By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Cindy Holscher, Democratic candidate for governor, was in Hays Sunday touring the Sternberg Museum of Natural History.
She said she supported funding for higher education in Kansas and is campaigning on affordability for average Kansans.
The Sternberg Museum may be forced to close at the end of the year in part due to state budget cuts.
The Fort Hays State University Foundation has established a fund in attempts to save the museum. The museum needs to raise $1 million by the end of December to remain open.
“I'm a strong education advocate, so anytime we're talking about education in general, or museums, I'm going to be an advocate. To me, it's a priority. So the whole focus on the state level needs to be on ensuring we are funding education and facilities like this,” Holscher said of the Sternberg Museum.
Holscher continued, “It's the most important thing we do. But it seems that the focus has come away from some of that area more into taking our revenues that we have and doing tax breaks for the wealthier corporations.
“The fact of the matter is there's only so much money to work with, and Kansans like our schools, they want investments in things like the Sternberg. So to me, it’s a matter of prioritizing and making sure that is the focus.”
K-12 education
Holshcher said she did not think the school funding formula needed to be changed. However, she said she thought schools need to be fully funded.
“We have finally gotten to adequate levels of funding on general education, but special ed has been underfunded since 2011. When that underfunding happens, then that obligation shifts to the local level and makes property taxes go up, and property taxes are a big issue right now.”
Property taxes
Holscher said the bills brought forward so far have been gimmicks.
“Essentially, they make the burden go somewhere else when you put those caps because property taxes—that's the biggest area that local governments can use to raise funds. So when you put a cap there, you hamper their ability to fund things that are necessary on the local level.”
She cited two reasons property taxes are high: underfunding of schools, which shifts the burden to local school districts to levy property taxes.
“The second thing, the amount of giveaways to corporations and billionaires. Because again, there's only so much revenue to work with, if you're putting an excessive amount in tax breaks for wealthy folks or corporations, and you're not investing it in the schools, then it comes out of balance.”
Data centers
Holscher said she wants to explore the economic opportunities that data centers could offer, but she thinks guardrails should be in place.
“It comes down to the fact that we need to ensure there are appropriate guardrails for water usage and energy usage, because people are worried their utility bills are going to go up.
“And making sure that we get local jobs because sometimes what we've seen happen is when these data centers come into the area, they bring in out of state construction crews. So then our local people don't even get the benefit of the job.”
Holscher said she supports energy diversity, but the state's energy grid needs to be updated.
Ag, water
She said she supports fully funding the state water plan.
“We have a number of farmers who are using efficient methods in terms of irrigation procedures, and we just need to make sure we're helping implement that across the state,” she said.
Affordability
“You know [we’re] very, very focused on affordability. Everybody across the state is struggling in terms of being able to afford groceries, gas, health care … Property taxes are part of that,” Holscher said.
She said her opponent, Republican Ty Masterson, has not addressed these needs.
“What I think it's important for people to realize is my opponent has been president of the Senate for six years and has had a supermajority of his own party,” Holscher said.
“If these things were priorities to him, it would have already been fixed because he can get anything passed that he wants with the supermajority. But the fact of the matter is none of those issues that are important to the people have been addressed. That's huge.”
She also said Masterson was the chief architect of the Brownback experiment.
“The thing that hurt our state so much that we've been trying to recover from—he said the Brownback experiment didn't go far enough. That should be a warning to all of us in terms of what type of agenda he would bring to our state level,” Holscher said.
She also alleged Masterson doesn't believe in public education.
“He's been trying to defund our public schools. So this is absolutely the most critical election in our history in terms of which direction we're going. I'm on the side of the people, and he's on the side of his corporate donors and their agenda, and Donald Trump,” Holscher said.
Health care
She said in states that haven't expanded Medicaid, including Kansas, rural hospitals are six times more likely to close.
“That's absolutely concerning. When you lose your hospital in a rural area, not only do you lose access to care, you lose some of the best jobs. Then people lose reasons to stay in that community. So I'm absolutely an advocate for expanding Medicaid.”
She said Masterson, as well as Speaker of the House Dan Hawkins, have blocked expansion. However, both legislators are running for statewide office during this election.
The general election is Tuesday, Nov. 3.