Legislative Issues
This page outlines examples of issues that have passed through the legislature in recent years.
Priorities
– Schools and Education
– Rural Communities
– People of the 33rd Senate District over priorities of the large political lobbying organizations
Property Taxes Increased for School Capital Bonds
In 2022, a bill was introduced in the legislature to reverse a Brownback era cut to the state aid that schools had historically received for their capital bond projects. This state funding reduced property tax payments for school bonds. But in a legislative conference committee, the historic aid rate was cut from 75% to 51%, greatly reducing or eliminating the property tax relief the bill was intended to restore. Property owners will pay as much as 35% more for school bond projects because of this legislative vote.
This is an example of how compliant legislators have served the priorities of political lobbyists ahead of the priorities of our property tax payers and our schools. It is an example of the choice voters have between my opponent and myself.
You can click on this button to see documentation about this bill and how it affects the tax payers in your school district.
Lobbyist Directed State Mandates on Schools
The legislature routinely serves the priorities of the dominant political lobbying organizations in how our schools are run. This happens even when Kansans make loud and clear their opposition to the lobbyists’ agenda.
In 2022, the legislature considered a bill on school transparency. It would have required teachers to maintain a lawsuit-ready online defense of their teaching. Our teachers and their instructional support staff would have been forced to spend time satisfying the demands of this bill instead of helping our kids. Nothing in this bill would have encouraged our teachers to continue teaching or for anyone to enter teaching. The 135 opponent testimonies included seven school districts and 113 private citizens including teachers. Not a single private Kansas resident testified in favor of the bill. But six lobbying organizations, three from out of state, testified for the bill. So, the legislative committee recommended it for approval.
You can click on this link to see documentation about this failed bill.
Funding Reduction for At Risk Students
This year the legislature passed a law about how our schools teach students who are at risk of falling behind. If the test scores of these students do not improve enough, our schools will get less of the funding they use to help these kids. Of course, a kid working to keep up with his classmates is not helped by reducing the teaching staff in his grade school’s reading room.
This is an example of how compliant legislators have served the priorities of political lobbyist ahead of the priorities of our students and our schools. It is an example of the choice voters have between my opponent and myself.
You can click on this link to see documentation about this new law.
Lobbyist Label the Local School Board Members That We Elect as a “Special Interest”
Education is the largest state general fund expense. For lobbying organizations, their largest opportunity to provide tax breaks to high income earners is to limit education funding. Diminishing or erasing our loyalty to our local schools is a natural part of their lobbying path.
In 2022, one of the dominant political lobbying organizations published a book explaining its support for replacing local control of our schools with state mandates and routing public tax dollars to private schools. The book depicts our fellow community members, who we know and elect to serve on our local school boards as the politically bad and depicts the lobbying organization itself as the politically good.
To describe our local school board members, the book contains the statements: They do not represent the views of the populace… they… represent… the views of motivated and resourced interest groups, who are able to swing small elections in their favor.
Our school board members are the people we go to church with, that coach our kids’ rec league teams, that are in the back of the ambulance when our local EMT service arrives to help an ailing neighbor. These lobbyists must only answer to the anonymous, moneyed individuals who fund their organizations. They are the very definition of a special interest. But they are not shy about the opposite-world story that they are selling, and many legislators are buying.
You can click on this link to see documentation about this false labelling of our local school board members.
State Mandates Instead of Local Control of Schools
Last year the legislature passed a bill to shift the control of our schools to state mandates and away from our locally elected school boards. The bill would have mandated that curriculum would be whatever a parent said they sincerely believed. If a parent sincerely believed that the Holocaust did not happen, the school would have had to exempt the parent’s student from learning that the Holocaust did happen and the school would have had to give the student a history credit.
This is part of the continuing effort by political lobbyists to control our schools through state mandates rather than by the decisions of the school board members that we elect. It is an example of how compliant legislators have served the priorities of political lobbyist ahead of the priorities of our students and our schools. It is an example of the choice voters have between my opponent and myself.
You can click on this link to see documentation about this failed bill.
The Brownback Tax Lobby Still Sets the Agenda
The dominant political lobbying organizations that supported the Brownback income tax cut fiscal train wreck are still setting the tax agenda in the legislature. These same lobbyists are pursuing a flat tax, a structural change that guarantees that middle- and lower-income earners will never get a tax rate break relative to high income earners.
The Brownback income tax cut, enacted in 2012, had a projected $4.5 billion dollar revenue cut over six years. To pay for the tax cut, $1.6 billion of highway funds were taken, $1.0 billion of KPERS bonds were issued, $400 million of additional highway bonds were issued and funds were swept out of every imaginable dedicated funding. Tax supported debt jumped to $4.5 billion.
After five years of failure, the Brownback income tax cut ended in 2017. But we would be in year 12 of the Brownback fiscal train wreck if my opponent’s vote in 2017 prevailed. My opponent was part of the minority of legislators who voted to retain the Brownback income tax cut.
Last year, the same lobbying organizations that supported the Brownback income tax cut proposed the flat income tax. My opponent once again aligned with these lobbyists and voted for a flat tax bill that would have routed 24% of the tax cut benefit to the top 1% of earners. This is an example of the choice voters have between my opponent and myself.
You can click on this link to see documentation about the history of our tax law serving the priorities of lobbying organizations.
You can click on this link to see documentation about the history of our tax law serving the priorities of lobbying organizations.
Property Tax Rate Cuts Denied to Maximize Income Tax Cuts
Since 1998, the state school property tax rate has remained unchanged while the income tax rate for top earners decreased by 29% during the Brownback years. Even with the repeal of the Brownback tax cut it is still 12% lower than in 1998. This year the legislature passed a law that set the income tax rate for top earners 13% lower while, once again, making no reduction in the state school property tax rate.
The budget surplus was an opportunity to provide Kansans with property tax relief, but legislators routed the major benefit to top income earners instead. This is an example of how compliant legislators have served the priorities of political lobbyist ahead of the priorities of our local property tax payers. It is an example of the choice voters have between my opponent and myself.
You can click on this link to see documentation about this new law.
For Dominant Lobbyists, Truth is Irrelevant
In 2018, one of the dominant political lobbying organizations published a book explaining its support for the failed Brownback income tax cut experiment. The last chapter of the book describes the organization’s approach to its role as a professional propaganda platform. It includes statements such as: Truth is irrelevant. Restructure… perceptions to create the position you desire. Messaging must be… relentless.
This organization testified that the flat tax was needed to increase job growth. But its own economic study predicted a flat tax would only improve employment by 0.07% over seven years’ time. That its own study showed that the flat tax would not improve employment growth was irrelevant for the lobbyist. Legislators then voted for a flat tax bill that failed to become law.
This is an example of how compliant legislators have served the priorities of political lobbyist ahead of the priorities of our local property tax payers. It is an example of the choice voters have between my opponent and myself.
You can click on this link to see documentation about this approach.
Property Tax Relief for Ellinwood School Bond was Cut
For decades, the state provided school bond aid for districts that did not have an industrial plant or other high value property that relieved the burden on regular property owners. But in 2022, legislators voted to continue the Brownback cut of this aid.
This fall, Ellinwood voters will decide on a school bond to repair roofs, replace air conditioners, and fix 50-year-old windows in school district buildings. It is simply required maintenance. Over the 15-year life of the bond, these legislators’ votes will cost Ellinwood property owners an additional $4 million in property taxes. This vote will have a similar effect on future school bonds for eight other school districts in Senate District 33.
My opponent was one of the legislators who voted to continue the Brownback cut of this aid. It is an example of how compliant legislators have served the priorities of political lobbyist ahead of the priorities of our rural communities. It is an example of the choice voters have between my opponent and myself.
You can click on this link to see documentation about this bill, how it affects Ellinwood and how it affects the taxpayers in your school district.
False Depiction Mailers and Ads
Legislative elections are about our schools, our taxes and who our government serves. Unfortunately, a big part of what voters will see and hear are false depiction mailers and advertisements from political lobbying organizations who do not want certain candidates to be elected.
At first glance, these mailers will look convincing. These lobbying organizations are well-financed and have been doing this sort of thing for decades. For any directed at me that I become aware of, I will post documentation on my webpage, fact-checking and debunking their false information. Please check my website and do not buy into their spin and sell.
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