LINDSBORG- The McPherson County Democrat organization played host to one of its own - Governor Mark Parkinson Wednesday night in Lindsborg.
Parkinson’s visit was the result of the organization’s first-place finish in a state-wide donor contest held among Kansas county-level Democrat organizations in August.
“I honestly thought we didn’t stand a chance,” Ryon Carey, party chair, said. “We have some great people in the county that stepped up to the challenge.”
Wednesday night’s events included dinner provided by Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch near Marquette and drinks from the Smoky Hill Winery and Vidricksen Distributing.
Kansas’ Secretary of Agriculture Josh Svaty, a state representative from Ellsworth County, also attended the event.
“When we have someone at the top that has a reputation of a person that can make deals and bring the state forward and try to improve the conditions of all Kansans, it helps the reputation of the Democratic party,” Svaty said during his introduction of the governor. “It’s also been great for me to experience that first hand because he is, indeed, a wonderful governor and also he’s just a great human being.”
Parkinson said he wasn’t rooting for any county but he was glad to be in Lindsborg. He said his first connection to Lindsborg came when he and his parents visited the Sandzén Museum when he was 14 years-old.
“When you walk into the gallery, unless you don’t have any feelings or emotions, its hard not to be moved by what you see,” Parkinson said.
Parkinson addressed some of the issues occupying the time of lawmakers in Topeka. He said the first thing the state’s legilsators are trying to do is “get the state budget through this difficult recession.”
“That has made the position of being a governor or being in the legislature quite difficult,” Parkinson said.
Parkinson said he believes the state has “made a mistake” in cutting taxes too deeply over the last 12 to 15 years.
“Now I know that sounds odd ... and there was probably a point in time where some of those taxes did need to be trimmed a little bit, but we’ve gone too far,” Parkinson said.
He said since 1994 the state has cut about $12 billion and noted that if the state had cut only $11 billion, the state’s budget would be better able to handling the declining revenues.
Parkinson said the state is continuing to work with its available revenues to fill its budgetary needs.
“In a resonable, non-panic way, we’re working with what we got and so far we’ve been pretty successful,” Parkinson said.
Parkinson said what the state needs now is to get “a little bit lucky.”
“We need the economy to stablize and start improving and I think that’s starting to happen,” Parkinson said. “But in the long run what we need is we need to get back to our progressive ideas.”
Parkinson said state legislators need to remember the mistakes that were made.
“We need to remember this next time we have robust growth, we won’t throw money away, we need to be careful about it, but we need to keep a rainy day fund.”
In the next legislative session, Parkinson said, they’re hoping to “get a little bit lucky with revenue to maintain the great programs that we have in the state and start to rebuild the tradition of growing those programs which have made this state an incredible place to live in.”
Lindsborg, Kan. —
