With the start of the 2024 Kansas legislative session, no issue is more important than resolving the tax burden currently imposed on the citizens of the state. There will be many ideas proposed, some good, some not so good. However, when the session concludes there must be a fair and equitable answer to the issue or our citizens, especially our seniors and lower income citizens will be walking a financial tightrope without a net.

My wise Swedish grandmother always used to tell me when I was complaining about a big problem, “fixa de små sakerna först.” Translated it simply is, “fix the little things first.” She was right. This first week of the session I was joined by the four county representatives Lance Neelly, R-Tonganoxie, Pat Procter, R-Fort Leavenworth and Dave Buehler, R-Lansing in sponsoring House Bill 2493, a simple bill requiring rural water districts to award contracts for projects costing more than $25,000 through a public letting process. Currently the rural water districts are the only governmental agencies in the state not required to do so. Our Leavenworth County Commissioners wisely recognized that far too many projects by rural water districts costing Leavenworth County big tax dollars could be minimized by having a fair bidding process. In fact we know that at least two area rural water districts have awarded large contracts recently that when compared with normal construction costs appear excessive, legal, but hardly ethical.

In November 2023, the Leavenworth County commissioners unanimously requested help in fixing this cost overrun from the Leavenworth area legislators and the result is House Bill 2493. Our commissioners and legislators are helping us cure one small problem and if every level of government tackles a few of the smaller issues by the end of this session hopefully the overall task to fix taxes will not be so intimidating.

We can make repairs on our Kansas tax system, one thing at a time.

— Rep. Tim Johnson, R-Basehor, represents the 38th District.