I’m going to take a brief break discussing Shawnee City politics to talk about something else important to the city of Shawnee and that is the race for State Representative in the 39th District. With the recent redistricting, the 39th District is entirely within Johnson County and includes most of northwest Shawnee. Charles Macheers, a great conservative, is running for State Representative in that district and I fully support his candidacy. Among his many supporter is current State Representative, Owen Donohoe who is retiring and is endorsing Charles as well.
While the issues are many, there are three key things you need to know about Charles’ beliefs:
First, Charles is committed to ensuring the state runs efficiently and effectively. In the past 10 years, Kansas government spending rose 47%. Unfortunately, private sector GDP per capita only grew 8.9% over the same period. This pace cannot be sustained—we must do a better job at maintaining an effective, efficient government in the state of Kansas. Kansas ranks #7 among all U.S. states in state spending growth. This is not a statistic we should be proud of. Charles will work to eliminate inefficient government spending and to improve the effectiveness of state-funded programs.
Second, Charles believes that it is important to maintain local—not federal—control of education budgets. He believes the state needs to be fiscally responsible with education funding to ensure that they can respond to the needs of students, parents and teachers—and not Washington—when it comes to determining how taxpayers’ money is spent.
Third, job creation is a priority for Charles. He believes that Kansas needs a competitive tax policy to attract jobs to Kansas and enable our current businesses to expand and add jobs. Growth in the private sector is the key to expanding the tax base. A small business owner himself, Charles understands the importance of keeping tax and regulatory burdens low so that Kansas businesses can grow and bolster our state economy. His endorsement by the Kansas Chamber of Commerce reinforces his pro-business, pro-jobs stance.
Besides being sound on issues, Charles is endorsed by interest groups that are important to all of us including Kansans for Life, the Kansas Chamber and Northwest Johnson County Republicans.
You can read more about Charles on his website: http://www.macheers.com/. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. You can link to both from his webpage.
I fully support Charles Macheers and hope you will too by voting for him in the Primary on August 7, for State Rep in the 39th District, or by advance ballot. And then we can support him in the general election in November.
