This year we have seen several young people getting involved in the Governor race. This is the kind of civic mindedness that we need in our next generations. We need them involved in the local, state and national levels that will inpact their futures.
We need all eligible voters to register and vote in every election. Their participation in the electorial process is critical to the future democracy of Kansas and the United States.
Conservation of our water and natural resources is critical to our agricultural economy. I support research by Kansas State University to increase agricultural production while becoming more aware of the natural resources and the ecosystems that produce that income.
The current fade is to want more Government Transparency.
Legislatures want Executive branch openness, Governor candidates want Legislative openness, but we must also seek Judicial Branch openness.
Each session of both houses of the Legislature and ALL open committee meetings should be televised and the vote for each bill for each Representative or Senator should be on the screen.
You should be able to see the current daily vote of each member on the legislative website every day.
Bundling - Each bill should have an independent vote. No Bundling of bills
Gut and Go - Each bill should go to the floor as amended in committee. If this is Gut and Go is done because the process is broken in communications between the House and Senate, then change the process.
Minority bills - The process of controlling bills in committee should be amended to allow bills to the floor for a vote, even though it will be voted down on the floor.
The Legislature is living on a 90 day calendar that is from our agriculture era. We need to increase the term of the legislature to a 180 day session so there is more time to do the people’s business and more time to be on duty if the other two branches are acting out of their constitutional powers.
There needs to be an independent office of Audit similar to what is done at local levels of government to undercover loses and poor fiscal management in addition to cases of fraud.
The Administrative departments should not be auditing themselves
To level the sales tax playing field for the elderly and lower income Kansans, we should set the Grocery Food sales tax to 0.
This would make us competitive with surrounding states
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Like most government agencies, the law enforcement staff spend hours doing paperwork rather than being productive out in the field.
We must help them update their procedures so their paperwork is cut in half so that they can be out doing their jobs protecting us.