CREDIT Visit Topeka
By Gina Long
The 2025 Kansas legislative session gavels in on Monday, January 13, and I have a few suggestions for Reno County’s new and incumbent representatives.
- Property tax relief for working families and elderly homeowners is the top priority cited by voters. Reno County’s property valuations are skyrocketing, and even with a hefty increase in the tax-exempt base amount, increases are reaching a critical tipping point. The cost pass-through raises rent amounts, harming low-income workers, retirees and small businesses. The legislature can help by broadening the tax base, beginning with holding corporations who beg for tax breaks with hat in hand, who then send profits out of state instead of investing in the Kansas workforce, then passing the shifts through as state-level property tax cuts.
- Why was a bill to change Daylight Saving Time the first filed? See the first point.
- Invest in updating computer systems. Aging infrastructure and applications based on computer code created in the late 1960s are not sustainable in the 21st century. As critical state services and functions move online, citizens should expect their data to be protected and networks to defend against fraud. Systems investments include people, and Kansas universities train thousands of IT graduates yearly. What can our legislators do to encourage those high-skilled workers to stay here?
- Give the Kansas Corporation Commission the power to stand up to utility companies. Utility rates higher than those in surrounding states cost working families, the elderly, and small businesses the most and discourage investment and entrepreneurship. They make Kansas less competitive than surrounding states. Every dollar sent out of state to multibillion-dollar hedge funds impoverishes the Main Street economy. Encourage energy production from multiple sources — Kansas has the land and the know-how to be an energy producer.
- Rural depopulation is an existential danger. Well-paying jobs with benefits, strong schools, quality affordable housing, and child care are investments in the rural future. It is possible to support rural and urban areas without pitting them against each other. However, Kansas will not survive without a comprehensive water management plan based on cooperation instead of burdensome mandates.
- Finally, I expect our elected officials to represent us. Not Wichita, Topeka, Johnson County, Texas, Missouri, or Washington, D.C. All power is inherent in the people, and a rising tide lifts all boats. This includes the big boats, the loud boats, and the boats with the biggest wallets.
Best of luck during this year’s session. Make us proud and try to stay out of the bad headlines. Be worthy of the hallowed walls through which you walk. We will be watching.
