Fifth District Unified Government Commissioner Mike Kane is running for re-election.
Kane said lowering property taxes is his top priority. He said the UG has the money now to lower taxes, and in the past promised the funds from the payoff of the sales tax revenue bonds would be used on lower property taxes.
He has served three terms as the 5th District commissioner.
“We started this journey 12 years ago and we saw the need for growth out west,” Kane said. The 5th District has experienced much economic growth during his years in office.
Among his achievements in office, he said, are a new community center that opened in Piper, at the request of a Girl Scout troop; a cleanup of an old greenhouse and nursery property located on 82nd Street; and a new fire station in the 5th District that is expected to break ground at the end of summer.
With the fire station project already approved, the next goals on his list are to get a new grocery store in the 5th District and more curbs and sidewalks, he said. Already, there have been five grocery stores built in Wyandotte County during his years on the commission, he said.
Kane said he also would like to look into turning a former go-kart park at Wolcott and Hutton roads into a park with a soccer field and gazebo. Currently, there isn’t a park west of I-435 in his district.
“I want to continue to do a good job, and enjoy serving my community,” he said.
Kane, 60, is the public affairs director for Laborers 1290. He is the president of Tri-County Labor, serves on the executive board of the AFL-CIO state board, and also is on the Kansas Human Rights Commission, appointed in 2013.
He coached soccer for four years at Piper High School. Kane is a lifelong Kansas City, Kansas, resident, and he and his wife have two children.
“Wyandotte County is a good place to work, to visit, and it is equally important to make it a good place to live,” Kane said. “I think it is, and I think that is why my kids stayed here.”
Kane has opposition in the 2017 election from Sarah Kremer. The primary election is Aug. 1, and the general election is in November this year.