Nick Gosnell: In studio with us this morning is Kyler Sweely. He is running as a Republican in House District 102. That is the district that includes much of the city of Hutchinson, currently represented by Democrat Jason Probst. And as we are focusing on the primary races this week, we're basically going to have the Republicans in because there really aren't any Democratic primaries in Reno County. So we're having a conversation with Kyler this morning after we talked to Tyson Thrall earlier in the morning. Good morning, Kyler.
Kyler Sweely: Morning. Thanks for having me.
Nick Gosnell: You bet. So why are you running for the state legislature?
Kyler Sweely: Yeah, so I saw, you know, I worked up there the last year or so. I worked on there, I worked up there on the budget side of things, financial. So everything I saw was just, you know, kind of a joke of everything's a political game or nothing really got done. You know, we're just constantly overspend and get bailed out by the taxpayer. And, you know, I think we need someone new in there with a new perspective that doesn't get caught up in the games and does the right thing. All right.
Nick Gosnell: What's the most important issue to you that the state needs to address in the coming session?
Kyler Sweely: Without a doubt, it's taxes. I mean, we're pricing the older generation out of their homes. Up until this year, we were taxing Social Security and we were, you know, continuing raising property taxes every year. And we're pricing people out of their homes. The younger generation moves out of Kansas because there's no good paying jobs and they can't buy homes. So property tax and just income tax, everything is the, you know, biggest issues that we're facing right now of keeping people in Kansas and keeping money in people's pockets.
Nick Gosnell: What are the core functions of government the state does need to fund?
Kyler Sweely: You know, we're looking at school choice. Obviously, you know, we need to fully fund schools and continue smaller government, but stay within a reasonable budget. All right.
Nick Gosnell: What are the things that the state should get out of the business of doing so they can cut government?
Kyler Sweely: That's interesting. Yeah, I mean, we just we need to keep it how it's going right now. I think for the most part, everything's going well. We just need to continue to get the fiscal side of things on the fiscal side of things under control.
Nick Gosnell: Is Medicaid expansion a good idea? Why or why not?
Kyler Sweely: Personally, I think it all sounds like a good idea. Don't get me wrong. You know, I think the Democrat side uses it as a, you know, some key that everyone's gonna get health care and it's going to be all magical and everything like that. But the realistic side of it, I mean, we can't afford it. And I mean, we shouldn't be having the working class pay for non-work requirements Medicaid expansion.
Nick Gosnell: So when we talk about tax policy, what are the areas that you say we could have done better in what happened while you were up there last year?
Kyler Sweely: Yeah, I mean, I think a flat rate was the most thing that the Republicans were going for. And, you know, the governor and the Democrats or the Democrat side didn't want to go for it. I would be more interested in looking at that again. Also with property tax rates, capping it at the state level. So, you know, you hear about certain counties in the state that continue and continue and continue every single year, just continue to raise property taxes. So, I mean, we need to look at it at a state level that stop letting these counties do this. And, you know, tax people fairly.
Nick Gosnell: All right. The intent behind the revenue neutral rate statute that was passed here a couple of years back was to let people know that if the valuation goes up, then the amount of taxes that you pay goes up. And it happens on not only the micro level at your house, but the macro level across a county or a school district or whatever else you might want to go with. That was the purpose of that statute. That said, as a practical matter, what's ending up happening is just an additional hearing that unless you cared about the budget before, and we're going to go to the budget hearing and protest the budget, you aren't – the two hearings are happening on the same day, 15 minutes apart. They're not functionally changing a whole lot other than some governing bodies actually do take the revenue neutral rate calculation seriously. Reno County had done so the last couple of years, although I think they're going to do differently in 2025. Some of that has to do with inflation. But they had actually tried to cut back to the revenue neutral rate. Is there a way to tweak the language of that statute to have it actually be more than just an additional hearing that people have to go to and have some teeth with regard to slowing this rate of increase in property taxes?
Kyler Sweely: Yeah, I mean, I would assume so. I'd have to look at the exact language on the bill. I didn't look at it. But it's just a simple concept that anything that gets assessed in a tax value that prices constantly go up, the taxes are going to go up. And I mean, that's the predatory part about it. And that's what we need to look at.
Nick Gosnell: The state also has much control over the way appraisals work. Now, that is ostensibly because of fairness, because you don't want people to be assessed differently for the same thing in Johnson City than they are in Johnson County. It's supposed to work the same. Now, whether or not that can is a separate question, especially in counties that don't have as much land value or don't have the ability to assess things like they don't have energy in the county like oil and gas, where you can have assessments because that's where the well is, or you don't have other things like that that happen. The question, I guess, is what can be done to make sure that property is assessed fairly, but at the same time, you end up with an understanding that a house in the middle of nowhere in western Kansas is not the same as a house in Olathe or Overland Park?
Kyler Sweely: Yeah. I mean, the prices obviously are going to be different in that case, but you need to assess it and be as fair and impartial as you can on that. But also, you have to understand where the realistic part of where everyone lives is, what the district is, what else, other types of stuff that goes into that, and then assess it fair and then tax it fair. I mean, we just continue to let property taxes go up because everything's getting assessed higher and then the taxes come with that.
Nick Gosnell: Back on the BW Morning Show, Nick Gosnell and Kyler Sweely with us as House District 102's primary with he and Tyson Thrall will be going on August 6th. You can vote in advance at the Reno County Annex during their regular business hours this week and then also on Monday from 8 to noon. If you're not able to do that, you can go to your regular polling place on August 6th from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. So, Kyler, we've talked a lot about tax policy, but really what, as a new member of the legislature, what committees would you like to serve on if you get in? I know you worked in one specific committee.
Kyler Sweely: Yeah, so I staff the Transportation and Public Safety Budget Committee. And I mean, I'd love to be on that. I understand it well. I know all the members of that committee right now. I know how it runs, everything like that. So that'd be one of my top picks, I guess I'd say. But the number one overall pick would be appropriations. I mean, appropriations is exactly what all the spending is. It's the whole budget. This is how you, this is where all the spending comes in. This is who votes on the budget first. This is, I mean, how you get the real work done, and everyone knows it.
Nick Gosnell: All right. So talk to me about budget provisos then. If you want to serve on appropriations, budget provisos, for those that aren't familiar, are one-year changes to the budget. Often they're additional spending. Sometimes they're cuts that happen for individual years. In fact, there are certain laws like, as an example, the part of the education that talks about excess cost to schools that are provisoed out of the budget on a routine basis. What do you see as a proper use of a one-year budget proviso? And what do you say? You know what? That probably isn't the way we ought to spend the state's money, even if it is just a one-time thing.
Kyler Sweely: You're talking about exact examples?
Nick Gosnell: Well, no, just a general concept of what are things that should be a one-time thing. I can think of an example. Like if we had another Greensburg and a tornado blew through, you'd do a proviso probably to help with additional funding for something like that. But other than that kind of a situation, are there many that are good?
Kyler Sweely: Yeah, there are a lot of good ones. So the representative that I worked for, he had a proviso in the budget this year that had some funding for the Adaptive Open, the USGA in Newton, Kansas. So he got some funding for that. And it was for a good cause. It was the first time that I believe the Adaptive Open was in Kansas. And it's for people that are disabled or any physical disabilities that aren't normally on the actual golf tour. So they had to get their Adaptive Open, and it worked out well. So it was a pretty successful tournament. And there was a big turnout. It was, I think, national media coverage.
Nick Gosnell: Yeah, in fact, Hutchinson's Kirk Holmberg played in the Adaptive Open down at Sand Creek. And there are things like that that happen on a one-off basis, that if it's an event and it's related to those kinds of things, that's one thing. Now, Star Bonds is something else that we probably ought to talk about. The Chiefs deal was a big part of the legislature this last time around. But Star Bonds happened all across the state. They used them for Stratica here in Hutch. So talk about them generally. What do you think about that type of vehicle to bring economic development to the state?
Kyler Sweely: Nick, I mean, you probably know that Starbonds are pretty notorious for not working out as well as they should. There's a couple of them that have worked out well and been beneficial to the state. But it's a big, big cost. And it has to be a big, big development, pretty much. So the Chiefs thing is interesting, and this bill that they brought up at the end of session in the special session was just to start the negotiations. It wasn't any money or fiscal or financial thing like this. So we'll see where that goes. But something as big as that would, you know, obviously provide economic income to the state. And just, it would probably show a lot of benefits with jobs and revenue and everything like that.
Nick Gosnell: All right. Now, the Apex bill that was in a couple of years ago, that basically, I'm going to call it the Panasonic bill now, because that's what it was for. The new Panasonic development that happened in Johnson County. Are large incentive bills like those good policy or not? Or what do you think about that?
Kyler Sweely: I think it's early to tell on that one. I think it was a lot of money. Don't get me wrong. And I wasn't there to vote on it, so I can't tell you that I heard all the yays or nays on it. I don't want to just say that I would say no right away because I didn't hear the expert witnesses on everything. But me sitting outside and looking in, I think it's a lot of money and we need to take it very seriously.
Nick Gosnell: Kyler Sweely is running for House District 102. He runs against Tyson Thrall in your Republican primary on the 6th of August here in Reno County and specifically in the city of Hutchinson.