The Reno County Commission Republican primary candidates are visiting the KWBW Morning Show to talk to Nick Gosnell about their campaigns. Below is a transcript of the answers of Don Bogner from July 28, 2022.
Nick Gosnell:
In studio with us this morning, another candidate for Reno County commission district five, as we're trying to get through all the Republican primary candidates for the county commission district, we didn't have anybody from district four in, even though that's also new, because there are no opponents, there's one Republican candidate and one Democrat candidate. So they'll meet in the fall and we'll talk to them in the fall before that happens. But, on the Republican side, we've got four people running for this district five seat. And so, that's why Don Bogner is joining us. He's one of those candidates. Good morning. How are you, sir?
Don Bogner:
Just fine, Nick. It's a beautiful day in Reno County today.
Nick Gosnell:
Well, it really is. I mean, if you, if you understand how desperately we need the rain around here, that it is a beautiful day, isn't it?
Don Bogner:
That's right. I can't imagine what it's doing for the economy of Reno County right now.
Nick Gosnell:
All right. So talk about who you are and where you came from and why you want to be a county commissioner.
Don Bogner:
Well, I'm Dom Bogner, I live and grew up south of Haven about four miles. Our family's been in the area Southeast corner of the county for over 112 years now. We still own those properties and farm 'em and I'm a retired dairyman and farmer.
Nick Gosnell:
All right. Were you in the part of the county that would've been part of the wind project if they'd had it, or are you further away?
Don Bogner:
From that? Yes. Yes, I, we were in that area.
Nick Gosnell:
Okay. So, what do you think about that? I guess, because I couldn't remember if you were in that area or not.
Don Bogner:
Well, the best thing about the whole thing is everybody got their due process. Anybody is entitled to propose a development along with those rules come everybody's ability to address those in public forum and that all took place, and we had an outcome where the commissioners had their vote and that's where we're at at this point.
Nick Gosnell:
All right. So what should county government do and what do you think that maybe the private sector and other folks should be doing?
Don Bogner:
As pertaining to?
Nick Gosnell:
Okay, let me try to be more clear. Is county government the right size right now? Are they doing the things that are most important?
Don Bogner:
Well, first of all, you need to always address what is mandated and that would be your fire, EMS, policing comes under for the county under the sheriff. So those mandated things have to be addressed first. And then from there you prioritize and go on. Infrastructure would be very important to all of us, for getting our crops in and getting ourselves to work, we need good infrastructure. And for any economic, anything business wise in the economic portion of the county, we need our infrastructure. It needs to be in good shape.
Nick Gosnell:
Okay. So we're talking about public safety, emergency services, roads and bridges, all that kind of stuff. Is that it? Just the basic stuff?
Don Bogner:
Yes.
Nick Gosnell:
Okay. That's still a lot of money when it comes to the county, especially when it comes to road and bridge. I've talked to some of the other candidates for district five about this. And so what do you think about the idea of having a certain amount of lane miles that they've gotta do every year to get all the way around the county and how to be sure everything gets done, but to be able to adjust the budget when you need to?
Don Bogner:
We all know that there are gonna be things that happen. They happen in our own private lives that we don't expect are going to happen. You'll have a bridge failure or something that you really didn't expect, a wreck. You know, you you've gotta have money set aside for those types of things. But, yes, they have a good program in place to routinely keep things up, to maintain what we have. You see them working on it all the time. I was fortunate enough to meet with Don Brittain the other day. And as I have some of the other heads of various other departments and it occurred to me that the people that I've talked to are being very careful with our funds better than I had thought they might be. And that gives me encouragement that we are operating more efficiently than I originally thought we were. And the other side of that is they've all pointed out to me that they work here, they get their taxes collected from them. So they tend to be pretty careful about any waste because they know they're taking money out of their own pocket in the end, just like we are having to finance those things. They're financing them right beside us.
Nick Gosnell:
Explain as you understand it, what the county administrator does for the county commission.
Don Bogner:
Well, I'd say my understanding is, is he puts together like the budgets from all the various entities, departments and does a lot of the day to day leg work for the commissioners. They went into that style of government, oh shoot, probably 10 years ago at least, maybe more, I can remember reading about it. Otherwise, the commission is a full-time job every day, if you're gonna handle the details. But once you've decided to go to that type of government or that type of organization, be it government or private, you need to let them do their job and then check on them. And if things are working the way they should, things will all work out fine. If they're not, then we, as commissioners would have to do our job, which would be to make the changes necessary. But, as I see it right now, and I haven't been able to research it real close yet, but that's to come that's part of the job and we'll see what happens when we get a little further along in this.
Nick Gosnell:
All right. A lot of departments in the county are controlled, not by county officials, but rather by state statute, they're also elected. We're talking about the sheriff and the treasurer and the register of deeds and those kinds of departments. How do you interact with them when you're still helping with their budgets, but they are accountable to voters too?
Don Bogner:
Well, that's the thing like was pointed out here a few weeks ago, with some of these changes, the county government had to come up with some money that, to finance some of those mandates that they didn't have any control over. Probably neither did the individuals working here in the county. It's just one of those things that's happens. I don't know if there's a way to put money aside. I know you can for equipment bought, purchases and things like that. I don't know exactly how those are handled or what can legally be done, but we've got counsel that can inform us on what we can do to hopefully put a little aside for these things that happen to us.
Nick Gosnell:
All right. So, given the truth in taxation law that passed in the legislature. Now, the county can't just keep the mill levy flat and count on increased valuations to help them keep up with inflation without the voters knowing what's happening, there's additional reporting requirements. And so that's where this term revenue neutral rate has come in in the recent years is that when valuations increase, that means the people are actually being taxed more dollars for the same property. And so the revenue neutral rate would be where you cut to the point where you're not taxing any actual more dollars and the mill levy actually goes down. What do you think about budgeting and trying to get to the revenue neutral rate? Is that something you should do or do you worry more about keeping the mill levy flat?
Don Bogner:
Well, it's math. You have two factors there that control how much money you take in, and if the valuation's gonna go up, the mill levy can go down or the other way around. So trying to stay revenue neutral would probably be good in a lot of ways, but right now we are in severe inflation in our government just like our own personal budgets. There's certain things that are gonna be high and going up, and you've gotta provide for that some way or try to estimate what's gonna happen well enough that you will have a big enough budget to actually cover what you need to cover. So with that in mind, I'd say it's a balancing act and you've still got a budget, but you, you play with the numbers. You've got, you've got a formula there.
Nick Gosnell:
Don Bogner is with us here on KWBW, Hutchinson. He is on your ballot if you are a Republican and voting in the Republican primary for county district five of the county commission. Thank you, Don. Where can people find out more about you?
Don Bogner:
I've got a website up electbogner.com, all small letters, simple.