Ed. Note: Below is the transcript of the interview with Rep. Kyler Sweely. He is running for re-election in the republican primary for the 102nd District of the Kansas House of Representatives.
Marc Jacobs: So, tell everybody a little bit about Kyler Sweely, other than the fact that you are the incumbent in the in the race. Where does Kyler Sweely come from? Where has he been?
Rep. Kyler Sweely: Yeah, so I think an important thing is right out of high school, I joined the army. I served a couple months under five years, where I deployed twice, once to the Middle East and once to Eastern Europe. And once I got out of the army, I started staff in politics, and then that's kind of where I got interested and kind of grew my love for politics and helping my community, so I decided ultimately to run for office, and I was successful in my first run. I won a primary and a general election against the same two candidates that are running against me right now, and I think it just shows. I think I won that last race because I worked harder than the other two candidates, and I think it shows that both candidates are having to work really hard to work against me right now, so I think we've done some good things, and I'm happy to talk about it today.
Marc Jacobs: So, two terms-not two terms, one term, two legislative sessions. What are the best? What are the most important accomplishments that you think were accomplished in those two terms?
Rep. Kyler Sweely: Yeah, I think there's a lot of things, and I mean, I know that we'll talk about some specific subjects, so I'll go into it in further detail when we do. But I just want the the district, the 102nd district, to know that I voted in favor of eight out of eight property tax reliefs. I think that we're taxed too high in our community, and I think that we need to give our reliefs to some of our citizens and or to all of our citizens, excuse me, and I want them to know that they have a representative that is fighting for that in Topeka. I think we've done another really good thing with Senate Bill 20 is PBM reform. I think it it it increases oversight and transparency with PBMs, and it's gonna lower prescription pill costs. So I think that's a very favorable thing that happened, and then continuing to fight for fentanyl education and Narcan access in the district I think is a very important thing. It's a thing that struck our community multiple times or too many times, and continue to advocate that is a big thing for me.
Marc Jacobs: So, let's go back and take a look at property tax reform because that's the hot button issue. Not only here at locally, but this is a a state issue as well. We, you talked about two different paths of reform. Tell me a little bit about those.
Rep. Kyler Sweely: Yeah, so right now there's kind of two plans of how people would go about it. The Senate had a plan, and it was a 3% valuation cap, and that would raise the valuation appraisal evaluation of your house every year, and it would be tied to inflation. And I voted in favor of that plan. I think valuations are getting a little too high, and I think we never reined that in. And then the second plan, the House's plan was to limit government spending, and I think it is a combination of both. I think, obviously, it's a pretty easy, simple thing to understand. And the more the government spends, the more they have to tax you to get that money. So, I think governments need to be responsible in how much they spend and to continue to cut money or to cut the necessary things that are, you know, unwasteful or that are wasteful spending, and I think we've done a good job at the state house this year. We cut $200 million from the state budget, and I think that we need to be the example for the local communities to continue to spend taxpayer money responsibly, so taxes can go down.
Marc Jacobs: So, you talked a little bit about PBM reform. Let everybody know what that is and why it's so important to accomplish that.
Rep. Kyler Sweely: Yeah. So, I mean, the PBM is the pharmacy benefit manager, and we are trying to create more oversight with that and get more reimbursements and limiting pricing practices within that, so that prescription pill costs at the actual pharmacy is cheaper. And I mean, here in Hutchinson, we don't have a massive, massive economy in town that supplies just unlimited amounts of pharmacies. So we have our local pharmacies, and then we have some of the retail pharmacies that we see, and obviously we're trying to keep in business all of them. But we're trying to protect the local pharmacies and reduce hidden costs and ensure fair pricing with for patients in the health plans instead of the hidden costs that the PBMs are putting on there.
Marc Jacobs: You talked about the successes of the legislature. Tell me a little bit about the failures. What was the one thing that you? What were the couple of things that you wanted to accomplish that you were not able to during the two sessions?
Rep. Kyler Sweely: Yeah, I think a big thing would be property tax relief. I think that unfortunately the House and Senate didn't get along, and I think we need people. They're willing to work together, and I think I've shown that. I think that it shows that I voted in favor of every property tax relief plan, but ultimately it did not get done. I mean, the state has a very minimal role on property tax, and most of the taxing entities are local. But the state needs to get on the same page, and we need people in there that can work across the aisle. And I've shown that I've shown that the bills that I've gotten done with my name on them have gone across the aisle and has been bipartisan.
Marc Jacobs: We talked a little bit about most important things, but I want to touch base on another topic or another project that fell near and dear to you, and that's the housing bill. Tell people about the housing bill, why it's important to have it.
Rep. Kyler Sweely: Yeah, I think it's a super big deal. House Bill 2596. I worked together with the chamber and some the Reno County Chamber and some other local entities on getting this done. It's a bill that it was carved out of statute that the prison or the Kansas correctional industries could not partner with manufacturer modular housing companies to build modular manufactured housing out of the prison. So I think a big problem that we see here in Hutchinson is we don't have the developers that can kind of go on the southern half of town, and we need price points of houses that are within you know 100 to $200,000. And I think getting the prison to have labor to partner with an outside for or an outside company to build some of these cheaper, more affordable homes for families that can afford it in Hutchinson is a huge deal, and I we're you know going with negotiations with contracts right now. We're trying to get it done. The bill was just put into law recently, and we're doing everything we can to get some more housing here in Hutchinson to bring more people into Hutchinson and keep the housing market afloat in Hutchinson.
Marc Jacobs: So, we talk a little bit about housing because that's one of those one of those hot button items besides healthcare, medicine, you know those type of things. How important it is to you to make sure that there is affordable housing, whether it be in your district or outside of your district.
Rep. Kyler Sweely: Yeah, of course. I mean, this bill would be able to help the whole state of Kansas. Primarily, it's going to be started here in Hutchinson because that's kind of where we had the plan to do it. But I mean, I think we need to do everything we can for Kansas housing. A lot of the new developments that come out in the towns are three, $400,000 houses, and that's just simply not affordable for a lot of people that are Kansans, so I think we have to move to a route that's a new idea, a fresh idea, and modular and manufactured housings are, or housing is a, it's a, it's a new idea, newer idea, and it's came a long way in the last 1020, years. So I think that just trying to get a couple houses a year, or you know, a dozen houses a year built out of this program would be really beneficial for Hutch, and then hopefully, I've talked to other legislators in other areas, and there are some legislators that are very excited to move these prison work programs to their areas, like Leavenworth and Lansing and El Dorado. So there's a lot of interest from other state reps all over the place, and I think they think it's a good idea, and I think it's going to work out great for Hutch.
Marc Jacobs: So, I want to touch on another hotbed issue because this is really this has really become a big item. I want to say within the last six to 12 months, and that's data centers and battery energy storage systems. There had been some talk, you know, the the city council and the county commission have had that on their topic, I know that there were some state senators that have talked about state regulations involving those. What do you? What's your stance on data centers and battery energy storage systems?
Rep. Kyler Sweely: Yeah, ultimately, I mean, I will be very plain and simple about this. Ultimately, it comes down to the people, and I think the people in the district should be able to decide if they would like a data center or not. If not, they need to move on from it and go away with it. But if somebody wants a data center, I'm happy that Senate Bill 98 at the state level put more regulations on data centers. So a data center would qualify for a lifetime tax abatement with House current laws set up, and we limited that to 20 years. So taking a tax abatement from lifetime to 20 years is a massive thing. I think both of my opponents, the primary and the general opponent, right now are talking about data centers and they're very against them and do this and do that. But I am the only candidate in this race that has put any regulations in any tax abatements. Or ended any tax abate lifetime tax abatements against data centers in this race. So we make sure that they have to use their own water, and they have a closed loop water cooldown system, and they have to purchase their own electricity at a at a normal consumer rate. So they can't just you know steal all the energy and the water that we have in our community. And I think it it's a good first step for the state to put regulations like this. And if this is a step to go through that local governments want to put even more regulations on it, then I'm completely fine with that. I just think ultimately the decision is not on me as a state representative. The decision is on the people, and I will go with either way that they choose.
Marc Jacobs: You think this is more of a like a local issue compared to being a state issue? Is this an issue that local representations, county commissions, city councils, that's something that they should take up instead of the state taking it up? Because I think if you get the state involved, you get back into the cookie cutter. What fits in Johnson County may not fit here.
Rep. Kyler Sweely: No, 100% I agree with that. I think that this decision needs to be made between the people, the city council, and the county commission, and local governments. I don't think the state has any role in saying that Hutchinson should just get a brand new data center, or they shouldn't. I don't think the that's the state's position. I've been the representative of the people the last two years, and I want to know what the people think about this. And I think the people should ultimately have that choice. So I think bringing it down to the lowest form of government is the best thing to do on this. And I'm very excited that we got some regulations down for the data centers to protect the communities. But I mean, I'm not opposed if local communities want to put even more data center regulations like they did, so I'm interested and I'm very open about this subject. I think it's a local issue, and I don't think that the state should interfere at all.
Marc Jacobs: We got a short period of time here. What's your final comments?
Rep. Kyler Sweely: No, I'm. I I've been very open about all the issues that I've talked about. I think I've been very honest with all my votes. I think there's a lot of negative stuff out there that there's that the state voted on data centers, and that's completely false. I mean, please reach out to me. I'll send you all the information possible about data centers in the Senate Bill 98, I just think it's a local problem, and the state shouldn't have that jurisdiction over the local.