Representative Carl Holmes Participates in Legislative Forum

The Liberal Chamber of Commerce held a Legislative Forum with State Representative Carl Holmes on Friday at the Rock Island Depot.

Holmes talked for the first thirty minutes about a variety of state and national issues. Holmes said current Governor Mark Parkinson has been much easier to work with then former Governor Kathleen Sebilius who is now in President Obama’s administration.

Holmes mentioned that Parkinson and the legislature would like to avoid a tax increase if possible. Another issue Holmes discussed was Cap and Trade. This is a national issue and Holmes voiced his displeasure with it saying it will shut down businesses in the United States.

“87% of emissions will be done away with, will not be produced. How you do that is you shut down cars, you shut down trucks, you shut down power plants, shut down steel mills, shut down cement plans, shut down refineries and everything else,” Holmes said.

The final thirty minutes were delegated for questions from the audience of 25 people. Dr. Duane Dunn, the President of Seward County Community College Area Technical School asked Holmes to take into consideration while deciding on future cuts that the college here has had a 17% increase in enrollment.

Dunn also asked Holmes what the legislature is doing to attract people to Kansas from other states. Holmes responded by saying it is a tough to do that since Kansas already loses many of its college graduates to other states that offer more of a variety of jobs.

Another concerned citizen asked Representative Holmes about what the legislature is doing about all the deer on the highways causing accidents. Holmes said they have been fighting that for 10-15 years with wildlife groups, and that it has been tough to get anything done with that. Holmes said there are groups who value deer more then human lives. He said he also sympathizes with farmers who have had their fields torn up by deer, but is more concerned about saving human lives on the highways due to accidents with deer.

The event was sponsored by AT&T. The Chamber will host another Legislative Forum on Tuesday at the Depot at 2 p.m. with Tim Huelskamp who is currently a State Senator and a candidate for United States Congress.