To the editor:

We’ve been blessed with a surplus in our state budget this year. With this surplus we’ve caught up our payments to the state retirement program, paid back the money we’ve borrowed from the department of transportation, fully funded our state education system and set aside a rainy day fund. 

There are still surplus funds not earmarked.

I’ve heard talk about reinstating the tax cuts of the Brownback years, which would go mostly to businesses and the top 10% of our citizens. If I remember right, this tax break basically bankrupted our state.

There are other options that make more sense and would benefit all of our citizens.

Remove the tax on food. If you buy groceries in Kansas this would help tremendously. With inflation eating up our food budget, this would lower the cost to nearly where it was two years ago.

Expand Medicaid. This would inject a huge amount of money into our health-care system. It would create over 10,000 health-care jobs and help provide health insurance to 145,000 working Kansans. The economic impact of this action would more than pay for itself. I’ve heard that there’s fear that the federal government may cease funding this plan sometime in the future. This would be political suicide along the lines of no longer funding Medicare or canceling Social Security.

So what’s the holdup?

Who would get the political advantage from it?

Let’s forget politics for a while and ask what’s best for Kansas!

Jim Hayden

Great Bend