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Schaefer Johnson Cox Frey Architecture Wins. Who Lost?
Read more: Schaefer Johnson Cox Frey Architecture Wins. Who Lost?In what must be the most unsurprising news reported in Wichita this year, Schaefer Johnson Cox Frey Architecture was awarded the contract for plan management services for the USD 259 (Wichita public school district) bond issue. Their fee is one percent of the total of the bond issue, or about $3.7 million. If this contract…
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Do We Have Too Little Regulation?
Read more: Do We Have Too Little Regulation?One of the things we’re being told by the mainstream media is that deregulation is the cause of our current economic crisis. If only Bush hadn’t torn up so many regulations, we wouldn’t be in this trouble. Only adding more regulation will save the economy. Free markets — as if our economy is based on…
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Video Reveals Uninformed Citizenry
Read more: Video Reveals Uninformed CitizenryUtah Education Facts has released a video that illustrates the startling lack of information possessed by the average citizen. This video was made in Utah and uses Utah’s facts, but I’ve made some similar videos in Wichita, and the results are similar. People are mostly uninformed about basic facts. School districts use this to their…
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Wichita’s Faulty Due Diligence
Read more: Wichita’s Faulty Due DiligenceIn the Wichita city council meeting on December 2, 2008, council member Jim Skelton questioned Allen Bell, Wichita’s director of urban development, about developers the city is considering working with on a TIF district. Specifically, Skelton asked if there was anything in the backgound of the developers that the council should be concerned about. Bell…
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Wichita and Sedgwick County Agenda Deadlines Are Too Short
Read more: Wichita and Sedgwick County Agenda Deadlines Are Too ShortBoth the City of Wichita and Sedgwick County have policies that limit citizens’ ability to address these bodies on timely matters. Each body requires, effectively, at least one week notice to appear on the public agenda. That’s the part of the meeting where citizens can speak about any topic, not just those matters that are…
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Jeff Fluhr’s Decision
Read more: Jeff Fluhr’s DecisionAt the December 2, 2008 meeting of the Wichita City Council, Jeff Fluhr, the new president of the Wichita Downtown Development Corporation, spoke on behalf of the expansion of the Center City South Redevelopment District, commonly known as the downtown Wichita arena TIF district. Attending the meeting with him were several members of that organization’s…
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Wichita Penalizes Companies Through Taxation
Read more: Wichita Penalizes Companies Through TaxationFive years ago, the City of Wichita granted Big Dog Motorcycles industrial revenue bonds (IRB). The benefit of these bonds is that the company escapes paying property tax (and often sales tax) on the property purchased with the proceeds from the bonds. At the December 2, 2008 meeting of the Wichita City Council, the council…
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Voting for change in the Kansas Senate … not
Read more: Voting for change in the Kansas Senate … notThe Americans For Prosperity — Kansas blog has a post Voting for change in the Kansas Senate that explains the importance of the recent leadership elections in the Kansas Senate. This election was important because there was a clear choice. As the post says: “A vote for the current team is essentially saying that everything…
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Letters to Wichita City Council and Sedgwick County Commission Regarding Downtown Wichita TIF District
Read more: Letters to Wichita City Council and Sedgwick County Commission Regarding Downtown Wichita TIF DistrictJohn Todd has prepared letters that we hope will influence local governments regarding the downtown Wichita TIF district. One, to the Wichita City Council, asks them to conduct a proper public hearing. A second letter to the Sedgwick County Commissioners asks them to not consider passing this TIF district until Wichita conducts a proper public…
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The Process Should Be Most Important
Read more: The Process Should Be Most ImportantA confusing move last week by the Wichita City Council didn’t help build public trust, unfortunately. Without time for public consideration, city leaders added up to $10 million for parking structures to the proposed tax-increment financing plan for the 16-block area around the arena; the council unanimously approved the plan Tuesday.
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Wichita Taxes Cancel Development
Read more: Wichita Taxes Cancel DevelopmentCarrie Rengers’ Wichita Eagle column from yesterday (Warehouse plans near airport are called off) reports on two Wichita real estate developers who have canceled a project that would be a valuable addition to our city. The reason for canceling? Wichita’s property tax environment. In Wichita, we’re separating real estate development into two classes. There are…
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Many Wichita developers pay for infrastructure
Read more: Many Wichita developers pay for infrastructureI think this perception, wrong as it is, is common: that when we see developers building something, the City of Wichita magically builds the supporting infrastructure, and at no cost to the developers. But it isn’t quite so.