By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Republican candidate for Kansas governor Stacy Rogers was in Ellis on Wednesday as part of a speaking tour with several stops in western Kansas.
Rogers has been criss-crossing the state even though the gubernatorial election is still more than a year away.
Rogers is a businesswoman from Wichita. She also served on the city council in Mt. Hope.
"The reason that I'm running is to give a voice back to the people of this state," Rogers said.
She said as she has traveled across the state, she has heard people complain they are not being heard and they do not like the choices they have been given on the ballot.
"They just don't feel they are being well represented," she said.
"We have been doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, and that's the definition of insanity," she said. ... "We need to break that cycle to make things better in the state for the people that live here, regardless of whether they are Republican or Democrat or Libertarian. As governor, I would be governor for all of those people."
Rogers said she supported term limits.
"I think we are ready for something completely different," she said.
Business incentives
Rogers spoke to a small group in Ellis. They expressed concerns about investment in rural communities and businesses.
Most of Ellis' downtown is in a floodplain. This has made it difficult to make repairs and upgrades to those buildings due to FEMA regulations.
Rogers said she did not think the entire state should pay for large incentive packages that will only aid one county or community. She cited the example of the incentive packages being offered to the Chiefs and Royals to relocate to Kansas.
Education
All three of her children are adults, but two of them have learning challenges. Her children attended both public and private schools, and she also homeschooled.
"[Education] is failing across the state. You can look at the numbers. They're dismal," she said.
Rogers said she had a bad experience with a public school district. Her son is autistic, and the school district did not want to approve her son's individual education plan, which is also known as an IEP. This led her to withdraw her son from public school and homeschool him.
She said the issues with schools were not with teachers, but rather the result of decisions made by local school boards, which trickled down to students.
"I can't get behind more funding to a system that is broken and not teaching our kids well," she said.
Rogers said too much money is being spent on salaries for superintendents and administration.
Rogers said she might support a form of school choice.
She said she did not think school choice would result in the closure of public schools in small communities in western Kansas. However, it might allow students of all income levels in urban areas to choose where they want to attend. She said she thought the money should follow the student.
"I just want kids to be educated well and to be set up to be successful in their life," she said. "That is my only concern. How do we achieve that? We need to put together a plan. I am for children being educated well."
Water
The Hays Post reporter asked Rogers about the R9 Ranch project, which will affect long-term water availability for Hays and Russell. Rogers said she was not familiar with the R9 project, but she did discuss water issues in Kansas generally.
She agreed with one of the Ellis residents who said eastern Kansas should not be making water decisions for western Kansas, because the two areas of the state have vastly different needs.
He said some farmers are forced to use water they don't need, because if they don't use their full water allotment, they won't be able to draw as much in the following years.
Rogers said, "We are very seriously chasing the ball at this point on water preservation."
Budget, taxes
If elected, Rogers said she would seek to identify inefficiencies in the state budget.
"I would go through each department with a fine-toothed comb and find where those inefficiencies are, where those duplications are ... those kinds of things that we can get rid of and cut the budget without taking away value from the things that are already there," Rogers said.
"I think we are going to discover some fraud," she said. "I think we are going to discover some mismanagement."
Rogers said she would like to see reductions in property taxes, but the funds to support the state government have to come from somewhere.
Energy
Rogers said she would like to see a moratorium on the expansion of wind energy statewide in Kansas.
She expressed concern renewable energy companies are offering substantial sums of money for land leases. She questioned whether those leases included provisions for removing towers and cleaning up after the leases expired.