Category: Kansas state government

  • HCR 5009: An attempt to drive down property taxes

    From Representative Frank Miller The Kansas Legislative Research Department provided information substantiating that property taxes increased by 126 percent since 1993, yet the inflation rate adjusted for population growth increased only 43 percent! I don’t see how the appraised value of residential property could have risen 2.75 times faster than inflation adjusted for population growth!…

  • Americans for Prosperity Day in Topeka, March 14, 2005

    I had the pleasure of driving John Todd, Benny Boman, and Bill Davitt to Topeka for the Americans for Prosperity Day in Topeka on Monday March 14, 2005. We started the day at the AFP office, and then drove to the Kansas Statehouse. I met with several legislators including Representatives Bonnie Huy of Wichita, Ted…

  • Testimony in Opposition to Senate Bill 58

    From John Todd. Members House Taxation Committee State Capitol Topeka, Kansas 66612 Subject: Testimony in OPPOSITION TO SENATE BILL #58 (Sales Tax Increase For The Proposed Downtown Wichita Arena). My name is John Todd. I am a self-employed real estate broker from Wichita, and I come before you in opposition to the enabling legislation that…

  • Testimony regarding House Bill No. 2132

    Written testimony of Bob Weeks regarding House Bill No. 2132. A pdf version is available here: http://wichitaliberty.org/files/House_Bill_2132_Testimony_by_Bob_Weeks_2005-03-10.pdf March 10, 2005 Thank you for allowing me to present this written testimony. I realize that the voters in Sedgwick County voted for the arena sales tax increase. I believe, however, there is ample reason why you should…

  • GOP and ex-GOP Legislators Promoting Higher Kansas Taxes

    From Karl Peterjohn, Executive Director Kansas Taxpayers Network In a March 4 report on Democrat Washington Day events in Topeka, Hawver News Editor Martin Hawver told about two well known Republicans involved in this statewide Democratic Party event. First is former state representative and former house majority leader Joe Hoagland, ex-Rino Johnson County, who told…

  • Kansas (Our Governor, That Is) Earns a “D”

    In a policy analysis published today by the Cato Institute (Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors: 2004) Kansas — or more accurately Kansas’s Governor — earns a grade of “D” based on 15 objective measures of fiscal performance. The authors state: “Our analysis shows that states that keep tax rates low and restrain spending…

  • KNEA Tax Plan Would Hurt Kansas

    The powerful and left-wing National Education Association’s Kansas affiliate is working hard to raise your taxes. In a February Olathe News article Terry Forsyth, one of the Kansas National Education Association’s (KNEA) lobbyists, is quoted claiming that there is no correlation between taxes and job growth.

  • Rep. Loganbill Advocates More Tax Brackets

    On Saturday February 12, 2005, I attended a meeting of the South-Central Kansas Legislative Delegation. State Representative Judith Loganbill made remarks that included the fact that the maximum Kansas individual income tax rate becomes effective at taxable incomes of $30,000 for singles and $60,000 for married couples. A member of the audience spoke and expressed…

  • TABOR: not fair?

    Mr. Gary Brunk, executive director of Kansas Action for Children, wrote a letter published in The Wichita Eagle on February 23, 2005, opposing a taxpayer bill of rights, or TABOR, in Kansas. As evidence of TABOR’s failure in Colorado, he cites the low rate of childhood immunization in that state.

  • Legislative Delegation, Saturday February 5, 2005

    On Saturday February 5, 2005 I attended the meeting of the local legislative delegation regarding the arena tax. Representative Tom Sawyer chaired the meeting. The audience wrote questions on notecards, and Representative Brenda Landwehr read them. To the best of my recollection, the people allowed to answer questions were Sedgwick County Commissioner Tom Winters, Sedgwick…

  • A Taxpayer Bill of Rights for Kansas, Please

    Taxes in Kansas are high, and may increase this year. The recent school finance ruling by the Kansas Supreme Court and the passage of the downtown arena sales tax referendum in Sedgwick County are just two reasons why.

  • Tom Daschle’s Defeat, Media Filters, and Kansas

    (Reprinted with the permission of the author, Karl Peterjohn, of Kansas Taxpayers Network.) Enclosed is a December 13, 2004 Wall Street Journal opinion piece by John Fund (How Daschle Got Blogged) demonstrating how the bloggers went past the media filters in South Dakota to help knock off Tom Daschle last month. This is relevant to…