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KanView: A New, Online Database of Revenues and Expenditures in Kansas
Read more: KanView: A New, Online Database of Revenues and Expenditures in KansasThe Kansas Meadowlark reports on the debut of Kanview, and wonders “Why did the Kansas press give this new information resource such little coverage?”
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Safe Rooms a Priority in Wichita School Bond Issue
Read more: Safe Rooms a Priority in Wichita School Bond IssueIt is a noble goal that USD 259 would seek to provide all Wichita schoolchildren with safe storm shelters. For this reason bond issue supporters already have, and will no doubt continue to, promoted the bond issue as necessary for the safety of our city’s children. But instead of congratulating USD 259 officials for their…
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Open records in Kansas
Read more: Open records in KansasRecently I was recruited to participate in the Sunshine Blogger Project. Its purpose is to “find out whether America’s governors properly archive the e-mail that comes into and goes out of their offices, and are able to provide copies of those e-mails when members of the public request them.”
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Wichita school bond issue: solve overcrowding this way
Read more: Wichita school bond issue: solve overcrowding this wayAccording to USD 259 (Wichita public school district) officials, one of the prime reasons a bond issue is needed in 2008 is that schools are overcrowded. New classrooms and new schools must be built, according to district officials, to solve this overcrowding problem. This is another way to reduce overcrowding, and it won’t require spending…
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Wichita School Bond Issue: It’s not the $40, it’s the $1,749
Read more: Wichita School Bond Issue: It’s not the $40, it’s the $1,749The proposed USD 259 (Wichita public school district) school bond issue in 2008 is estimated to cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $40 per year in additional taxes. Proponents divide that into a monthly cost of about $3.33 per month, or sometimes a daily cost of $.11, to dramatize how little this bond…
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Regulatory uncertainty weakens Kansas’ economy
Read more: Regulatory uncertainty weakens Kansas’ economyThe regulatory uncertainty created by Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) Secretary Ron Bremby’s decision to deny a permit to Sunflower Electric’s proposed power plant places the Kansas economy at risk and should be obvious to everyone. Sadly, this everyone does not include the Wichita Eagle’s editorial board’s February 27th editorial.
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It’s not the same as pee in the swimming pool
Read more: It’s not the same as pee in the swimming poolIn a column in the February 27, 2008 Wichita Eagle (“Smoking ban issue not one to negotiate”), columnist Mark McCormick quotes Charlie Claycomb, co-chair of Tobacco Free Wichita, as equating a smoking section in a restaurant with “a urinating section in a swimming pool.” This is a ridiculous comparison. A person can’t tell upon entering…
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Homeowners not only people affected by Wichita school bond issue
Read more: Homeowners not only people affected by Wichita school bond issueA letter in the February 27, 2008 Wichita Eagle makes the case that using property tax increases to fund improvements to Wichita public schools gives renters a “free ride.” This is because renters, as they don’t own the homes they live in, escape paying property taxes. This is distinguished from homeowners, who “pay for everything,”…
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Earmarks and pork thoroughly established
Read more: Earmarks and pork thoroughly establishedIn a letter printed in the February 22, 2008 Wichita Eagle, Sedgwick County Commission Chairman Tom Winters, along with Wichita State University President Don Beggs, praised some Kansas congressmen for being “very effective Washington advocates for south-central Kansas.” What the congressmen — Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, and Kansas Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts –…
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Wichita school district arithmetic
Read more: Wichita school district arithmeticWhat could be the basis of the claim that Mr. Gramke made, that the budget was being cut? Is this the way that Wichita school district officials do arithmetic? I suspect that Mr. Gramke was simply exposing the attitude that many government bureaucrats and officials have: if the budget doesn’t increase as much as they…
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Are you polluting Kansas?
Read more: Are you polluting Kansas?Lost in the debate over the building of a coal-fired electricity plant in Kansas is the fact that China builds a plant like this every week to ten days, according to the New York Times. Nonetheless, newspaper editorial writers like Randy Scholfield of The Wichita Eagle want to saddle Kansans with higher utility bills and…
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Wasteful tax cuts
Read more: Wasteful tax cutsIn the February 21, 2008 debate between Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama, Clinton mentioned the “wasteful tax cuts of the Bush administration.”