By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY
Salina Post
Being invested in the state and in the agriculture industry, Katie Sawyer believed she couldn't pass up the chance to run for Kansas lieutenant governor.
Sawyer was in Salina recently for a meet-and-greet with supporters and talked with Salina Post for an exclusive interview.
Sawyer said she was "born and raised in McPherson and have two little boys, age six and nine, and my husband is a fourth generation farmer and rancher, so obviously I'm invested in the state and I'm invested in the agriculture industry, and so when given the opportunity to run for an office that can positively impact the state and positively improve both the state and the agriculture industry, it was something that I just couldn't quite, you know, say 'no' to."
Having traveled the state, Sawyer said she has an understanding of the challenges and opportunities in the state.
"I aim to leave this state better than we found it," she said. "I'm excited about the opportunity to do some good."
One of the ways that Sawyer hopes to better the state is increasing the availablity of childcare providers.
"When you go to communities, what once was an issue that they would kind of mention in passing is now an issue that business leaders, community leaders, economic development leaders will all tell you it is at crisis level, that we do not have enough childcare slots for our children. So as a mother, that is something that is near and dear to my heart," Sawyer said.
"Working with the state, working with our communities to find ways to improve access to childcare and the ability of people who want to get into the business to do so is one small way that we can create more opportunities for our parents to return to work, more secure and healthy, safe situations for our children, and hopefully, that creates some much needed labor in our communities because we have parents who are able to return to the workforce and do so knowing their children are well taken care of," she said.
The workforce in Kansas also is an issue about which Sawyer is passionate.
"If you walk around this state, nearly every employer will tell you they just need more people for the jobs. That's a couple reasons. One, we have fewer Kansans today than we did pre-pandemic, but two, we have fewer people who are actively working in the work force. The pandemic really encouraged a lot of people to stay home, and so we have about 20,000 fewer people working today than we did at the beginning of 2020. That really hurts when you talk about just able-bodied individuals who could be contributing to our local economies," Sawyer said.
If elected, Sawyer and her running mate, Kansas gubernatorial candidate Derek Schmidt, would work with local workforce boards, employers, and higher education institutions, "to make sure that we're capturing the talent that's already in the state, finding ways to bring in new talent, and then looking for creative ways to make sure we're filling the workforce needs."
One of the first tasks on the Schmidt/Sawyer agenda, should they be elected, would be to concentrate on the size of state government, she said.
"One of the first things I think Derek and I are going to focus on is making sure that we are right-sizing our state agencies. Our current governor has grown our state government by about 35 percent when you look at total dollars spent, and so getting that back in line with what we actually need, and also the populations trends, 'cause at the same time she's grown governement, we've shrunk in population. So right-sizing that so that Kansans aren't carrying additional tax burdens to pay for government that we simply don't need would be Step No. 1," Sawyer said.
Additionally, Sawyer talked about legislative priorities that also would be among the goals to complete early in the Schmidt/Sawyer administration.
"We have a couple legislative priorities that we've talked about and asked the state legislature to send to Derek's desk so he could sign, and that would be the Parental Bill of Rights and the Fairness in Women's Sports Act that Derek would sign immediately," Sawyer said.
Sawyer also said that she and Schmidt are "firm believers in the public school system in Kansas." She said they would continue to fully fund education, but they also would work to help provide other resources for schools, including for children's behavioral and mental health issues, as well as other ways to provide resources to help teachers get "the outcomes we need to see for our students." She said students need to leave highschool ready to be productive adults.
Keeping young adults in the state is an issue that Sawyer believes needs to sometimes be addressed before Kansas students enter high school.
"I think that conversation needs to start earlier than what we even think, and I think that conversation needs to sometimes start in middle school and definitely high school. Open up students' eyes to what the options are right here in their communities or in their state, and then do a better job of connecting our students with either employers or higher ed institutions, so when they graduate high school in May that they know what they're doing in August or directly after that if they're going into the workforce, and at the collegiate level, do a better job of once again marrying the students with the employers and the opportunities," she said.
Sawyer also said that there needs to be the type of communities that young adults want to move into.
"Of course, the amenities that people want have changed dramatically in the last 20 years with the invention of broadband and other technologies," she said. "Having our communities with not only the basics of banks and healthcare providers and grocery stores, but also having some of those broadband services and others that families just have grown to rely upon and want to see in their communities. We still need to work to expand broadband across this state, and we need to make sure we have roads and bridges to get to all our communities, and then we need to make sure that our economies are healthy to support those banks and healthcare providers, and grocery stores, and all of that that depend upon a healthy local economy."