By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Ken Rahjes, R-Agra, has earned his party’s nomination to be on the ballot for the Kansas House 110th District.
Rahjes won the convention balloting on Wednesday on a vote of 18-4.
Max Dibble, who lost to Ward in the primary, was also nominated.
Rahjes has held the 110th seat for 11 years.
He did not run in the primary for the seat because he was on the ballot as the running mate for Scott Schwab, who was running for governor.
Schwab lost the Republican primary to Ty Masterson.
The district includes Ellis County except Hays and all of Graham, Norton, Phillips and Rooks counties.
Rahjes, 60, retired ag broadcaster, said he thought he had unfinished business in the Legislature.
He served on the water task force and said he wants to continue that work.
“We're in our second year of that, and then at the end of this fiscal year, we'll have proposals to be formed as legislation to start in January,” Rahjes said.
“So I want to help shepherd those things through, be it funding, be it the structure of how water is being served in Kansas. That's very, very important for the future, more than just the next election, but for generations,” he said.
Rahjes said if reelected, he would also focus on passing property tax relief.
“We need to have a true, meaningful conversation instead of talking over each other from a county and state level,” he said. “We really can sit down and talk about what works, what works for the citizens, what works for the services that the counties provide.”
Rahjes said he did not think property tax reform would pass this spring, but hoped a meaningful long-term plan could pass within the two-year legislative cycle.
Last session a cap on property tax valuations failed to pass into law.
“One of the things we want to make sure is that we have property tax discussions and property tax reductions that are truly reductions,” Rahjes said, “rather than simply a shifting from one segment to the other, instead of playing a shell game of saying we'll take it away from here but add it somewhere else—that we truly have meaningful relief.”
Rahjes also said he would like to return to his work as chairman of the Agriculture Resources Committee and as a member of the Appropriations Committee, representing north central and western Kansas.
He also said he would support legislation to remove the requirement for local governments to print legal notices in newspapers.
He said governments should have the option to print information such as budgets and tax delinquencies online.
He said paying to publish legal documents is a huge expense, especially for small counties.
“If we're saving the counties, that ultimately saves the taxpayers,” he said.
Rahjes will face Democrat Mark Schaukowitch, Plainville, in the General Election.