Candidate Forum Gives Voters Lively Discussion
Garden City, KS (westernkansasnews.com) Tuesday night the Garden City Chamber of Commerce sponsored a candidate public forum at the high school. The event began with a debate between incumbent Congressman Tim Huelskamp and his challenger Doctor Roger Marshall of Great Bend. Huelskamp wants the basic components of the next farm bill to change.
Marshall targeted Huelskamp for no longer being on the ag committee.
Huelskamp is part of the group that now selects who serves on committee and vows if elected he will be back on Ag. Marshall isn’t convinced the congressman will be successful.
Two of the Republican candidates for Senate District 39 were on hand and one of the issues was fiscal policy and taxation. Representative John Doll thinks Governor Brownback went too hard and too fast in his drive to eliminate the income tax.
Incumbent Senator Larry Powell believes the problem in some ways has been overblown.
Powell is convinced the state still has a spending problem. Doll is worried the tax shift will become too reliant on property if this plan continues.
Also discussed was the recent fight between the legislature and State Supreme Court on fixing the equity component of funding schools. Former Finney County Attorney and candidate in House District 123 John Wheeler was upset about how lawmakers pointed blame rather than finding a solution.
Wheeler says he does not want to run for the Kansas House, but needs to based on the way the legislature is performing now.
One area that received considerable debate was Medicaid expansion. With rural hospitals now feeling the crunch for reimbursement Senate District 39 candidate John Doll of Garden City says now is the time to act.
Here is why State Senator Larry Powell is opposed.
Doll claims all the hospital administrators he has talked to in the district agree with him. Critics are concerned with the strings attached in taking the money.
*On-air story*
