LaVern Abney and Doug Desch have heard all the talk about how the state is running out of money and how school children are sure to suffer.

They don’t believe it, not for a minute.

They’re fed up. That’s why they’re running for the 53rd District seat in the Kansas House of Representatives.

Both Republicans, they’re running against each other in the GOP primary Tuesday. The winner will take on Rep. Roger Toelkes, D-Topeka, in the Nov. 5 general election.

“I’m not making any promises I can’t keep because the people of Kansas have been lied to enough,” said Abney, who retired in 1997 after putting in 33 years with the Topeka water department. He’s 66.

He’s dead set against raising taxes, he said, “because there’s no more money to be had,” adding, “spending is going to have to be cut.”

It should have been cut long ago, but few politicians, he said, have the courage needed to make tough decisions.

“We’ve all got to bite the bullet,” Abney said, “and I’m prepared to do that.”

Desch, a 35-year-old freelance property appraiser, said he had a hard time seeing the connection between spending more on schools and students learning more.

“I don’t agree that increasing the quantity of funding for education equates to increases in the quality of education,” he said.

He called school officials’ pleas for increased funding “a never ending thing. It makes you wonder  if they always keep needing more money, then what difference does it make? They’ll just be back next year, wanting even more.”

Desch said he would be willing to raise taxes but only as “a very, very last resort.” And that won’t happen anytime soon, he said, because there’s still a lot of wasteful spending going on.

“Every program we’ve got going on now can’t be essential,” he said.

To prove his point, he cited Gov. Bill Graves’ recent decision to spend $750,000 to put a 20-foot-tall statute atop the Statehouse.

“Tell me that’s essential,” he said, mockingly.

Campaigning door to door, Desch said he had not heard much concern about schools not having enough money. Instead, he said, most people are worried about the government wanting to take away their guns.

“I feel that law-abiding citizens can control themselves,” he said. “If government comes in and takes away their guns, then only the criminals are going to have guns.”

Desch said he would support passage of a law allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons.

“Thirty-nine states have right-to-carry laws, and crime’s gone down in every one of them,” he said.

Abney doesn’t like gun control either, but if elected, he said, he’d sponsor a bill requiring dealers to include a trigger-lock device in every gun sale.

“That way, you wouldn’t have to worry so much about somebody accidentally getting killed.”

Abney admits he’s best described as a conservative, but it’s a label he resists.

“I call myself an independent Republican because I’m going to vote the way I want and for what I believe,” he said.