Kansas governor candidates address rising costs
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The Kansas Statehouse. Photo: Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Ten candidates want to win their party's vote for Kansas governor as Democrat Laura Kelly wraps up her second term.
Why it matters: The primary candidates are trying to differentiate their approaches to solving affordability issues as property taxes rise across the state.
The big picture: Three Democratic candidates are seeking to succeed Kelly, while seven Republicans are vying for the chance to flip the state's head seat in November.
We asked each candidate about the issues they're running on and their priority should they get elected.
Democrats
Ethan Corson, a Johnson County state senator endorsed by Kelly, tells Axios that health care is the top concern he has heard while traveling more than 35,000 miles across the state and that Medicaid expansion is "essential to fixing this crisis."
- "No one should need GoFundMe to avoid bankruptcy because they got sick," he says.
- He also wants a rural hospital tax credit, expanded loan forgiveness to recruit rural doctors, and a push to get more rural students into medical school.
Cindy Holscher, also a Johnson County state senator, says she would end "taxpayer-funded giveaways to out-of-state billionaires," pointing to NFL stadium deals and AI data centers that she says drain water and raise families' energy bills.
- Her priority would be fully funding classrooms, including special education, which she says would relieve the property tax increases used to keep schools open.
Curt Skoog, the mayor of Overland Park, says that the state's "dysfunctional supermajority Legislature" has failed to stop population and job losses and that 28 rural hospitals are at imminent risk of closing.
- He says he would lower property taxes, expand Medicaid and "bring people together."
Republicans
Ty Masterson, president of the Kansas Senate and endorsed by President Trump, tells Axios he wants to cut property taxes and give homeowners a bill of rights that caps increases and "reins in government spending," adding that Democrats and local governments have gotten in the way of "every real fix."
- Masterson this year led a Republican effort to cap local property tax increases, which Kelly vetoed.
Scott Schwab, Kansas' secretary of state, has a nine-point plan he says would address rising property taxes, including replacing taxes for schools with other state funds and requiring a public vote on local tax increases above a minimum.
- He also wants to require state agencies to "modernize, reduce or both," which he says would save the state money.
Stacy Rogers, an entrepreneur from the Wichita area, says the state's leading concerns are property taxes, data centers, education and health care.
- She said in a FOX4 interview that she wants to tax out-of-state landowners more and focus on long-term fixes to the state's declining population.
Philip Sarnecki, a financial business leader, says Kansas is "overtaxing, overspending, and over-regulating" residents.
- "I am going to bring my business experience to the Governor's seat to reduce spending, provide tax relief and to create good-paying jobs," he tells us.
Three Republican candidates — Charlotte O'Hara, Nick Reinecker and Vicky Schmidt — did not respond to our request for comment.