By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Eber Phelps said he wants to continue to improve the collaboration he saw in the 2017-18 Kansas legislative session.
Democratic candidate for the 111th District House seat, Phelps, 67 of Hays, is in his 18th year in the Kansas House. He also spent time as a Hays city commissioner and retired a year ago from Glassman Corp.
He was elected to 16-consecutive years in the Legislature, but lost an election 2012 before successfully earning re-election in 2016.
“In those four years that I was out of the Legislature, I was pretty concerned about what was happening with funding for K-12 education and the cuts to higher ed and other programs and also not really implementing the comprehensive transportation plan,” Phelps said.
When he saw the Legislature passing unbalanced budgets to the governor, he said he knew important programs were going to have more cuts and he needed to run again.
Budget and taxes
He cited maintaining a balanced budget as the No. 1 priority if he is re-elected to the Kansas House.
He said he thought in order to do that the state should not embark on deep tax cuts at this time.
He said the state is still in recovery from the failed Brownback tax experiment that took too much from the state’s traditional three-legged stool — property tax, sales tax and income tax.
“Our decision in 2017 to roll back the governor’s tax plan allowed us to get on some good financial footing, but we still have work to do,” Phelps said. “We still have not restored the cuts to higher education.”
In 1997, Phelps co-sponsored a bill that would decrease sales tax on food. He said he supports Democratic candidate for governor Laura Kelly’s plan to do that if she is elected.
“I have always been in favor of addressing property tax, but, at the moment, we have the opportunity to do something with the tax that really affects every one of us — no matter what age you are or what part of the state you live in — and that is to address our really exorbitant sales tax that we have on food.”
Phelps also said the state needs to pay down debt and build back a reserve.
Education
Phelps feels a passion for education. He served on the House Education Committee for 14 years.
“I have very strong feeling about the importance of education for the growth of our state,” he said. “I know Gov. Brownback was well-intentioned with his tax plan, but industries or businesses that are moving to our state, they are not looking at what the income tax rates are. They are wanting to know if they are going to get an educated workforce.
“The emphasis that we put on K-12 and higher education, that is what is going to be what makes our state grow.”
Teacher pay in Kansas was as low as 42nd in the nation. It is up to 40th in the nation; however, Phelps said the state needs to do better.
“We have fallen below so many other states, it is a fact we have people dropping out of teacher education programs because they are looking at what they are going to make and saying, ‘I don’t know if I can survive on that.’ On the other hand, some of them go through, get their teaching credentials and teach a couple of years in Kansas, and then they are being recruited by other states.”
Health care
Phelps has also been a long-time champion for Medicaid expansion. He voted for a bill to expand Medicaid in 2017, but that was vetoed by Brownback.
“If you really care about rural Kansas, this is a key thing that needs to be adopted,” he said.
The Fort Scott hospital recently announced it will be closing. There are 26 other critical access hospitals in the state that are in financial peril.
“From an economic development stand point, those were some very solid jobs that just got lost in that community,” Phelps said.
He added, “Medicaid expansion could really be a benefit and a real boost to not only those hospitals but the communities that they serve. I think that is one of the first things the Legislature needs to take up and that is to pass that Medicaid expansion bill.”
Water
Phelps said he continues to consider the R9 Ranch project important to Hays. He was on the Hays City Commission when the city of Hays purchased the water rights. He said throughout his time in the Legislature he has tried to inform area legislators of the importance of the project to the regional water supply.