Seeking re-election, Hill talks about issues
By Joey Berlin
Originally published 01:02 p.m., June 3, 2008
Updated 01:02 p.m., June 3, 2008
Rep. Don Hill recently joined his fellow Emporia legislators in announcing his re-election campaign. Hill represents the 60th District in the Kansas House. This week, The Gazette asked Hill about his campaign and the issues he feels need to be addressed when the Legislature reconvenes in 2009.
Q What’s driving you to continue serving in the Legislature?
A I feel like I’m making a contribution, feel like the work we’re doing is important, and as I gain some seniority and familiarity, I think that my opportunities are enhanced as far as having some influence on the process. So I’m hopeful that I’ll be re-elected, and I’m looking forward to that.
Q You and Sen. Jim Barnett and Rep. Peggy Mast all gave the sense, at the end of this year’s session, that there was a lot of unfinished business. Talk about some of the things that you felt didn’t get resolved in the last session and how you’d like to see those addressed going forward.
A I think the biggest opportunity we had this year that got less resolved than I’m sure hoped for, and the others, is health care reform. And it isn’t as though we struck out on that, because since the Health Policy Authority was formed in Kansas, this was really the first year that they had been in existence long enough to articulate a plan and have a legislative agenda.
As you will recall, there were 21 points that were offered in their plan, which they unveiled last fall, before the Legislature convened. ... And there are about 15 of the 21 that were addressed, so if you look at it from that standpoint, we’re on the path, we’re moving along. That’s the good news; the bad news is, the most significant of the 21 were the ones that were not addressed, and those are primarily the ones that require some funding and involve what we’re going to do to address the needs of the uninsured and the under-insured in Kansas. ...
The other two things that are looming large: One is gonna be the budget. It’s gonna be very difficult. It will be the most difficult we’ve had in the last five years because the extent to which our revenues are slowing, and the extent to which our expenses have continued to climb. And there’s not much we can do without the expenses. Education now, K-12, is well over half our budget, and Medicaid and entitlement programs are a big chunk as well, and those increase every year. ...
The other thing that we’re gonna be looking at next year is a new transportation plan. We’re at the end of the 10-year transportation plan that was passed in 2000, and it’s likely that what we’ll end up doing will be less ambitious than what we’ve done in the last two transportation plans. But the good news is that our transportation infrastructure is really in very good shape.
Q You were responsible for the bill passed to reduce the impact of the Tyson layoffs on Emporia Unified School District 253’s funding. As the impact of Tyson becomes clearer in the coming months, do you see more legislative solutions to help Emporia and Lyon County cope, and will that be a major part of your campaign?
A My ability to assess, with others, the situation — and the others, obviously, are local elected officials and our economic development leadership — I view that as an attribute or an asset that I have, my ability to be part of that assessment. And then in terms of what we do about it legislatively, there again, we have to keep all options on the table, and it’s not out of the question. I mean, it’s something we’ll have to assess.
There are things that might be done in the way of legislation that would incentivize businesses to expand or relocate specifically to an economically depressed community or region. And that’s something that I’ll be looking into prior to the time the session begins, and again we’ll just monitor how things are going. ...
Q So is health care the issue that you feel might become something like next year’s “Holcomb plant,” i.e. the dominant issue of the session next year in 2009?
A I don’t think it’s probably going to be the dominant issue. I think it’ll be one of two or three, with the budget kind of coloring and affecting everything we do. I mean, we won’t be able to do anything new without new revenue, and that’s certainly true in health care, and it was true in health care this past year. And the fact that it was an election year, and the Legislature’s aversion to any kind of tax increase in an election year pretty well doomed the health care initiatives.
But regarding, you mentioned Holcomb — I do think energy and environment issues will follow on into the next session. It’s hard to know — the Holcomb issue may very well be resolved by then. But we have other energy policy and environment policy needs that I think will become pretty clearly evident and be ready for action for next year’s Legislature. Health care, energy, environment, education, transportation — I’m encouraged that all of those are things that we should be able to address in a real bipartisan way that I think we can build a consensus around. I’m looking forward to that.