State Rep. Tom Burroughs, D-33rd Dist., was elected House Minority Leader today by the Democratic caucus.
Rep. Burroughs has served since 1997 as a state representative from Wyandotte County. He was the assistant House Minority Leader last year. Paul Davis, formerly Minority Leader, was the Democratic nominee for governor.
Also elected at today’s Democratic caucus was Rep. Louis Ruiz, D-31st Dist., who was named Assistant House Minority Leader.
“I’m very humbled to have an opportunity to represent our community,” Rep. Burroughs said. “I don’t know if we’ve ever had a leader and an assistant leader from Wyandotte County.
“We’re very pleased that we will do the very best we can to ensure that Wyandotte County and all Democrats are represented this next session,” Rep. Burroughs said.
Rep. Burroughs said the Democratic caucus will be setting the agenda and policy decisions in the next few weeks. As Democratic leader, his position will be to make sure the Democratic policies and values are presented and heard, he said.
Currently, the Democrats are outnumbered about three-to-one with 28 members in the House.
“It’s going to continue to be an uphill battle for a while,” he said. He added that relationships with the other side of the aisle will be critical in being able to move policy forward. The Democrats will be prepared to work on things they find common ground on, and they hope to find a way to work on things where there isn’t common ground.
Weeks ahead of the start of the session, observers have said that shortfalls in the governor’s budget will be one of the major issues. Rep. Burroughs said the budget has been drastically impacted by the governor’s tax plan.
“We stand at the ready to listen to the recommendation the governor has in remedying his self-imposed budget shortfall,” Rep. Burroughs said. “It is going to be quite the challenge of this session to meet the constraints of this budget.”