By Ken Krall
WXPR

The deadline to file your taxes was extended to yesterday, and an Assembly candidate says taxes are a foundation for initiatives he would like to pursue.

Kirk Bangstad
Credit Bangstad campaign

Democrat Kirk Bangstad of Minocqua is running for the 34th District seat. His campaign stopped at the Oneida County Courthouse. He says more people are filing for bankruptcy because of a lack of medical insurance.

“How that ties in is how Wisconsin not expanding Medicaid,” Bangstad said. “It would help out 83,000 more Wisconsinites. The reason for that is purely political. We’re one of 12 states that haven’t taken that expansion of Medicaid. Even Oklahoma, a huge red state, just voted to do that.”

The former Walker administration and legislature didn’t want to expand Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act. Supporters of expansion say the extra federal dollars lowers costs overall.

Bangstad also said the burden of taxes is an issue.

“The richest Wisconsinites, the top 20 percent, only pay seven percent of their income in state taxes, while the bottom 80 percent, including the middle class and poor, are paying about 10 percent of their income.“

Bangstad says he got motivated to run for office after Republican efforts to mandate the April election even in the middle of Governor Evers ‘Safer-At-Home’ order and to reopen the economy with no plan to do it safely.

He says with COVID infections rising in Wisconsin his fears are becoming reality. He says stopping COVID has to be top priority compared to other issues.

The incumbent Republican in the 34th District is Rob Swearingen of Rhinelander.