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Huelskamp meets with donors, media
Published 12/23/2009 in Local News
By SHAJIA AHMAD
Even before the clock has struck midnight into the upcoming mid-term election year, politicians have already hit the campaign road and are touting reasons they feel they are the best leaders to represent their constituents' values.
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Laurie Sisk/Telegram State Sen. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, talks about school finance Tuesday in the Telegram office.
State Sen. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, running for the 1st Congressional District of Kansas, visited Garden City and Dodge City Tuesday to speak with campaign donors and media organizations about his plans heading into a heated Republican August primary next year, the first time in a dozen years an incumbent won't be on the "Big First" ballot.
Huelskamp, first elected to the state Senate in 1996, is one of at least six Republican hopefuls and a lone Democrat vying for the seat left vacant by U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Hays.
Moran, a representative of the congressional district covering 69 western and central counties since 1997, is campaigning for U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback's seat, R-Kan., who is a 2010 gubernatorial candidate.
Moran is running against fellow congressman U.S. Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, of the 4th Congressional District.
Huelskamp, who announced Tuesday his plans to introduce a Senate resolution in the upcoming legislative session condemning a recent EPA decision that classifies carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases as a danger to public health, said he believes cap-and-trade legislation -- designed to reduce emissions -- paves the way for "onerous" regulation, taxation and litigation of carbon producers and puts ag-producers at financial risk. In addition, the state senator said he does not believe there is science to support assertions that negative consequences of global climate changes are "man-made."
"Agriculture is an energy intensive industry, we use a lot of carbon-based fuels, obviously, and for us to pay the huge carbon taxes we'd have to pay would just be a huge detriment, particularly to agriculture," he said.
The senator, who touted that he brings fiscally conservative ideas to the table, has repeatedly stressed his critical attitude of what he believes is overspending in Washington D.C.
In response to the efforts of Schools for Fair Funding -- a group of more than 70 Kansas school districts including Garden City USD 457 that may spur legal action against the state in the Kansas Supreme Court to acquire more fiscal support -- Huelskamp said he believes the efforts of "using taxpayer dollars for more taxpayer dollars" and asking the judiciary to raise tax revenue is inappropriate.
Huelskamp added that he believes school districts have seen some of the smaller cuts of many state agencies in the wake of Gov. Mark Parkinson's latest mid-November $260 million budget-balancing efforts.
Kansas has had five rounds of spending cuts and other budget adjustments this year to avoid a deficit before the current fiscal year ends June 30.
Public schools have seen their base state aid drop by $421 per student this year, or nearly 10 percent, to $4,012 -- lower than what the state Court found adequate in 2006, the Associated Press has reported.
"These are tough times, and we're going to have to work through them if the state's spent more than it's taken in," Huelskamp said. "We don't have the luxury like Washington of printing more money; we have to go take it from taxpayers. And when the economy is down and with thousands of people laid off, I don't think more tax money is an option. I think we need to find other ways of growing the economy."
Huelskamp has reported raising $420,000 since November 2008 for his congressional campaign. Congressional hopefuls will not need to report their 2008 campaign earnings until Jan. 11, officials with the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission said.
Other candidates who have declared their intent to run include Sue Boldra, a Hays Republican, educator, small business owner and realtor; State Sen. Jim Barnett, R-Emporia; Monte Shadwick, a Salina resident and former aide to Congressman Moran; Tracey Mann, a Salina commercial real estate businessman; and Rob Wasinger, a Cottonwood Falls resident and former chief of staff Brownback.
On the Democratic ballot, Alan Jilka, a furniture store businessman and former three-term Salina mayor, also declared his candidacy for Moran's seat in October, according to the Kansas Democratic Party.
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