Issues Affect You
How your representatives vote on issues affects you.
Those issues affect your cost of living, freedom and how you connect with government.
Here are some examples.
- Government affects your cost of living through taxes.
- Government affects your freedom through laws regulating the educational choices you make for your children.
- It affects freedom through laws that establish how and whether you can speak out at public meetings, how transparent government is and how you can hold elected officials accountable.
- It affects how you connect with government such as when you take time to renew you car tags.
Here is what voters can expect from Robert on the issues that may come before the legislature.
ACCOUNTABILITY
Robert wants to hear from constituents and will make an effort to respond quickly. This idea takes in more than one area. One is being available to constituents. This is done when constituents reach out. Members of the Kansas House of Representatives have an office in Topeka. During the legislative session, roughly January to April, constituents are welcome to drop by when Robert is in the office. Robert’s email address, mobile phone number and office phone number are available. Robert plans to make personal appearances. Other forms of contact might become available.
AFFORDABILITY
Limiting assessed valuations to three percent and allowing protest petitions for collecting more in property taxes than the year before are two things that Robert supports. Massive property tax increases must be stopped. When you receive mail from the county that the assessed valuation on your home has risen, it means two things. One is that your property taxes just went up. The other is that someone who is not elected raised your property taxes. Governing bodies, such as the city of Shawnee, may also raise the mill levy. Citizens can always vote these people out of office, but Robert wants to arm citizens with legislation that strengthens government accountability. Voters have a lot more power than they think.
DATA CENTERS
Robert is against locating a data center in this House district. Data centers are needed but where to locate them is the big question. Robert favors this:
- No data center can be built without the consent of the land owner and no data center may be built on condemned land.
- Data centers must be located away from where people live.
- All infrastructure, including water and electricity, must NOT result in higher utility bills for ratepayers. Ideally, all infrastructure will be paid for by data center owners.
- Noise from data centers must NOT affect nearby residents, including seemingly inaudible noise.
EDUCATION
Children should be encouraged and inspired by their school to discover for themselves what they truly are and what they want to be, as I was and I hope you were, too.
Spending by the Legislature for education has increased every year. Parents should be given options to choose what education is right for their child. There are multiple and creative solutions for educating children.
Public schools are adequately funded, yet the Shawnee Mission school district wants to sue taxpayers for more money, even as enrollment and test scores drop. Here are a couple of ideas for saving money:
- Find the number and type of non-teaching administrators that are NECESSARY in the district and cut the unnecessary ones.
- Eliminate mental health professionals from school buildings. In the rare cases where mental health professionals are necessary, perhaps the school district can work with parents to find what resources are needed.
Children should be allowed to be children.
PUBLIC SAFETY
No law-abiding person should be afraid to be anywhere, at any time of the day. Put criminals in prison instead of citizens who feel imprisoned because they believe they cannot leave their house because of the threat of crime. Criminal illegal aliens should be removed from Kansas, and everywhere else for that matter. Drug and human trafficking must stop in Kansas. There are tools law enforcement can use. It is important to elect people who, like Robert, support use of all of these tools.
ELECTION REFORM
When Robert votes, he requests a paper ballot and asked that it be hand-counted. Election workers are trained to put that ballot in a separate envelope. Robert recommends voters request paper ballots, hand-counted when they vote.
Robert also favors cleaning up the voter rolls to eliminate people who are deceased or no longer live at the address at which they are registered. Illegal aliens DO VOTE in our elections and even hold office. The former mayor of Coldwater, Kansas, is not a citizen, is charged with illegally voting in Kansas and is in the process of being deported.
Robert encourages ALL voting aged citizens to vote because our system of government works better when they do. Ensuring election integrity is worth whatever needs to be spent to make it happen. Voter turnout should be 100 percent, not 20 to 60 percent.
PLEASE VOTE IN EVERY ELECTION BECAUSE EVERY ELECTION AFFECTS YOU.
Robert will work hard to make government accountable and responsive and to ensure the freedoms articulated in our founding documents and laws.
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About Robert
- Lived in Johnson County since childhood
- Degree in Journalism from the University of Kansas
- Former sportswriter for area newpapers
- Web applications developer
- Involved in the gig ecomomy for more than a decade
- Member of and volunteer at Christ Community Church