ISSUES

Sean Tarwater is not a politician. He is a businessman, who knows what it takes to get the job done. He isn’t going to Topeka to join the club. He is going to Topeka to make a difference for our families and local businesses. As our next State Representative, Sean will work to cut wasteful spending, address infrastructure needs, create new jobs, and fight to improve our schools.

BUDGET JOBS EDUCATION INFRASTRUCTURE

PRO-LIFE HEALTH CARE COST 2^nd AMENDMENT TRANSPARENCY

BUDGET

The first issue Representative Tarwater addressed was the budget. The lack of revenue has directly affected other pressing issues and was. In order to address any other issue, the budget must be managed properly. Raised by a businessman, Sean learned about hard work and the value of a dollar at an early age. Now that he owns his own small business, he is constantly searching for new ways to increase revenue and lower expenses. Representative Tarwater makes it a practice to shop his vendors every six months. This decreases unnecessary expenses and provides more efficient solutions without sacrificing quality.

Representative Tarwater KEPT HIS PROMISES! He sits on the Appropriations Committee and worked to create a proviso that OPENED THE BIDDING PROCESS for Medicaid, saving $70 Million and increasing the level of service to the needy. He also commissioned a study to look at combing all the property and casualty insurance policies, and bidding the workers compensation pool to a third party administrator. Finally, when we had a budget surplus in 2018, Representative Tarwater ensured that our new budget surplus was used to pay down debt by funding the $200 Million KPERS payment that the 2016 legislature missed and he kept enough money in KDOT to fund the 23 T-Works projects that had been delayed.

Too many of the politicians have forgotten these simple principles. The state government’s spending habits and budget gimmicks were hurting Kansas taxpayers and costing us jobs and opportunity. Representative Tarwater understands the principles of fiscal responsibility and he stood up against the career politicians. Bringing reason and common sense back to the budget process will ensure success.

Representative Tarwater will continue to focus on protecting our tax dollars by finding efficiencies and working to create jobs.

Create Jobs

Sean is focused on job creation. As a fiscal conservative and small business owner, he knows what it takes to create jobs. Currently Kansas ranks among the worst in job creation, causing a shortfall in revenues. This, in turn, puts pressure on the legislators to make cuts that hurt schools and cause our infrastructure to suffer. Sean will go to Topeka to be a helping hand and lend an ear to our local businesses that are working every day to grow and create jobs in our community. Job creation will be a top priority for Sean Tarwater. He will start by protecting the funds in KDOT and bring back much needed construction jobs. He will protect our businesses from burdensome government regulations at both the state and federal levels. This will encourage small businesses to come to Kansas and allow our current small business to grow.

Improve Education

As promised, Representative Tarwater made Kansas schools his #1 priority. The K-12 education funding formula has been the single largest issue looming over the 2017 and 2018 legislative sessions. The Kansas Supreme Court’s Gannon ruling stated that funding levels were not adequate, and directed the legislators to focus on the students performing in the lowest 25%. In 2017, the legislature passed a bill that allocated $186 million to the 2017-2018 school year and an additional $100 million to the 2018-2019 school year. To address the 25% underperforming students, the new formula included increases for special needs, at-risk students, bi-lingual funds and full day kindergarten. The Legislators had to raise taxes to pay for this change. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court concluded that was not enough. During the 2018legislative session, the legislature had to go back to the drawing board to re-address the funding formula.

Representative Tarwater will always remember that he represents parents and their children that attend the schools. He represented the schools to provide them the tools they need to ensure that every child receives personalized student centered instruction to meet their individual needs. However, this does not always seem to be the case. Despite the increased funding for at-risk and special needs students, some school districts aren’t addressing the needs of their communities with the additional funding provided.

This is where Representative Tarwater sees his work for the next session. “We must direct the dollars to the classroom. The children that need the most help are appropriated more dollars. We absolutely have to make sure those dollars are used to help those that need it the most” – Representative Sean Tarwater.

Representative Tarwater did just that. He made great strides this year in Education Committee. Because of his hard work, Sean was assigned to the Governors Education council in May of 2018. He is one of only 3 house members on this council. This will be a huge advantage for the schools and students in District 27.

Sean’s and his wife, Lexie, both come from families of teachers and they understand how great teachers are and what they mean to the community. Sean will show his appreciation for teachers by championing his HERO bill. During his terms on the Finance Council at his children’s school, Sean learned how school budgets work, how to fight for additional funding when needed, and how to make every dollar count.

Transportation/ infrastructure

Kansas needs to protect the funds in KDOT and use them for their intended purpose. This will create thousands of private sector jobs and save Kansas taxpayers in the long run.

Over the last six years, Kansas politicians have robbed the KDOT funds of over $2 billion and continue to sweep $1 million dollars a day from the road programs. This foolishness costs Kansas thousands of private sector jobs that have ultimately gone to bordering states. Those businesses need work and they can’t find it in Kansas. The loss of these jobs resulted in a loss of revenue for Kansas. Proper funding of the road programs will bring these private sector jobs back to Kansas. Doing this will generate revenue for other Kansas businesses. The construction workers that come back to Kansas will pay income tax and will spend money on hotels, food and other expenses. By bringing these jobs back to Kansas, we affect both sides of the revenue solution for Kansas (income taxes and consumption taxes).

The future of the Kansas economy is uncertain. We continue to sweep funds away from road programs to allocate for other expenses. As a direct result, companies are afraid to hire new employees or increase any of their spending budgets. If we protect the KDOT funds, we will bring back the confidence these companies need to begin to grow again. The resulting revenue will positively affect the entire state of Kansas.

Finally, Kansas is missing an excellent opportunity to save money with cheap raw materials such as the price of oil. Kansas should have maintained 1200 miles of roads this year, but because of cuts, only maintained about 200 miles. The lack of maintenance will cause greater road issues in the future. This means it will cost more to maintain the same stretch of road. When you consider the cost of oil and raw materials increasing, the costs compound quickly. We need to protect these funds and maintain our great roads and bridges.

Pro-Life

Sean is a pro-life conservative and will fight to protect the lives of the born and unborn in the state of Kansas. He will encourage the funding of other options for helping both men and women cope with an unexpected pregnancy. Sean is very proud that he has recently earned the endorsement of KANSANS FOR LIFE!

Drive Down Health Care Costs

Representative Tarwater knows Obamacare is not the answer. He worked very hard to drive down the cost of healthcare in Kansas. Representative Tarwater targeted the HMO privilege fee of almost 7%. This is a tax on your HMO Premium dollars. Representative Tarwater argued that increasing this fee will hurt the middle class and low income families by increasing costs. He also argued that this fee will be more substantial than the saving Kansans receive by using an HMO, rendering them ineffective. He also warned that the HMO product would cease to exist in Kansas. Unfortunately, there was not enough support from the Democrats and the more liberal Republicans who thought it was a good way to fill the budget holes. Representative Tarwater was right, there are no HMO products left in Kansas. Next year, he will work to terminate this tax and bring back the HMO product. Everyone deserves affordable health care.

2^nd Amendment Rights

Sean supports gun owners and will stand up for our 2^nd Amendment rights. Sean is rated B+ by the NRA and will work with them to protect Kansan’s 2^nd amendment rights.

TRANSPARENCY

Sean Tarwater believes that an informed community makes the best decisions and is vital to a democracy’s success. By bringing transparency to Topeka, our representatives will no longer be able to say one thing and do another. We need our representatives to be accountable to their constituents. In order to get unpopular agenda items through, the Topeka politicians bundle bills together. By bundling, they force representatives to vote for bills their constituents would otherwise not want. Bundling bills together may also cause representatives to overlook an agenda item that their constituents need.

Representative John Rubin from the 18^th district believes in transparency just as Sean Tarwater does and has been fighting to make Topeka more transparent. Representative Rubin championed the “Rubin Rules” that require the following: Record all votes, bundle no bills, no midnight sessions, and live streaming of committee meetings. John was able to get the live streaming but was met with stiff opposition from his colleges. Some legislators would rather you not know what is going on in Topeka. When you elect Sean Tarwater he will continue Representative Rubin’s fight for transparency in Topeka.