payments on the increase for a year. You’re still paying taxes and we still collect taxes as the base builds. But now people can budget for it.”
Perhaps the highest profile issue in the Legislature last session was education. Tell me what you think of the bill that was passed and what more, if anything, needs to be done to help education in the future?
“We’ve approved a budget and right now we need to protect that budget. We have met our constitutional obligation and we need to continue to meet our constitutional obligation while continuing to make sure students get the education we need.
“It was recently reported that Emporia’s schools failed to meet the standards for improvement. We need to find out why. If the problem is money, then we can spend money on it. But if it’s for other reasons, you can throw all the money in the world at it and it won’t go away.”
Economic development has always been a crucial consideration for Kansas. How do you see the overall economic picture in this state? What needs to be done to help the state grow?
“The last numbers that we’ve seen show the state is doing very well. It’s growing very well under Gov. Sebelius. But we’re not seeing those increases in Emporia. We’re still hurting from last year and one of the best examples is in Birch Telecom.
“How do you solve that? We need to be more aggressive. We are at the juncture of two major highways and geographically we are in the center of the nation. It’s equally expensive to ship things north, south, east or west from here. We should take advantage of that to get more manufacturing and we need to be taking advantage of TIF (tax increment financing, which uses the taxes from new businesses to help pay for construction costs that provide public benefits). We’re not selling ourselves effectively.
“At the same time, in Salina, they brought in a galvanization plant that promised hundreds of jobs and it has yet to deliver. So these TIF agreements need to protect Kansas.”
An expansion of gambling has been proposed by some as one way to help the state raise funds while others consider it a step in the wrong direction. Where do you stand and why?
“I have half a plan on that. If we decided to increase gambling, we should put it in Wyandotte County and Johnson County and put it in direct competition with the river casinos in Missouri. All the arguments about casinos have to do with their effect on the area. These areas already have casinos there. But that’s the only extent I would see to increase gambling.”
Tell me what you have to offer the 60th District. Why should we vote for you instead of your opponent?
“I ask myself that every day and here’s what I came up with. I look at my opponent and I see a good man, but I see a maverick. His party doesn’t have to take him seriously. The leadership there has their coalition already — he’s extraneous. You vote for Charles Long and he’s going to look much the same as Don Hill, but he’s going to have some say within a caucus.”