Three compete to replace Barbara Bollier in Kansas House District 21

Three relative political newcomers from Prairie Village are competing to replace Kansas House member Barbara Bollier, who is running for the state Senate.

Republicans Dorothy Hughes and Neil Melton will face each other in the Aug. 2 GOP primary. The winner will challenge lone Democrat Jerry Stogsdill in the Nov. 8 general election. They are competing to represent the 21st District, which covers portions of Prairie Village, Overland Park, Mission Hills and Leawood in northeast Johnson County.

The three candidates, two of whom have unsuccessfully run for office in the past, are unified on one thing: their opposition to the income tax cuts passed by the Kansas Legislature in 2012.

Hughes, 33, is a health care consultant and former government relations liaison for KU Medical Center and the University of Kansas Hospital.

She said she would support rolling back the 2012 tax cuts, which she said have left the state government unable to adequately meet its obligations.

“I think we have gotten into what is really an unfair system, and I would like to see a return to the more stable system of income, property and sales taxes being applied in a more balanced fashion,” she said. “Right now, we have a situation where a lot of people are paying a lot of tax and some people are paying nothing. I think voters are seeing the unfairness of that.”

With a more stable budget, Hughes said, the state could focus on adequately funding education and stop filling budget holes with transfers from the Kansas Department of Transportation. She also said she would fight additional attempts by state lawmakers to “micromanage” local governments and school boards.

Melton, 33, is a mortgage lender and former Army reservist who ran against Bollier in 2014.

He said he also favored closing the loophole that allows more than 330,000 farmers and business owners in the state to avoid paying income taxes. He said he supports reviewing other sections of the tax code and would like to see a two-tiered sales tax that charged a lower rate for food. He also said the state should provide more funding for mental health services, which have suffered budget cuts in recent years.

Melton said he supported creating a new finance formula for public schools that would be good for Johnson County schools. He also said the state could reduce school administration costs by consolidating some of the state’s smaller school districts and that he favored a voucher program to send low-income students in poorly performing districts to private schools.

“I think it has worked well in Kansas City, Missouri,” he said. “I don’t necessarily think that’s going to be popular in Johnson County. But I do think there are other parts of the state where we can implement some school choice, and I think that would really benefit those students. We’ve constantly got to be looking at ways to make our system more innovative.”

Stogsdill, 69, is a former U.S. Navy lieutenant, elementary school teacher, president of the National Education Association for Shawnee Mission and current owner of two small Prairie Village businesses. He last ran for the state House in 1976.

He said supporting the state’s public education system is his primary goal, and he would start by repealing the tax cuts that he said have harmed schools in Kansas. He said getting the state budget in better shape would also make sure the state can continue maintaining its roads, keep university tuition affordable and even expand the Medicaid system to more low-income people and those with disabilities.

A onetime head of the Silicon Valley Technology Association, which supports high-tech startups in the region, Stogsdill said the last few years of lawmakers having to repeatedly patch holes in the budget and reduce services has hurt the state’s attractiveness to entrepreneurs.

“What kind of economic development message does that send to the rest of the country?” he asked. “ ‘Come to Kansas where we’re attacking our schools and our universities and providing inadequate health care and not taking care of our roads.’ If they wonder why companies aren’t flocking to Kansas, those are the reasons right there.”

This story was originally published July 20, 2016 at 10:24 AM with the headline "Three compete to replace Barbara Bollier in Kansas House District 21."