By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Republican gubernatorial candidate Philip Sarnecki was in Hays on Monday, touting smaller government and a departure from the political establishment.
Sarnecki is a businessman who was raised in the small town of Homer.
Sarnecki focused on the need to cut waste and fraud, saying state government continues to grow, resulting in higher taxes.
Kansas is No. 3 in the nation for the most state employees per capita, he said.
“It's because coming out of COVID, we got billions and billions … millions of federal dollars, COVID dollars, and that masked a lot of these problems that are going on. We have now run a deficit for the state for the last four months in a row,” Sarnecki said.
His opposition in the governor’s race and Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly signed off on the budget.
Sarnecki said the Kansas Legislature and the executive branch could not agree on property tax relief.
“They found enough money to have a luxury suite at the new Chief’s stadium for the career politicians paid for by all of us. I don't know, that sounds a little tone deaf to me,” Sarnecki said.
He said the first thing he would do as governor would be to employ an outside auditor to examine all state departments and agencies for waste and fraud.
Saraneki said he thinks if waste and fraud were eliminated, the state could reduce taxes.
“I can tell you, it's not just wasted and fraud that's going on. It's corruption, and I don't use that word lightly. I mean, all these lobbyists that you know have my opponent in their back pockets, that's why all these other folks are getting property tax relief, and we're not getting any,” he said of large companies and green energy.
He added later, “By the way, the people I'm running against, they do not want this to happen, because we're going to post it," Sarnecki said. "So you all can see where everything is going once this comes out.”
Sarecki said his campaign conducted a high-level review of the budget and estimates it could cut as much as $4 billion from the state’s $26 billion budget.
He said the second thing he plans to do to address taxes is to reduce spending.
“So you've got to make difficult decisions, and honestly, some of them aren't that difficult,” Sarnecki said.
His third initiative will be to grow the economy.
“Their idea of economic development is tax abatements to large companies. That's what they think economic development is,” he said.
“That is not economic development. Those are tax giveaways. Those are special backroom deals. … If that worked, we'd have a rip-roaring economy right now.”
He said the state needs to remove barriers for entrepreneurs and Kansas investors. He also said he would personally recruit businesses and trade to Kansas.
Topeka has plenty of ideas on how to solve the state’s problems, he said.
“I don't even think there's an idea problem in Topeka. What we have is a leadership problem. We have a courage problem, and the courage is to tell the lobbyists who are funding them, ‘No, we're going to do this for the people of Kansas.’”
“I didn't run to join the establishment. I came to defeat the establishment,” he said.
However, Sarnecki said he and his wife have been long-time supporters of the PAC, and he is firmly pro-life.
You can learn more about Sarnecki and his campaign on his website philipsarnecki.org or follow him on Facebook.
Sarnecki will face off against Republicans Ty Masterson, Charlotte O’Hara, Nick Reinecker, Stacy L. Rogers, Vicki Schmidt and Scott Schwab in the Aug. 4 primary.
The Democratic field for governor includes Ethan Corson, Cindy Holscher and Curt Skoog.