By KARI BLURTON
Hays Post
With the campaign down to “crunch time,” Kansas gubernatorial candidate Paul Davis spent Saturday in Hays. The Democrat said his reception in Hays and across the state has been warm.
“We’ve been traveling extensively around the state and getting very positive reaction from people all across the political spectrum — Democrats, unaffiliated voters and Republicans,” Davis said. “I think generally people are just really dissatisfied with the direction that Sam Brownback has been leading the state.
“They have seen the cuts to the schools. They’ve seen the stagnant economy, and they are wanting to go in a different direction,” he added, “and that’s why you are seeing us ahead in the polls and with a great opportunity to win the election.”
Davis, a longtime Kansas House representative from Lawrence and Kansas House Minority Leader from 2009 to 2014 is running on the Democratic ticket with Jill Docking to unseat Republican Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback.
Davis said is top priority if elected is restoring funds to public education.
“I think it’s so critically important that we have somebody in the governor’s office who is going to be a strong advocate for public schools,” Davis said. “I have a 12-year record in the Legislature of doing that, and I have said over and over that my very top priority as governor is to restore the cuts that have been made to public schools because strong public schools are really the foundation for a stronger economy.”
He said Kansas will not grow as a state if the best opportunities are not provided to the next generation of Kansans.
Davis said he is against consolidating rural schools and plans to look toward providing technology and virtual teaching tools like schools in Greensburg have already started as way to help rural schools thrive.
Davis said another critical issue is seeing the Kansas economy back on track, adding Kansas is performing below the national average and below the surrounding state’s of Kansas in every growth indicator available.
“The governor’s one-size-fits-all ‘experiment,’ as he calls, it just isn’t working and it’s not going to work. It’s plunging the state deep into debt,” Davis said. “We really need to go back to those proven ways of growing our economy and understand what works here in Hays is way different than what works in Garden City or what works in Topeka or Wichita and the state has to be a very good partner in helping communities grow and understand the needs and each individual community.”
Davis said Brownback’s economic plan has also resulted in property taxes skyrocketing in many Kansas communities — especially in rural Kansas.
“When we look into the future at reducing taxes, the place that I want to go is the property tax because we have too many Kansans that have seen their property tax burden just go up and up every year and especially for those senior citizens who are living on fixed incomes and worried whether they are going to be able to stay in their house if their property taxes keep going up,” Davis said.
Davis said he plans on another trip back to the western part of the state before November’s election.