NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Republican incumbent Rep. Paul Waggoner in the 104th House District is committed to once again keep a close eye on the state budget, should he be elected again to serve.
"Taxes and spending are two sides of the same coin," Waggoner said. "If you keep increasing spending...in the last two years, the state general fund budget has gone from $7.2 billion up to $9.2 billion, it's on an unsustainable trajectory. You need people who are going to push back against that."
Waggoner said it's important not to use the current state finance situation to mask the problems that rapid growth can cause.
"We do have a surplus," Waggoner said. "We're talking about tax cuts and we've done a lot of tax cuts actually in the last two or three years. It's because of earlier legislatures, have actually kept spending below tax revenue and thus you accumulate a surplus."
Waggoner sees Medicaid expansion as an area where the legislature is not going to let the government grow.
"Medicaid expansion is dead in the legislature, for a couple of reasons," Waggoner said. "For the excess cost, for the lack of tangible benefits, for the fact that the spending on it is masked by the fact of, oh it's federal spending. But, federal spending is actually taxpayer funded and in the case of this expansion, it's actually deficit spending finance, which basically means that we're just putting it on a credit card that our children and grandchildren will pay a generation later. I don't see that as being a good value for the people of the 104th."
You can find out more about Waggoner's campaign at https://www.waggonerforkansas.org/.
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