Nick Gosnell: In studio with us this morning is Kyler Sweely. He is running as a Republican for the House District 102 seat. And good morning, Kyler. How are you?
Kyler Sweely: Good morning, how are you guys?
Nick Gosnell: Doing OK. Just want you to let people know who you are a little bit, because you won the primary, but if they haven't been paying attention since mid-August, then just want people to kind of know who Kyler is. So talk about being from this part of the state and just a little bit about your background.
Kyler Sweely: Yeah, so I was born and raised in Newton. Everyone tries to say it's so far away. It's 25 minutes away, so it's not any really different of an upbringing than Hutchinson. In public school, spent my whole life there. And then I enlisted in the Army right out of high school, where I served a couple months under five years, deployed twice. And then when I got out of the Army, I started working on the financial budget side of things in Topeka, and that's where I fell into it, and fell in love with politics, and saw the gap or the misrepresentation that was happening at the state level. So I ultimately decided to run.
Nick Gosnell: All right, so talk to me about, because you haven't introduced yourself to people, I'll bet you've knocked on a lot of doors in this district. Talk to me about what you've heard from people when you've talked to them.
Kyler Sweely: Yeah, so I mean, I've been pretty much out every single day since the primary. And even during the primary, I mean, I'm over just myself, no outside help or anything, over 5,000 doors in the last couple of months, which I think would be a hard number to compete with for sure. But the biggest thing is this inflation that everyone's feeling, and mostly that's a national level. But the things at the state level that we can do a lot is this property tax and just straight taxes all aboard. It seems like everything in Kansas is continuing to rise, and it's harder for people to afford things like groceries and everything else without having property taxes just every single year continue to rise.
Nick Gosnell: All right, now, most of the property tax burden that comes to people is stuff that is local government. Here in Hutchinson, the JUCO is also a property tax piece. But the part that the state legislature has at least some control over is the 20 mills connected with the school finance formula. Now, there is the issue of the school finance lawsuit that was settled and is now done, and how adjusting the school finance formula at all could impact future action in that. But that said, that's the lever that the state can do about property taxes. There was at least one budget proposal where they talked about at least a little bit of a trim there. Is that something that you believe would happen again if you get elected to the legislature?
Kyler Sweely: Last week, I think Governor Kelly, or not, I think the quotes out there, Governor Kelly came out and said in 2025, there'll be no property tax cuts, there'll be no property tax breaks or anything that the governor's gonna be working on for property tax. So I think Republicans have really made it their message to get that relief that they actually hear from their constituents. It's not about election years or anything like that. It's actually about who voted us into these positions. So I mean, it's ultimately one of my main goals, but like you said, the main argument against it is funding public schools. We talk about this 20 mill levy, but also what have we been bragging about for the last couple of years that the state's had more money than they've ever had? We're at a $3 billion surplus, and I believe a billion and a half in a rainy day fund. And this is the people's money. It's not just some magical money that fell out of the sky. And these relief, these tax dollars need to go back to the people with this surplus of money that the state has still funding public schools. I mean, we're not talking about taking a cut to public schools or anything like that. We're talking about giving an actual break that people can actually feel and still with this huge surplus of money, over $3 billion, still funding public schools.
Nick Gosnell: All right, quickly related to the budget issue and since Governor Kelly has come out saying that she doesn't wanna touch the property tax part of that, another issue that's come up is that the legislature is considering the idea of changing the way that the initial budget is set. You and I know, Kyler, because you've worked on it, that the blank piece of paper that the state is starting from isn't blank. It comes starting from the governor's office and goes down from there. It did so, and it's done so in every governor that I've covered, Brownback, Colyer, Kelly, and on. So it's not, this isn't partisan, this is the way it's worked. The legislature wants to change the way that works. What do you think about that?
Kyler Sweely: Yeah, I think it's, firstly, coming on to this budget side of things, I mean, it was kind of a blind side. I don't think a business just starts off of an already increased budget from the year before. I mean, I think it's kind of an absurd message. So just say, if you want to say the budget last year was $20 billion, and that's what the actual state spent, the legislature show up and it's $22.5 billion. And then there's all these programs that the legislators want to bring on or grant money funding, whatever you want to talk about that they fund, that's already on top of the starting at a two and a half billion dollar in budget, which is the governor recommendations. And I think it's just a really weird way to fund our state. I think it's a really weird way because when they raise stuff like that and then they talk, oh, we're only at a five to 10% increase, but that five to 10% increase is already off the governor's recommendation that's also at a five to 10% increase. So it's an odd way to do it, but I definitely think there's, if we put our heads together at the state level, I definitely think there's a better way of getting it done. And continuing to be fiscally conservative or just responsible.
Nick Gosnell: Kyler, I talked a little bit with your opponent in his segment this morning about the committees he served on. So what committees would you want to serve on?
Kyler Sweely: I've been pretty public or pretty open with what committees I wanted to be on. Kind of the main committee I'd want to be on would be appropriations. It's where all the money comes in and comes out. That's where we can actually get a grip on this overspending and just keeping the spending under control so we're not continuing to have raised taxes in any sort or find new money somewhere else.
Nick Gosnell: So one big piece of policy that the Appropriations Committee works through every year is something called budget provisos. Those are the single year changes to the budget. And that's where the so-called, pet projects come in usually. Although budget provisos have also been used to do things like not fund things when we didn't have money. As an example, special education. Back in the Brownback days, budget provisos were used to make that funding less than what it was previously. But the bottom line is, one year changes to the budget for special projects, do you think those were a good idea or should we actually pass legislation on this stuff?
Kyler Sweely: There is also obviously gonna be stuff that comes in as a proviso that will only need to be one year. So I don't want to completely get rid of it, but I do think it needs to be under control a little bit. And you see it. This is kind of what I'm talking about. You'll sit in appropriations and so you'll watch the live stream. And it's, oh, we need 1 million here, 5 million here, 10 million here. We need 3 million here, $500,000 here. And we talk about this happening so often that $5 million doesn't seem a lot to 25 billion. It's a penny, it's pretty much a penny or pennies. But you do this multiple, multiple times over and over again. And this is where it starts to add up that this is unnecessary money coming into the budget.
Nick Gosnell: All right, so we talked about appropriations. Any other committees? I know transportation is where you worked.
Kyler Sweely: Yeah, so I worked on transportation and public safety, the budget side. You know, it's a lot of the law enforcement agencies and the department of transportation, state highway fund and things like that. Obviously that's kind of where I fell in love with politics. So I mean, I'd definitely be really biased and I would definitely request that if I had the chance. And that's kind of where my background started. So I'd really enjoy to be on that. But also tax or commerce, I think would be big for me right now too. I mean, I think we need to get economic development and jobs back in Hutch. I think we have the workforce, we have the stability. I think that is something that we need to look at of trying to bring some more jobs here and tax, obviously. I mean, it's the biggest issue that there is in the state. There's a tax bill this last year that a lot of the incumbents will run off of that they made tax breaks, they cut taxes and they saved the state of Kansas money. But I don't believe that any of the constituents will actually feel it, so.
Nick Gosnell: All right, so where do you think tax breaks need to come then if you wanna serve on tax? Where's the place to put them so that the most people get their money back, so to speak?
Kyler Sweely: Yeah, I mean, like we said earlier, we're talking about property tax. That's one of the biggest ones for sure. I think income tax is kind of a completely different aspect of how you go about that. But lowering the mill levy and doing just even a little bit what the state level can do. It's not all in the state, but even just what the state can do. And it seems like they haven't done enough on that property tax. And I mean, if I knocked, you obviously don't get an awesome answer rate when you knock doors. I mean, a good answer rate's like 10 or 15%. But if I knocked 10 doors and 10 people answered and I said, what's your biggest issue? They'd say either inflation or property tax. And I mean, 80% of them are including property tax in that. It's the issue that everyone cares about. It's the issue that they feel the state hasn't done enough. And it's not like the federal government or anything letting them down. They feel that the state has let them down on that. And a lot of people don't understand this. A lot of the county stuff and it's similar type projects that when anything wants to happen in a county or city type government, I mean, property taxes have to go up. There has to be the money getting somewhere. They don't just get this unlimited budget that people think the government gets. So the look at it is more of the property tax. And then later down the road, trying to do income tax and things like that. Fair enough.
Nick Gosnell: How can people find out more about your campaign?
Kyler Sweely: So I have a Facebook, obviously public. I have a website, just kylersweely.com. The Facebook is Kyler Sweely for Kansas House. And if anyone wants to get a hold of me, there has been pros and cons to this, but my personal cell phone has been public on my website, my Facebook. A lot of the door hangers that I pass out, that's my personal cell phone. It's not a campaign phone. And obviously there's been good and negative to that. So, but it's a good thing to have it out. And I loved when people reach out to me. So it's very open and I'm glad that people feel that they can reach out to me and we can actually talk about getting stuff done.