Candidates for Kansas' District 27 Senate seat met for a forum Tuesday night in Colwich. District 27 includes northwest Wichita, Andale, Colwich and much of rural Sedgwick County between Goddard and Maize.
In the upcoming general election, Democrat Tony Hunter, a first-time candidate, faces Republican Gene Suellentrop, a former member of the House of Representatives. Among other topics, the candidates discussed their widely differing views on Medicaid expansion, a move that Suellentrop says has led to people "coming out of the woodwork" to enroll in the program.
"The expansion of Obamacare is not something I think we should entertain," Suellentrop said. "[Because of] the woodwork effect that's been shown to occur in all the other states, the majority of them, by far and away, are having problems."
Hunter is on the other side of the Medicaid expansion issue.
"We need to expand Medicaid, and there's a very simple reason," Hunter said. "There's about $1.5 billion right now that we have left on the table. That's money Kansas taxpayers are entitled to get back into Kansas."
Questions from the small audience focused on the state's finances, public education funding and the controversial 2012 income tax cuts.
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