State senate candidate calls for fiscal responsibility
Kansas State Senate candidate Logan Heley wants to rollback Gov. Sam Brownback’s 2012 tax cuts and invest in the state’s people.
“Kansas can no longer afford the Brownback tax experiment,” Heley said. “We need to restore income tax on those 330,000 businesses that have been exempted and look long-term at getting the entire system back on track. I’m not talking about doom and gloom but how great our state can be if we invest in the people of Kansas.”
Heley is one of three candidates hoping to unseat Greg Smith, who’s seeking re-election. The marketing associate for Heley Creative is one of two Democrats running for Kansas Senate District 21, which covers portions of Lenexa, Olathe, Overland Park and Shawnee.
Upwards of nine percent of the district’s population is Hispanic, a demographic Heley is working to reach. He’s offered campaign literature in Spanish, enlisted bilingual volunteers, registered voters at Hispanic festivals and met with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
“We’re always looking for new ideas on how to engage everyone,” Heley said.
He was compelled to run by deepening discontent over Brownback’s policies. He’s ready to fix the Brownback-created mess and “think big about how we can move Kansas forward.”
In a July 14 SurveyUSA poll of 586 likely Kansas voters, only 17 percent of respondents held a favorable view of Brownback. And last month saw the birth of a bipartisan coalition denouncing Brownback’s policies. The group led by four former Kansas governors advocated for balanced tax policy, quality educational opportunities, reasonable access to health care, safe highways, improved public safety, job growth and fiscal responsibility.
Those are issues on which Heley is running, and he proposes an updated economic model. Replace the “three-legged stool” of agriculture, aviation and oil and gas to drive the Kansas economy, with “a six-legged table” by adding education, technology and renewable energy.
“By taking advantage of Kansas’ natural resources, we have the potential for tens of thousands of green energy jobs,” Heley said.
Public-private partnerships are key to attracting new industries and providing higher wages, he said. He supports fully funding K-12 public schools, which “should be the hallmark of our state,” expanding Medicaid, retraining under- and unemployed workers for new jobs, extending unemployment benefits, strengthening workers’ compensation laws and over the next two years, eliminating the sales tax on grocery purchases.
Heley believes his training, experience, objectivity and problem-solving abilities as a careful listener make him a strong Senate candidate.
“I’m going to be a legislator that is going to support and focus on the best policies rather than on the most convenient politics,” he said.
A prize-winning journalist and former White House intern, Heley now moonlights as a Teamster Local 41 member at UPS to repay his student loan. He graduated cum laude from the University of Southern California with degrees in broadcast journalism and history. He’s a Shawnee Mission School District alumnus.
Heley’s Democratic opponent in the August primary is Michael Czerniewski. Smith faces Republican challenger, Dinah Sykes.
“We can no longer allow the policies of the Brownback Republicans to inflict pain on Kansans, especially low-income and middle class Kansans,” Heley said. “Vote on Aug. 2 and Nov. 8 for fiscally responsible, pro-education candidates like me.”
