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The harmful effects of Wichita’s special tax favors
Read more: The harmful effects of Wichita’s special tax favorsIn the past few weeks a handful of companies in Wichita have asked to be exempted from paying property taxes on investments they have made. This week Wichita may decide to grant special tax treatment to a large development in downtown Wichita. Is it wise for the City of Wichita to grant these special tax…
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More Kansans for Ron Paul
Read more: More Kansans for Ron PaulThe people know much better how to spend their money than the government. — Ron Paul
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Thanks for picking up the tab, or, taxpayer-funded lobbying hurts
Read more: Thanks for picking up the tab, or, taxpayer-funded lobbying hurtsThis article explains the prevalence of and the problems with taxpayer-funded lobbying. This type of lobbying is especially egregious, as it is using taxpayers’ own funds to harm them further. It’s bad enough that a governmental body — say the Wichita Public Schools — receives funds, increasing rapidly from year to year, from the local…
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Wichita School bond issue: don’t indulge superstition
Read more: Wichita School bond issue: don’t indulge superstitionWhy hold a special election in April or May when Kansas has elections scheduled in August and November? Is the Wichita school district facing an emergency need for capital improvements that can’t wait a few months? No, Wichita is not Greensburg, where the school buildings were destroyed. In fact, many of the things the proposed…
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Why I shall caucus for Ron Paul in Kansas
Read more: Why I shall caucus for Ron Paul in KansasA common theme of the various candidates for the Republican Party nomination for the Presidency of the United States is Ronald Reagan. Candidates compete with each other to be the true heir of Reagan and his legacy. Ron Paul, however, looks back to an even earlier time in American politics when the word “conservative” had…
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Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius scores low again
Read more: Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius scores low againIn the Cato Institute’s Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors for 2006, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius earns the grade of “D.” She earned the same grade on their previous survey.
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Wichita school bond issue economic fallacy
Read more: Wichita school bond issue economic fallacyI have no doubt that the school bond issue in 2000 was a tremendous benefit to Mr. Johnson’s firm. I’m sure Superintendent Brooks, in some way that I don’t understand, benefited from the bond issue, too. As to the rest of the community, however, the benefit claimed by these two men doesn’t exist. It never…
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Downtown Wichita (Intrust) arena groundbreaking
Read more: Downtown Wichita (Intrust) arena groundbreakingOn Tuesday December 4, 2007, Sedgwick County hosted the formal groundbreaking ceremony for the downtown Wichita arena. While local government leaders and news media hailed the event as a transforming event in the history of Wichita, this writer does not share their enthusiasm.
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Is the teflon off the Sebelius administration?
Read more: Is the teflon off the Sebelius administration?Second terms are often difficult and contentious for Kansas governors. Bill Graves’ second term was filled with higher taxes, a record long legislative session and imbroglio oversoaring state spending, and a weakened Kansas economy in his last year, 2002.
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The Kansas legislative buffet
Read more: The Kansas legislative buffetWhen Sen. Phil Journey, a legislator who is known as a conservative, uses the term “legislative buffet,” it reveals the wisdom and foresight of Bastiat, who long ago described the legislative process as this: “A share of the plunder for me, for me!”
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Testimony on the Wichita New Communities initiative
Read more: Testimony on the Wichita New Communities initiativeI am a Wichita area real estate broker and developer, and I am here to speak as a private citizen. I speak in opposition to the city’s $250,000 Funding proposal for the current New Communities Initiative Area, because I believe this program in reality, represents the resurrection of the failed government Urban Renewal housing programs…
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In Central-Northeast Wichita, government is cause of problem, not solution
Read more: In Central-Northeast Wichita, government is cause of problem, not solutionAn article in The Wichita Eagle “Plan offers hope for city’s troubled heart” (November 14, 2007) reports on the development of a plan named New Communities Initiative, its goal being the revitalizing of a depressed neighborhood in Wichita. The saddest thing in this article is the realization that there is consideration of a plan for…