ShawneeDispatch.com

In what is certainly one of the most publicized races in this election, Shawnee voters will decide between three candidates for the 18th District seat in the Kansas House of Representatives.

Voters in the district will choose between Mary Pilcher-Cook, a Republican who has represented them for two terms; Cindy Neighbor, a Democrat who represented them for a term as a Republican; and Eric Mills, a Libertarian newcomer. All of the candidates are Shawnee residents.

Neighbor holds the at-large position of the Shawnee Mission School Board and is employed as public relations, marketing and patient care coordinator for Discover Dental Care of Shawnee. She represented the 18th District as a Republican from 2002 to 2004.

Pilcher-Cook, a software engineer, represented the 18th District from 2000 to 2002, when she lost her seat to Neighbor. She got it back two years later in 2004, however, when she defeated Neighbor in the primary.

Mills, a technician for a fire equipment company, was formerly an explosives technician in the U.S. Marine Corps. This is his first time running for public office.

Of the much-talked-about school funding decision passed by the Legislature this year, Neighbor said it was a good first step, but the funding for the next two years needs to be secured and there needs to be more adjusting to the overall formula.

"... The local control issue needs to be resolved by removing the caps because our local districts did not fair as well as other districts," she said.

Pilcher-Cook said none of the Johnson County legislators supported the bill because it was harmful to the county's schools and taxpayers.

"Even though 30 percent of state school funding is supplied by Johnson County, this plan only allows 8 percent to return to our schools when we have 18 percent of the students," she said.

Pilcher-Cook said teachers, parents and taxpayers in Kansas have too little information about how and where money is being spent in schools. She suggested implementing standardized district budgets that are school-based. Pilcher-Cook said standardized budgets would allow parents and teachers to pinpoint how money is being used and how much is making it to the classroom. It would also give schools a tool to make their case for more funding and give parents and teachers tools for better local control.

Mills said he couldn't support the increase "unless and until more control is provided to the public and the parents of the respective school districts in how that money is spent, and appropriate measures are taken to be sure current funding is spent wisely."

As for Kansas's universities, Pilcher-Cook said something needs to be done about skyrocketing tuition costs, and the legislature needs to look at the reason behind them. She said legislators should also look into the reported $600 million in deferred maintenance items at the state universities.

"In addition, diligent management would have included maintenance costs in the financing of operations," Pilcher-Cook said. "When costs spiral out of control without clearly defined causes, it is imperative that the legislature put accountability measures in place."

Mills agreed that tuition at colleges is growing too rapidly, and said colleges and universities should show that every dollar is being spent correctly.

Neighbor said she served on the Higher Education Committee when she was a representative and recommended funding for the deferred maintenance costs, but it didn't pass.

"This issue is going to have to be addressed so we do not have crumbling buildings at our institutions of higher learning," Neighbor said. "The formula for funding Higher Education needs to be redone to allocate monies to our colleges and universities."

As for Kansas's Public Employees Retirement System, which is $5.1 billion short of its future obligations to provide pensions, Neighbor said the pool of money in the system was borrowed against to pay bills.

"This was robbing Peter to pay Paul," she said. "In 2002-2004, when I was in office we bonded $500 million to try to make up the deficit. We must not continue to borrow from this fund, but pay back what we owe."

Mills said the state should first analyze the budget, discover the reasons for the shortfall and find out were funding is being spent needlessly.

"Secondly, we can make a reduction is income/sales taxes at the state level, increasing tax revenues, and earmark a portion of this just for KPERS," he said.

Pilcher-Cook said Kansas "needs to wean itself off a poorly designed system."

"For future employees I would consider converting the defined benefit plan,hich is so dependent on the legislature, to a defined contribution plan where employees have ownership and control over how their money is invested," she said. "For former employees, Kansas needs to pay its bills and meet its obligations without going into further debt."

With Shawnee on the forefront of cities looking for bioscience districts, Mills said the state shouldn't restrict research within such districts.

"Provided that the corporations are working ethically and that no human lives are being created only to be destroyed for stem cells, there should be no more restrictions beyond the federal guidelines," he said.

Neighbor said she also supports research within the districts.

"I believe we have great opportunities to be a part of the bioscience community without having to provide tax incentives," Neighbor said.

Pilcher-Cook said she has supported research, but districts should focus on ethical research and avoid human cloning.

"All of the human therapies to date have come from non-embryonic stem cells, also known as adult stem cells, which include stem cells derived from umbilical cords and placentas and where there is no destruction of human life," she said.

Illegal immigration is one issue all candidates agree on to a degree. Pilcher-Cook said she was opposed to measures that she believes encourage illegal immigration, like in-state tuition for illegal immigrants.

"... entering the country illegally is unfair to immigrants who have followed the law, and it is a threat to everyone's human dignity when others are being exploited and used as a working underclass," she said.

Neighbors said the state should enforce its laws to fine employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

Each candidate had a different issue they would like to address if elected. Neighbor said she has had many constituents tell her healthcare is a primary concern.

"Working in the medical field, I believe we need to work on affordable insurance coverage for small businesses and providing coverage for children up to 5 years of age, which was proposed by the governor this past year," she said.

Pilcher-Cook said she would like to address constantly increasing property taxes, which take a toll on senior citizens on fixed incomes. She said the problem lies with property tax valuations.

"We need to tie property tax valuations to the rate of inflation and only allow adjustment when homes are bought and sold," she said. "That will give Kansans greater stability in their home purchasing and will give incentives for more people to stay in Kansas."

Mills said he wanted to make sure all branches of the government work within the boundaries set by the state constitution, and he thought the judicial branch was doing the opposite by "forcing the hand of the legislature in matters they have no business in."

"The courts were established to interpret the laws, ensure they are in compliance with the constitution and to ensure they are applied justly and fairly," he said.

With such varying views, all three candidates said they wanted residents of District 18 to see how they were different.

Mills said he is not a politician, so he wanted voters to know his agenda was "only to ensure that Kansas remains a great place to live and work for those who choose to be here." He said the government needed to efficiently provide for its citizens' liberties and freedom, and he would make sure Kansans got the most "bang for their buck."

Neighbor said she hoped voters recognized her support for education, noting that she had the endorsement of all educational groups, as well as medical and business organizations.

"I have based my legislative experience on honesty, integrity and listening to the constituents," Neighbor said. "... I want to work for all citizens."

Pilcher-Cook said she would work to eliminate excessive government spending, lower taxes and protect women and children from sexual predators. She said she also favors prohibiting government from taking property for private economic development, ensuring more Johnson County education dollars remain at home, growing the economyith policies that encourage small business growth, and implementing ways to make health care more affordable.

"I will work to protect the principlese embrace in our Declaration of Independence..." she said.

The 18th District covers the northeastern corner of Shawnee, as well as Lake Quivira.

Residents in south-central Shawnee will choose from three Lenexans for the 17th District seat in the Kansas House of Representatives.

Democratic candidate Ed Coleman is owner of a small Overland Park engineering company. This is his first time running for political office, but he has worked with various youth groups and serves as a technical advisor for the Shawnee Mission School District's AutoCAD (drafting) program.

Michael Kerner, Libertarian, is an engineer and district coordinator and member of the state executive committee for the Libertarian Party of Kansas. Rep. Stephanie Sharp is the Republican incumbent in the race and was first elected in 2002. During the legislative off-season, she is an independent consultant.

The candidates have varying views on the three-year, $466 million school funding plan the Legislature passed this year.

Sharp, like all legislators from Johnson County, voted against the plan because they thought it was unfair to local school districts. Sharp said that while Shawnee Mission schools fared well in year one of this plan, years two and three "further emphasize the disparities between urban, suburban and rural districts."

"The schools I represent were shortchanged, to say the least, in this plan," she said. "I will continue to work with my colleagues across Kansas to make significant improvements to years two and three of the plan."

Coleman said he would have voted for the school funding compromise and promised he would vote to provide additional funding if elected.

"Once we have fulfilled our commitment to the three-year funding, we must increase the local funding option for the Johnson County school districts that are having problems," he said.

Kerner said evidence suggests public schools are over-funded and wasting money wholesale, so he would not vote for funding increases for education. He said to fix the problem, education needed competition so parents can take their children elsewhere if the local school is providing an inferior education.

In matters of funding higher education, Coleman said with three children in college, he wanted to make sure the state funded colleges and universities at a level that ensured they wouldn't become unaffordable for the middle class. Coleman suggests a Kansas income tax deduction for tuition payments to Kansas colleges and universities.

Kerner said it was hard to tell what the correct path is to fund public universities, but he was sure that there was waste and inefficiency in the system.

"I would support the status quo for now and push for a commission to study the system, determine the true costs and look for cost-saving possibilities," he said.

Sharp, a member of the Higher Education Committee, said reluctance to fund state commitments has passed costs over to parents as tuitions costs rather than taxes. She suggested that to cut costs, the state should consider consolidation of the 19 community colleges and technical schools, many of which are very close to each other or have overlapping programs and services.

The Kansas Public Employees Retirement System is $5.1 billion short of its future obligations to provide pensions, and Sharp said the state should fund its obligations and not borrow from other people's investments. She said she introduced a Cost-of-Living Adjustment for KPERS retirees, who have not had one in nearly 10 years.

"These retirees, many of them teachers, served our state and raised generations of Kansans," Sharp said. "We owe them the retirement we promised them, and for which many chose not to leave state government for more lucrative private sector jobs."

Kerner said the first step to address the KPERS shortfall was to be truthful about the real cost of employees and all government services through the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights. The government could then determine what programs are wasteful, he said, and shut them down.

Coleman said the obligation to the state's public employees should be honored and the state should "immediately earmark funds to begin narrowing this gap."

With the state's bioscience initiative bringing more scientific research to Kansas, Kerner said Kansas should consider an amendment to ensure that research will remain legal, similar to Missouri's stem cell initiative amendment. He said private research companies should be assured that "they will not be subject to irrational regulation in the future which might destroy their investments."

Coleman agreed that research in bioscience districts should be supported.

"I see no reason to believe that people who have dedicated their lives to find cures for diseases that ravage our citizens would act irresponsibly," Coleman said. "Let them get to work and start easing suffering."

Sharp said the issue was critical to bring jobs to the state, and bioscience businesses shy away from the area "because there is a constant threat their work will be criminalized." She said she supports the Missouri initiative because it states that any research allowed at the federal level should be legal in Missouri.

While the candidates largely agree on the issue of bioscience research, their views differ when it comes to illegal immigrants. Kerner says the state should do nothing about illegal immigrants because "the status of a resident of the state with a federal bureaucracy is no concern of the state government."

"The state is obligated to treat everyone equally by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution," he said.

Sharp said that while she doesn't blame immigrants who want to give their children a better life, the state should work on how to discourage illegal workers from coming to Kansas. She said recent bills before the Legislature, however, would have bankrupted hundreds of employers by levying huge fines for "knowingly" hiring an illegal immigrant.

"... 'knowingly' was so loosely defined that in construction, a general contractor could be liable for subcontractors five and six times removed down a project," she said. "I will continue working toward an adequate bill to fix this situation."

Coleman, however, criticized Sharp's votes against these bills and said he would support fining and imposing criminal penalties on employers who knowingly hire illegal workers.

Coleman said he thought education, good job opportunities and affordable health care were the biggest issues of concern for people in the 17th district, promising to work with the governor to ensure residents have quality healthcare. He said he would also like the legislature to look at increasing the minimum wage.

"We must do what many states have been forced to do by the inaction of the federal government," he said. "We must raise the Kansas minimum wage, which is among the lowest in the nation."

Kerner said he would like to see the legislature protect property rights, and he would fight for a state constitutional amendment to forbid the use of eminent domain for transfers to private interests. He also said he wanted to stop the practice of civil forfeiture, in which police seize property based on suspicion that it may have been involved in a crime.

Kerner said he also would fight for medical freedom and the use of marijuana for patients who need it.

Sharp said with the number of uninsured Kansans increasing, the increasing costs and decreasing access to health care, along with deterring uninsured drivers, are some of her legislative interests. She said she would work for Medicaid reimbursement rates to increase the number of physicians willing to take uninsured patients so the state didn't pay for emergency room visits, and she planned to introduce a bill to increase penalties for uninsured drivers.

Kerner said he is a traditional conservative and believes in small government that restricts itself to only those functions permitted in the constitution. He said he would work against runaway spending and taxing and the civil liberties violations he said have resulted from the War on Terror.

"If they want freedom for themselves and, most importantly for their kids and all future generations, (voters) will vote for me and other Libertarians," Kerner said. "Republicans and Democrats have proven again and again that they do not care about your freedom, only their power."

Sharp said she hoped voters would send her back to Topeka given her experience, saying she was a key member of the bipartisan coalitions that brought much-needed funding and increased local control to Johnson County school districts. She noted she has always made an attempt to keep constituents informed through her e-newsletter, the Sharp Record.

"I would appreciate your vote on November 7th because I work hard for this district, am responsive to your needs, and accountable to you," she said.

Having worked and raised a family, Coleman said he understood the issues that confront "real Kansans." He said voters should consider him because he is not a career politician and has no interest in climbing the political ladder.

"I feel that money and the attempt to buy influence is the biggest problem our government faces on all levels," she said. "I will always listen to and provide for real Kansans over any lobbyist objectives."