Solutions for Everyday Kansans, not Billionaires

Families in our community are struggling. This year, dozens of Gardner residents were displaced when Aspen Place Apartments failed. The Hope Market reported that around 30,000 Kansans in our region were affected by delayed SNAP payments. Tariffs have driven up the cost of basic goods, small businesses are hurting from reduced family spending, and both healthcare costs and property taxes continue to rise.

While people here face real challenges, our current representative, Bill Sutton, has been in office since 2012 and has not passed a single bill he introduced for the good of our district. He has collected nearly $200,000 in taxpayer-funded salary, built himself a taxpayer-funded retirement, taken campaign-funded trips to places like Las Vegas, and has accepted thousands of dollars from billionaire donors. Meanwhile, as chair of the insurance committee, insurance has only become more expensive and more confusing for Kansas families.

The truth is simple: he is a benchwarmer for billionaires, not a leader for the people who live here. If he worked for any of my businesses, his lack of performance would have cost him the job years ago.

Our district deserves better. We need someone who will actually fight for policies that make everyday life more affordable, more stable, and more predictable for Kansas families.

 ABCD Policy Solutions

    1. Cap property tax increases for people on Medicare at no more than 4% per year.

    2. Shorten the time it takes local governments to approve multi-family and affordable housing projects.

    3. Give local governments more control over their own budgets and local taxes so they can create regional housing plans.

    4. Create a pre-tax housing allowance account that lets people save part of their income for housing without paying state income tax on it.

    5. Increase transparency for rental rate increases to help renters make more informed decisions before signing.

    1. Expand Medicaid

    2. Add a $500 tax deduction for people who work from home 150+ days a year who don’t already deduct office space.

    3. Fast-track road and bridge projects to improve transportation and create jobs.

    4. Update state websites so it’s easier to start and manage a business.

    5. Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) should spend more time helping with entrepreneurship and business succession planning.

    6. Require local and state tax incentives to include job and wage promises, with claw backs if companies don’t follow through.

    7. Increase reciprocity agreements so Kansas recognizes more out-of-state medical, clinical, and teaching licenses.

    8. Create certification and better procurement options for businesses that are 100% employee-owned and have most of their workers living in Kansas.

    9. Provide state matching funds for local public transportation authorities that include public-private partnerships for employee transportation.

    10. Prohibit workplace discrimination based on cultural appearance or sexual orientation.

    11. Increase wage transparency by requiring job postings to show salary ranges, median pay, and top executive pay.

    12. Increase the state minimum wage so that no one who works a full-time job will fall below the federal poverty line.

    13. Pass prevailing-wage laws for public projects.

    14. Require large PACs to report their fundraising to increase election transparency.

    1. Streamline childcare regulations to reduce red tape without sacrificing kids’ safe.

    2. Remove the statewide cap on the Child Day Care Assistance Credit for private employers.

    3. Allow employers to pool their Child Day Care Assistance Credits to form local or regional child care authorities. These local and regional authorities can be managed by local or regional governments, nonprofits, or private companies.

    4. Give families a 100% tax credit for childcare expenses for children aged 0-36 months.

    5. Study the economic impact of statewide full-time preschool for future implementation.

    1. Move statewide curriculum decisions to the Kansas Board of Education instead of the Legislature.

    2. Move public school staff from KPERS Tier 3 to Tier 2 and offer bonus years of service at key career milestones.

    3. Fully fund special education services.

    4. End revenue-neutral requirements for school districts.

    5. Improve paid time off for public school teachers and staff.

    6. Reduce busy-work regulations around surveys in schools.

    7. Repeal laws that target less than 1% of students.

    8. Return sports fairness decisions to KSHSAA on a by-sport basis.

    9. Decrease the focus on state tests and graduation rates, and increase focus on college and career readiness.

    10. Reinstate due-process protections for K–12 teachers.

    11. Give every 18-year-old a voter registration form before graduation, with no tracking, reporting, or required completion.

    12. Require any school that receives state funds to follow all reporting, credentialing, and curriculum requirements that public schools are required to follow.

    13. Require safe storage of firearms.

    14. Allow courts to temporarily remove firearms from people convicted of domestic or sexual violence.

    15. Allow people to choose to give their doctor or therapist the ability to request temporary firearm removal if they are a danger to themselves or others.

    16. K–12 student immunization requirements should be based on state or county health department guidelines.

    17. Require state colleges and universities to develop maternity-leave policies for college students.

    18. Allow the Kansas Board of Regents and college and university leadership to make their own decisions based on diversity, limiting legislative overreach.

    19. Require schools to follow major medical organizations when choosing health-related curriculum (AMA, AAP, APA, NASP).

    20. Advocate at the federal level to reduce unnecessary special-education paperwork so professionals can spend more time helping students.

    1. Grow total tax revenue by raising wages—not by raising tax rates—through childcare, job growth, and stronger local economies.

    2. Require combined reporting so big companies can’t hide Kansas profits in other states.

    3. Institute a minimum corporate tax for companies with more than $10M in gross receipts.

    4. Increase penalties for large corporations that pay taxes late.

    5. Increase the state sales tax on tobacco, vaping, and e-cigarette products.

    6. Legalize medical marijuana with a new sales tax.

    7. Reinstate property taxes on private planes and increase taxes on planes not used for passengers or cargo (with an exception for agriculture).

    8. End tax breaks for private schools and private-school tax credit programs.

    9. Reduce tax breaks for certain types of high-value residential real estate classified as “special use.”

    10. Cut red-tape regulations on medical treatments that are not medically necessary, lowering costs for the state and patients.

    11. Add minimum fines for businesses that violate waste or air-quality regulations.

    12. Apply a tiered tax on estates worth more than $10 million incrementally according to value, with exceptions for agricultural estates.

    13. Add a tiered wealth tax on households worth more than $100 million (with exceptions for primary homes and farms).

    14. Encourage clean-energy growth across Kansas, which expands the tax base and creates new revenue.

 Click on an issue to expand