Nick Gosnell: We have the candidates for House District 114 with us, and that is an open seat because Michael Murphy, who has been serving District 114, is running for Kansas Senate, so it is an open seat. Two Republicans are running in the primary, Steve Schweizer and Kevin Schwertfeger, and Mr. Schwertfeger will be with us later on this morning, but Mr. Schweizer is with us first. And just to clarify, because I've had some calls, there really are no contested Democratic primaries at all other than I think there's one township race, if you happen to live in that township. But other than that, the Democratic primaries are just a single candidate that's going to get through regardless. The Republican ones are the ones that are contested for Tuesday, August the 6th. Good morning, Steve. How are you?
Steve Schweizer: Good morning. So far, so good this morning.
Nick Gosnell: All right. So why are you running for the state legislature?
Steve Schweizer: Well, interestingly enough, I was approached by a state legislator out of the House of Representatives because of the need to fill this position. Mike Murphy, running for the Senate, had an opening here, and they didn't have a huge crowd running to sign up for the position. So I was asked if I'd consider, after a thoughtful and prayerful consideration, I decided to throw my hat in the ring, so to speak. And it goes back to I've lived in this area. I have an investment in this area. I want to see this area thrive, promote it for generations to come. And if I'm not there to represent, if I don't have people locally willing to represent, who are we going to have represent us in Topeka? And I think that's one of those things I needed to answer.
Nick Gosnell: All right. So what's your experience thus far in government?
Steve Schweizer: Well, so far, I've been on the local township board. I've been on Ark Valley Board of Directors for the first 12-year stint, and I was off for a year, and I'm back on there again. I had nine years of those. I was board president, some of those leadership. I've been on various church boards, participated in a school bond committee. And with the township board, I never even had to campaign for that when I got wrote in. So it's one of those things. It's a little different for me. I don't have a lot of political experience, but I do have a lot of experience working with others in leadership as far as boards go.
Nick Gosnell: All right, so is there any particular issue that you say the state needs to address this? Maybe they haven't been doing it or they need to do more?
Steve Schweizer: Well, I think a lot of my thoughts ahead of time, and it was kind of confirmed when I've been out on the campaign trail, is just the physical responsibility of the state, how they're spending the taxpayers' money, and what we can do to relieve the tax burden on the residents of Kansas. That's kind of a huge one. And then the other thing was just in the rural areas that the 114th serves, we have issues with emergency services. We have some areas losing ambulances, either because of staffing or funding. We have rural fire departments that are seeing some things coming down the road that may cause them to just cease to function as they can afford to. And so we really need a lot of those services for rural areas of Kansas. A lot of people rely on those. And with the trend of population moving towards more urban areas, we can't retain people if we don't have those services available.
Nick Gosnell: All right. So what are some of the things, then, that government needs to do at the state level so that you can have it passed down to the local level?
Steve Schweizer: Look, a lot of the things I can see is maybe just getting out of the way. When you look at local municipalities, some of the mandates maybe not coming from the state level, but from the federal level through the state. I see the state maybe at the state level being that fence that guards our local municipalities, local residents from the federal mandates that are being forced upon them with no recourse. And that's something that they need some defense of some kind.
Nick Gosnell: All right. So what are maybe some things that the state should either do less of or differently emphasize in an effort to be able to cut costs? Because with the way inflation is now, you're going to have to stop doing something if you actually want to pull the fiscal reins back in.
Steve Schweizer: Right. And that's one of those things that's going to be a tough call, because nobody wants to give up anything. Everybody wants what they've got. And so, it's going to be a tough road. It's not going to be an easy one. Without being able to name specifics, and I'd have to have more information probably to be more specific to answer that question. But it's going to require a broad scope of things across the board. You know, education is such a significant part of our budget as a state. And you look at what all that entails, that's going to be a tough fight just because of the needs there. You look at Medicare, Medicaid, that's another pretty good chunk of our budget. It's going to be hard for anybody. Nobody wants that being cut. And so, when you look at maybe what 15% of the budget left to work with, it's not going to be easy. But I think there's places where we can find efficiencies.
Nick Gosnell: Medicaid expansion is a specific issue that's been before the legislature now. 2014 is when it was passed and vetoed by Governor Brownback. And then, it's been either on the floor via amendment or not on the floor at all in the last 10 years. But it's always been a discussion. Every single session, it comes up. So, what do you think about Medicaid expansion? And are you for it or against it? Or do you even know yet?
Steve Schweizer: I am not for Medicaid expansion. And I use this analogy because it's the closest thing I could come up with. It's like if you have a three-inch gash on your arm and you reach into that multi-sized Band-Aid box, and what you grab is the very smallest Band-Aid in the box to try to cover it up. I mean, you might slow the bleeding down, but it's not the answer to the problem. We have a gap there, and it's a widening gap because of the increasing cost of the private health care insurers and the cost of private health care insurance. But I'm not sure exactly how to solve that gap yet. But it's something we're going to need to look into. The problem with Medicaid is just another step in the single government payer system. And what it will do is it will dictate how those hospitals, how those health care providers are reimbursed. And eventually, it will limit how much they're being reimbursed for each procedure. And so, the strain we're seeing on our rural health care system now, it will only exacerbate that if we went that route.
Nick Gosnell: All right. So, is there anything else state-wise? I mean, the one area we didn't talk about, and maybe I should because, frankly, without it, you don't have anything else, is transportation, at least with regard to western Reno County. You guys have to be able to get the crops you produce and the things that are out there to market, and that's what transportation infrastructure is all about, right?
Steve Schweizer: Yeah. And I do appreciate what Reno County, what they've been working on as far as the roads go. They're kind of upgrading the roads, the paved roads out there to the 21st century. So many of those paved roads, when they were put down, they were made for cars, automobiles, pickup trucks. They were not made for heavy commercial equipment, agricultural equipment. And so, those improvements have been very beneficial. And it's just one of those things that's going to have to be continued.
Nick Gosnell: Well, and the state level is kind of where a lot of that pass-through money comes from. The Kansas Department of Transportation does all kinds of things, not only for the state highways, but for bypass through to the counties and county roads and those kinds of things. So, that's also a big part of the budget. Now, do you have any specific committees that you say to yourself, my experience has put me in a position where I think I could do well on this?
Schweizer: Well, yes. The Ag Committee, of course. I've grown up on a farm, a lifetime farmer. But my experience with the Ark Valley Electric Cooperative would certainly give me a good grasp of utilities. Just being on a township board, looking at the fundamentals of the budget on a year-to-year basis, maybe the ways and means, I think would at least give me a start. There may be others that I can't think of right at the moment.
Nick Gosnell: Okay. And so, the hope is that no matter which of you wins the primary, that western Reno County is able to have a voice that understands what's going on in that part of the county. Because honestly, it's way different here in Hutchinson and in, say, Haven and Buhler and Inman and the areas where you drive 10 or 15 minutes to another town or grocery store or whatever else than it is out in Turon and Sylvia and even Pretty Prairie and those areas where it's 20 or 25 minutes, like I was talking to you out in the hall, 25 minutes to a head of lettuce sometimes, depending on exactly where you are. What is the unique perspective that, regardless of which of you it is, being from that part of the county will bring to the legislature?
Steve Schweizer: How I communicate with others, how I'm willing to work with others that are going to be probably exactly on the opposite side of the spectrum, politically and every other way. Just having to be approachable, being willing to work with individuals, just establish common ground for the common good of the constituents of the district. Because rural Western County is part of it, but Kingman County, the whole Kingman County and then Pratt County up to 281 Highway is included. So, there's a lot of ground out there, wide open spaces to cover. Now, we have Kingman, it's kind of our population center, and then East Pratt, another population center, and they may have uniquely different needs there, but the vast majority of the ground is rural.