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Wichita Public School District’s Taxation Without Information
Read more: Wichita Public School District’s Taxation Without InformationTaxation without information. I wish I could take credit for inventing this phrase that I recently heard someone use. It captures very well the key characteristic of USD 259, the Wichita public school district, and its campaign for the proposed 2008 bond issue.
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Wichita city manager’s warning is too late
Read more: Wichita city manager’s warning is too lateWichita Interim City Manager Ed Flentje issued this warning to the council: “There are in this community much larger businesses with much larger employment who may see this opening as something that will open a door for those businesses to come and say, ‘You’ve done it before, you can do it for us.'” Dr. Flentje,…
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Wichita School Bond Issue: Surrounding Districts Are Growing and Building New Facilities
Read more: Wichita School Bond Issue: Surrounding Districts Are Growing and Building New FacilitiesSupporters of the proposed bond issue for USD 259, the Wichita, Kansas public school district, say that Wichita schoolchildren deserve the same nice and new facilities that many of the surrounding suburban districts have been building. Typical is an editorial in The Wichita Eagle on February 10, 2008, stating “The [Wichita school] district officials kept…
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Complacency is Not an Option: Kansas Needs to Drop its Dropout Rate
Read more: Complacency is Not an Option: Kansas Needs to Drop its Dropout RateIs a high school graduation rate of 39 percent acceptable? That was the record of USD 457 Garden City and USD 501 Topeka, according to a report issued by the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy. USD 500 Kansas City did only slightly better, with a 49 percent rate.
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Wichita School Bond Issue: Is Economic Impact Real?
Read more: Wichita School Bond Issue: Is Economic Impact Real?I wrote to Janet Harrah, the lead author of this report, with some questions. One of her responses, not to any particular question I asked but just by way of general explanation, was this: “These studies are designed to estimate the impact of expenditures for a particular activity. These studies are not designed to determine…
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A Believer in Good Government Programs
Read more: A Believer in Good Government ProgramsA Mr. Greg Abbott of Clearwater, Kansas makes the case in the June 13, 2008 Wichita Eagle that there are many good government programs: the interstate highway system, the post office, the air traffic control system, police and fire departments, etc. I believe the writer makes a huge error in logic by assuming that because…
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Kansas Blog Roundup for June 13, 2008
Read more: Kansas Blog Roundup for June 13, 2008At The Kansas Meadowlark, read about a Kansas state representative’s use of franked mail: State Rep Rardin’s FOURTH franked piece to kick-start his re-election campaign. This post inspired a few rather heated comments.
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Karl Peterjohn Files for Sedgwick County Commission
Read more: Karl Peterjohn Files for Sedgwick County CommissionOn June 5, 2008, Karl Peterjohn officially filed to become a Republican candidate for the Sedgwick County Commission in district 3. I and some other local news media interviewed him afterwards. Peterjohn believes taxes are an important issue in Sedgwick county. “Taxpayers need additional protection in Sedgwick County. The most effective position for taxpayers is…
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Kansas Blog Roundup for June 6, 2008
Read more: Kansas Blog Roundup for June 6, 2008At Voice For Liberty in Wichita, guest author James Barfield contributes Wichita City Manager Search: Look Before You Leap, urging Wichita to be wary of the presumptive new city manager, Pat Salerno. Mr. Barfield has done some investigation on his own, and uncovers some troubling facts. An abridged version of this post was printed in…
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Wichita School District Economic Impact
Read more: Wichita School District Economic ImpactIn February 2008, Janet Harrah of the Center for Economic Development and Business Research at Wichita State University produced a report titled “Wichita Public Schools: Impact Analysis Operations Impact, Bond Impact and Success Measures.” This report painted a glowing picture of the USD 259 (Wichita, Kansas public school district) bond issue in 2000. The district…
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Tax Abatements in Wichita
Read more: Tax Abatements in WichitaA few months ago I spoke before this council asking that you not grant a tax abatement. At that time I was told that granting a property tax abatement doesn’t have any impact on City of Wichita spending. I found this quite remarkable, that new homes and buildings can be built but not consume any…
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Wichita City Manager Search: Look Before You Leap
Read more: Wichita City Manager Search: Look Before You LeapIn the business world, there’s an old adage that says “look before you leap.” So, upon hearing that the Wichita city council was going to hire the only city manager candidate interviewed, I decided to do some looking. What I have seen thus far, has not been all that pretty to me. One of the…