Around 300 Kansans met in Wichita on Saturday, January 10 to kick of the 2009 Legislative session with AFP’s Defending the American Dream Summit, held at the Beech Activity Center.

Our second statewide summit was just two days prior to the start of the 2009 Kansas Legislature. Our goal with this event was to help our members prepare for the 2009 session, and to demonstrate to legislators and elected officials that their constituents will be paying attention to what happens in Topeka the next few months.

Derrick SontagAFP-Kansas members had a chance to meet new state director Derrick Sontag, who outlined his priorities for the upcoming legislative session.

The budget will be a priority for AFP members in the 2009 legislative session. We will continue to advocate budget reform, and remind our elected officials that their over spending is what pushed the state into its current financial situation. We will encourage them to make responsible budget cuts, and will fight any attempts to increase taxes in order to balance the budget.

Jonah GoldbergThe Summit included an all-star lineup of speakers: National Review Online editor and “Liberal Fascism” author Jonah Goldberg (pictured), The Wall Street Journal’s Steve Moore, Kansas author and historian Dr. Gregory Schneider, U.S. Reps. Jerry Moran and Todd Tiahrt, Kansas Speaker of the House Mike O’Neal, and state senators Susan Wagle and Chris Steineger, among others.

The focus of the summit was the importance of reducing government spending as a key element to balance the budget.

Aside from budget reform, our speakers hit on government transparency, with State Representative Kasha Kelley conducting a demonstration of the state's online budget database, KanView. This important tool is available at www.kansas.gov/kanview, and we encourage everyone to log on to this site -- you may be surprised at what you find.