Hays Post
Republican candidate Kris Kobach has pledged to cut taxes and reduce government spending if he is elected governor.
Kobach and running mate Wink Hartman were in Hays on Tuesday at Diamond R Jewelers for a campaign stop ahead of the Tuesday primary.
Kobach said his position on taxes separates him from a crowded ticket of Republicans, which also include Gov. Jeff Colyer, Insurance Commissioner Ken Selzer, Jim Barnett, Patrick Kucera, Tyler Ruzich and Joseph Tutera Jr.
Kobach is the only candidate in the race who signed a no-tax-increase pledge.
“Our objective is to cut taxes,” he said. “We are the high-tax state in the five-state area. It is ridiculous. Our sales taxes are eighth highest in the country. Our income taxes are highest in the region. Our property taxes are 15th highest in America. We are taxing our citizens to death here in Kansas. It has got to stop.”
Kobach claimed because of a combination of sales and income tax hikes in 2015 and 2017, the average Kansas family of four is paying $900 more in taxes.
“That’s money you save for the kids’ college. That’s a vacation. That’s food on the table. That’s a lot of things that the state of Kansas is now taking out of your pocket,” Kobach said. “Wink and I have a different attitude. It’s your money. It’s not the state’s money. We should be doing every single thing we can to try to get that money back to you, not thinking of ways to spend money.”
When federal tax reform was passed, the state saw a windfall of tax revenue. The Legislature chose not to pass that windfall back to Kansas residents. Kobach said he would use that additional revenue to implement a tax cut.
Brownback and Colyer made the mistake of making the tax cut in 2012, but not cutting the budget, Kobach said.
One way he would cut the budget is to reduce the state workforce through attrition. Kobach touted the cuts he made in his own department during his two terms as Secretary of State. Kansas ranks third in the nation for state and local employees per capita. He said that indicates there is room to cut.
Kobach said he would charge Hartman with helping find cuts in the state’s budget.
“Under his direction, I will go to each department, each secretary,” Hartman said. “I will go through budgets, and we will cut unnecessary and wasteful spending without sacrificing service for the people of Kansas. You have got to be very careful.”
Kobach said he hoped tax cuts would draw new businesses to Kansas, but he said he would also work to contain or slow the growth of utility rates in the state. Kansas’ average electric rate is 13.4 cents per kilowatt-hour, but the surrounding states’ average 10.9 cents per kilowatt-hour.
Kobach also talked on illegal immigration, which has been not only a major point of his gubernatorial run, but a major issue in his stint as Kansas Secretary of State. He pushed for a law that required proof of citizenship in order to register to vote in Kansas, but that measure was challenged by the ACLU. The provision was struck down on appeal in May.
Kobach is now pushing to end in-state tuition for undocumented Kansas residents.
To qualify for the program, students have to have lived in the state since they were young children and graduated from a Kansas high school. As of fall 2017, 670 were using the program within the Kansas Regents system.
“The average college student graduates with $28,000 in debt,” he said. “Why is the state spending money to subsidize illegal aliens, paying two-thirds of their tuition when we have all this debt that Kansas kids are burdened with and many can’t even afford to go to college because of that debt? We should be taking that subsidy, those millions of dollars, and subsidizing Kansas kids, maybe not raising their tuition every single year. We could use that money to help our own kids to attend college.”
Kobach wishes to eliminate the last three sanctuary cities in the state.
“Some politicians are uncomfortable talking about the problems of illegal immigration,” he said. “They are too politically correct. They don’t want to make anyone angry. I don’t care. That is not me. I am happy to make people angry, because if you do the right thing, you are going to make some people angry.”
Kobach said he supports the president and his efforts on trade. Kobach pointed out he lives on working farm and has crops in the ground right now.
“It is counterproductive if people in the United States shoot darts at the president’s back while he is going into the negotiations with the Chinese, so I think we need to say we are behind him whatever the president does in these negotiations, we are with him,” Kobach said, “because if we don’t, we weaken the United States’ position.”
Also to help farmers, Kobach would seek to put a 2 percent lid on increases in ag property tax appraisals and limit reappraisal to once every three years, instead of every year, which is the current state policy.
Water is another issue that will need to be addressed to keep Kansas ag successful. Kobach said he supports local enhanced management areas, also known as LEMAs, which have been successful in other areas of the state.
Kobach also emphasized his pro-Second Amendment and pro-life stances.
He said he had goal of Kansas being the No. 1 state in the nation for protecting run rights, citing a slight slippage in the state’s ranking in a pro-gun poll for a law that prohibits carrying guns in medical facilities.
Kobach also told the crowd he supported term limits.
“We are one of the only states in the region that does not have term limits, and we need them,” he said. “Contrary to some people on the left, term limits don’t result in disaster for states or don’t result in legislators who don’t know anything. It results in new blood coming in — fresh blood, good ideas.”