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HCR 5009: An attempt to drive down property taxes
Read more: HCR 5009: An attempt to drive down property taxesFrom 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!…
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Letter to County Commissioners Regarding AirTran Subsidy
Read more: Letter to County Commissioners Regarding AirTran SubsidyMy primary reason for opposing this subsidy is that it distorts the market process through which individuals and businesses decide how to most productively allocate capital. Aside from that, it seems to me that the argument that many Fair Fares supporters make is flawed. They are grossly — I would say even speciously — overstating…
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Affording Tax Cuts, or Whose Money Is It, Anyway?
Read more: Affording Tax Cuts, or Whose Money Is It, Anyway?The logic of paygo for taxes is backward, in that it starts from the assumption that all tax revenue is Washington’s in the first place and thus any tax cuts must be “offset” so Congress can be made whole. But of course the money belongs to the taxpayers who earned it, and the burden ought…
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Americans for Prosperity Day in Topeka, March 14, 2005
Read more: Americans for Prosperity Day in Topeka, March 14, 2005I 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…
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Let free markets determine downtown Wichita’s viability
Read more: Let free markets determine downtown Wichita’s viabilityIf you listen to local Wichita news media, our local politicians, and various community advocates, the desirability of downtown development over other development is accepted as a given. But what people actually do with their own money is different.
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Why is the Wichita news media not interested?
Read more: Why is the Wichita news media not interested?This is a version of a letter that I have been sending to (mostly) Wichita-area newspapers, television stations, and radio stations. Some have expressed some interest and have even assigned reporters to look into this, but so far no stories have appeared.
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Testimony in Opposition to Senate Bill 58
Read more: Testimony in Opposition to Senate Bill 58From 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…
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Testimony regarding House Bill No. 2132
Read more: Testimony regarding House Bill No. 2132Written 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…
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A Letter to the Editor is Edited
Read more: A Letter to the Editor is EditedI wrote a letter to the editor of The Wichita Eagle for publication. It was published today, March 7, 2005. I have learned a lesson: my letter was much too long. I don’t fault the Eagle for editing for space reasons. I do think, though, that my letter has a much different meaning in its…
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GOP and ex-GOP Legislators Promoting Higher Kansas Taxes
Read more: GOP and ex-GOP Legislators Promoting Higher Kansas TaxesFrom 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…
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Martha, I’m Glad You’re Home
Read more: Martha, I’m Glad You’re HomeWriting from Newton, Iowa. Alan Reynolds, writing for the Cato Institute, wrote in June 2003 this: Believe it or not, the government now charges Martha Stewart with “securities fraud” during that same period because she supposedly tried in vain to prop up her own stock by denying that she was guilty of the crime then…
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Kansas (Our Governor, That Is) Earns a “D”
Read more: 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…