Legislative candidates seek less spending, more growth
Staff writer
Incumbent state representative Greg Wilson wants to aggressively halt state spending and put at least a three-year ban on data centers, wind and solar farms, and small nuclear or battery storage facilities.
His Republican opponent, Abilene mayor Brandon Rein, agrees but would like to take a more moderate approach.
“We just have to stop the spending. We are spoiled,” Wilson said. “We have been spoiled now for at least one generation, if not two.”
The Republican candidates discussed more at a forum sponsored by the Record on Sunday at Marion Community Center. Unopposed Democratic candidate Kylie Kilmer was invited but could not attend because of a family event.
The winners of Tuesday’s primary election will face off in the Nov. 3 general election.
The district includes northern and eastern parts of Marion County, most of Dickinson County, and small parts of McPherson County.
Before answering questions from reporters and the public, Rein and Wilson gave opening statements outlining who they are and the two biggest issues they want to address if elected.
Rein, an Abilene native, put property taxes and rural economic development at the forefront of his campaign.
“The metro areas in the state get a lot of attention, a lot of investment money coming in,” he said. “It feels like rural communities seem to get left behind, and that’s something that I’d be very focused on.”
Wilson named lowering property taxes as one of his top priorities. Affordable housing was another.
“If I can get back to the statehouse, I definitely will concentrate on those two,” Wilson said.
Not much differs between Rein and Wilson’s campaign values.
“We’re running as Republicans in a primary,” Rein said. “We agree on the vast majority of things.”
The candidates’ biggest disagreement comes down to how budgets should be managed.
Wilson said he would not vote for a budget that doesn’t balance at the state, county, and city levels.
“Also, I think the budget should be going down, not up, or at least staying even,” he said. “That would be where I’m probably more conservative than Brandon.”
Rein said he might differ with Wilson on a couple of areas in economic development and policies on housing programs.
But because they haven’t debated those programs and policies, “I’m not really sure where we differ on some of those specifics,” Rein said.
Other topics on which they were questioned included education, spending cuts, bipartisan compromises, and the state’s role for wind farms and data centers.
Here are highlights of Rein and Wilson’s responses:
Education
Wilson: “Throwing money at it isn’t working. … It’s a statewide problem more than in our community, and I’m a big proponent of schools and everything, but you just can’t keep throwing at it. … The policies are going to have to change.”
Rein: “We do have to make sure that those funds that are appropriated are actually paid into the classrooms and the teachers. That’s extremely important, and I think we’ll see the progress on the test scores when that happens on the state level.”
Wind farms and data centers
Wilson: “I don’t believe the state needs to make a moratorium on those. I think it comes down to each individual county and what they want and what’s best for their area.”
Rein: “I don’t think it’s the state’s role. I think that should be kicked back down to the local governments as long as the state has standards discussed earlier with water safety on the energy side, making sure that those costs aren’t being passed onto the consumers.”
Bipartisan compromises
Wilson: “In our district, in my district, I think I’m pretty easy to get along with. And I’ve crossed some lines on different votes. I didn’t vote for the feral cat bill. I was one of 25 that didn’t vote for that. … But I think I’m a reasonable person that I can look at it and listen to people and decide if it’s something that I can go with them and believe that it’s something that needs to be done.”
Rein: “I think we do work together a lot more than people see. It’s not sexy to talk about bipartisanship work. It just doesn’t get the headlines. But I think it is a lot more common. There are some issues like property taxes. If you’re a Democrat or a Republican, you want to bring property taxes down. If you are a Democrat or Republican, there’s a growing discontentment with data centers on the Democratic side as well. So I think there is common ground there.”
Spending cuts
Wilson: “I have to be convinced that [program’s] actually been a good idea. So, if you have to, you’ve got to start making cuts. … That’s what I would do. I’d cut the mill levy and cut jobs and cut back.”
Rein: “It’s pretty easy as a candidate to tell you that we’re going to go in and cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. But in reality, if you look, the vast majority of it is controlled by the executive branch not the legislature, which is insane to me.”