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McKinney Takes Over As Kansas Treasurer

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-812597.mp3

Kansas City, MO – The job came open because Lynn Jenkins, the current State Treasurer, is heading for congress. She defeated Nancy Boyda, to represent Kansas' second district. Kathleen Sebelius, the governor, appointed representative McKinney. The treasures office oversees the state budget, and McKinney says he'll use his new position to push for a surge in public works projects.

Mr. McKinney: When times are good we should be paying down our dept, and they when we're in times like now now's the time to issue the bonds, to extend our highway program, to renovate the capitol. Interest rates are low, construction costs are down, now's the time to do it. And when we do it we put people back to work and get our economy going again.

McKinney says Kansas bonds are still in demand, though many cities and states are having a hard time finding buyers. McKinney has been in the House since 1992. He worked closely the governor in rebuilding Greensburg, his home town, after just about all of the town, including McKinney's house, was destroyed by an enormous tornado a year and a half ago.

I’ve been at KCUR almost 30 years, working partly for NPR and splitting my time between local and national reporting. I work to bring extra attention to people in the Midwest, my home state of Kansas and of course Kansas City. What I love about this job is having a license to talk to interesting people and then crafting radio stories around their voices. It’s a big responsibility to uphold the truth of those stories while condensing them for lots of other people listening to the radio, and I take it seriously. Email me at frank@kcur.org or find me on Twitter @FrankNewsman.
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