Owen files for county commission

Brad Owen filed for Washington County Commission, District 2, on Monday. A write-up can be found in this week's Washington County News. I'm pretty excited about him filing and not just because the position formerly had no filers. It sounds like he has some good ideas, especially for an effort to put a hold on increasing the budget and taxes. At the Washington Chamber of Commerce meeting yesterday, the group got into a pretty intense discussion about valuations and the local tax situation. It is no fun, in my opinion, to find out Kansas has a heavier tax burden in certain areas than compared to California. We'll have to put a focus on this and see if we can change things.