Northeast Johnson County race features two well-known candidates

After seven years in the Kansas House, Republican Barbara Bollier is looking to move to the upper chamber, challenging Democrat and former Roeland Park City Councilwoman Megan England for the Senate District 7 seat.

The winner of the Nov. 8 general election will replace Republican incumbent Kay Wolf, who didn’t seek reelection. District 7 covers parts of 10 cities in northeast Johnson County.

Bollier, 58, of Mission Hills, has spent much of her time in the Kansas Legislature establishing herself as a moderate Republican, opposing many policies supported by the more conservative GOP leadership and Gov. Sam Brownback.

That has sometimes gotten her into trouble, such as in 2015 when she was one of three moderates removed from the House Health and Human Services Committee for supporting Medicaid expansion.

Bollier said she plans to continue that resistance by working to repeal Brownback’s so-called “march to zero,” a plan started in 2012 to eliminate income taxes in favor of higher sales taxes and other revenue. She said that plan has only lead to a string of holes in the state budget that legislators have had to fill by taking money from other needs, such as transportation and education.

She said she would eliminate a tax break for the owners of roughly 330,000 limited liability corporations in the state, revisit most of the state’s other tax exemptions, restructure tax brackets and consider reducing sales taxes, particularly on food.

“I hope everything is on the table and we completely reevaluate our tax structure in Kansas,” she said. “It’s the perfect time to do it.”

Bollier also said she wants to help create a new funding formula for Kansas public schools that meets the needs of both the schools in District 7 and the Kansas Supreme Court, which is set to decide soon on whether the state is adequately paying for public education.

“I’ve asked the people of our district, ‘What do you need to provide the education that meets those standards?’” she said. “Everyone needs to figure that out and then we can go from there.”

As a retired physician, Bollier said she still plans to push for expanding Medicaid. Kansas, like many Republican-dominated states, has so far refused to expand access to the program that provides health care to the poor and disabled. Critics have claimed that while the federal government has agreed to pay the added costs of expansion for the first few years, the highest costs later would be too great.

In response, Bollier said the state is essentially paying that cost now in the form of hospitals, emergency room physicians and others providing care for the poor without getting paid for it.

Other priorities include returning local control to city and county governments and overturning a 2015 state law allowing concealed carry of firearms without a permit.

England, 40, of Roeland Park, said she too wants to get the state back to sustainable taxes and a budget healthy enough to let lawmakers fulfill current needs and plan for future goals. She noted that during her time on the Roeland Park City Council she helped steer the city through the 2008 recession.

She said she would push to repeal the LLC tax exemptions and reverse the recent increases in sales tax rates.

“If we can lower sales taxes we can put more money back into the economy and where people will actually spend the money, and have more people at work,” she said.

She said restricting the state’s revenues will allow the state to tackle other priorities, ranging from expanding Medicaid to fully funding the arts again.

“There’s a lot of things that need to be restructured,” she said. “It’s not a matter of raising taxes. It’s restructuring taxes.”

Once the state’s revenue is again stable, England said she would push to develop a long-term, stable approach to paying for public education. She likened the agreement reached by state lawmakers this summer to boost funding for poor school districts by $38 million by diverting money from other parts of the budget to paying your utility bill by selling your television.

“Your utility bill is going to come next month, but you’re out of TVs to sell,” she said. “It’s not smart planning at all.”

She recommended returning to the type of funding formulas the state used before replacing them with block grants in 2015. “We need to go back to that sustainable and reliable and fair system.”

England said she also wants to overturn some of the laws passed in recent years that limit the powers of local city and county governments and school boards, such as caps on how much they can raise taxes, bans on firearm regulations and mandates on when they can hold elections. The former city councilwoman said budget flexibility is one of the main ways many local governments were able to weather the 2008 recession.

“I am a big proponent of local control,” she said.

Both candidates acknowledge that they share many of the same policy goals, setting up a potentially difficult decision for voters.

Bollier said she would be the best choice to achieve those goals because of her legislative experience.

England, on the other hand, said Bollier’s moderate positions have made her a target, making it difficult for her to represent the district.

“I’ll be protected by my party and I’ll be put on committees,” she said. “I’ll be able to work hard and not be silenced by forces within my own party.”

Patrick Miller, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Kansas, said that Bollier had the advantage of greater name recognition from her time in the House and campaign contributions. However, Miller also noted that voters in the district have selected Democrats in the latest presidential and gubernatorial races and those living outside her House district may only see the “R” next to her name on the ballot.

“The key here for Bollier is to convince voters to split their tickets,” he said. “For England, it’s to convince voters not to split their tickets.”

This story was originally published October 26, 2016 at 2:10 PM with the headline "Northeast Johnson County race features two well-known candidates."