Kansas Farm Bureau’s legislative agenda focuses on broadband, taxes, water

(The Center Square) – The Kansas Farm Bureau (KFB) has announced its 2021 legislative agenda, which will focus on three issues that continue to be of importance to local farmers and ranchers.

The three main priorities the KFB will advocate for are broadband, taxes and water.

“Going in with a brand new Legislature, and certainly 25% or so of the House being brand new, we know we have a tremendous amount of education just on the various topics that are of importance to farmers and ranchers,” Ryan Flickner, senior director at Kansas Farm Bureau, told The Center Square.

The pandemic has made even clearer that access to broadband is essential for all Kansans, both rural and urban.

“Whether it’s telehealth [care] or whether it’s some of the stay-at-home orders and school districts closing, or going to a hybrid or remote learning environment, or even just college and the normal need to do and conduct business on the farm, broadband is of extreme importance,” Flickner said. “We are focused on that at the federal and state level, making sure everyone knows how both fixed and wireless broadband work.”

KFB also will continue to advocate for the use of a value tax system that currently appropriates values for agricultural land.

“We have use value when it comes to property tax here in the states,” Flickner said. “I believe about 40 other states have used the Kansas model to implement [its] own use values. I want to make sure we defend that at all costs.”

Supporting the basic tenets of Kansas’ water laws is the next critical item on the agenda.

“Whether we’re talking western Kansas or eastern Kansas groundwater, surface water, there are always points of conversation there,” Flickner said.

The KFB will continue to weigh in on additional issues that arise and that are important to its members, Flickner stated.

“We’ve got members all across the state, in rural areas,” Flickner said. “We also have a lot of workers that are [on the] front line and truly deemed essential, whether it’s on the fuel delivery or the sea delivery side. Certainly with some of the packing plant slaughter facility issues, making sure that all of our products – not only input products, but the final product – and the bushels of grain or the pounds of protein are able to be taken to where they need to be.”

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