Voice For Liberty

Tag: Kansas state government

Articles about Kansas, its government, and public policy in Kansas.

  • Proposition K is a Constitutionally Valid Reform Option for Kansas

    Some opponents of Proposition K, an effort to reform property tax appraisals in Kansas, are questioning whether this measure would conform to the Kansas Constitution. The following news release from the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy introduces a study that answers this question.

    New Study Shows that a Constitutional Amendment is Not Required

    (WICHITA) Wednesday Rep. Steve Brunk (R-Bel Aire) introduced legislation to reform the property tax system in Kansas. The bill changes the way that the taxable base is set. The current system relies on a system of appraisals, which is purported to be fair market value. Proposition K, as the bill is being called, changes the system by setting the taxable value at the appraised value as of January 1, 2010 and that baseline is adjusted not by reappraisal but by an annual increase set at 2%.

    A new study by the Flint Hills Center, “The Constitutionality of Proposition K,” considers whether this proposed reform can indeed be made through statutory change or whether a constitutional amendment is required.

    Author of the study, Vice President of Programs Sarah McIntosh says that, “Proposition K is a valid statutory change. Under the Kansas Constitution the legislature has to provide a ‘… uniform and equal basis of valuation …’ Proposition K meets this requirement because of the way it sets the baseline, applies a uniform rate increase, and does not re-evaluate property when sold.”

  • Kansas school funding: Can the education lobby be believed?

    As the State of Kansas seeks to work its way out of a difficult budget shortfall, some groups aren’t willing to make the same sacrifice that is being asked of others.

    The biggest offender — both in terms of dollars and shrillness — is the public school lobby in Kansas.

    Last week we heard from Rep. Jim Ward, Democrat from Wichita, who said “you’re now cutting into the bone, the marrow, and you’re going to have a significant impact on the ability to deliver education.” (See Do Kansas Budget Cuts Pose a Threat to Wichita Education? for an explanation of the magnitude of these proposed cuts.)

    Another group, Kansas Families for Education, sent out an email to its supporters containing language like this: “The Kansas Legislature is playing games with our children’s futures. We must stand up and SPEAK OUT against those who think that school funding can withstand these kind of cuts. … Why are Kevin Yoder and his allies so determined to wreak havoc on our schools? … Representative Bill Light tried a hail mary [sic] pass by trying to amend the bill to only a $44 dollar reduction per pupil (still too much for schools to handle.)”

    The measure by Rep. Yoder would reduce state funding to schools by $88 per student, instead of $33 proposed by the Kansas Senate. To place these figures in context, USD 259, the Wichita public school district, spends some $13,000 per year for each student. The difference between $88 and $33 ($55) is somewhere around one-half of one percent of per-student spending.

    I think an important observation we can draw is that if the warnings of the education lobby are true, the education of the children of Kansas hangs by a thread each year, a delicate balance between competing interests. Most Kansans, however, realize that these predictions made by the education lobby are nonsense. It’s now up to the Kansas House of Representatives to seek a sensible resolution to this problem.

  • At Kansas Days, the Campaigns Are On

    At Kansas Days this year, a big topic is how to decide on the Republican candidates for office next year. There are a number of important positions to fill — Kansas governor, United State senator, perhaps two empty United States congress seats, and some other state-wide offices.

    Several prominent Republicans expressed to me their desire to avoid divisive primary elections next year, especially the race for United States Senator between Kansas’ first and fourth district congressmen, Jerry Moran and Todd Tiahrt. It’s thought that a hard-fought primary would be expensive in terms of money and energy that should be conserved for application against the nominee of the Democratic Party.

    (So far the Democrats haven’t produced candidates for either the senate or governorship. It seems a little premature to be worrying about that now, as we are some 18 months out from the August 2010 primary. This illustrates the extreme level of interest in the Republican primary contests.)

    Whether candidates favor primaries seems to depend on their relative standing in the race. For Governor of Kansas, the two candidates are United States Senator Sam Brownback and Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh. It’s thought that Brownback has the upper hand in this race. In fact, the newly-installed chair of the Kansas Republican Party has managed a campaign for Brownback.

    Addressing the fourth congressional district meeting, Thornburgh said “There are those who question whether within the Republican party we ought to have primaries. Some think we ought to do it like the Democrats. You just put a couple people in the back of the room and let them decide. … I’m not a big fan of that. I like this little thing called democracy, and I think it works.”

    For United States Senator, the conventional wisdom that’s been explained to me is that Tiahrt has the advantage in this race, although the Moran campaign has a poll that shows its candidate in the lead. Whatever the case, Moran isn’t looking forward to a primary. Speaking to the fourth congressional district meeting, he said “I dislike this scenario … Todd and I have been friends since we’ve known each other. We’ve been allies on almost every issue that has arisen in Washington DC … While I don’t like what’s occurring here, that he and I may be squaring off against each other in a primary, at the end of the day, I want to everything that I can do to make sure that we remain allies and friends.”

    I think that Kansans of all parties are best served when politics is conducted in the open and not in secret. To avoid what some are fearful of — wasting money in primaries — Republican candidates in primary elections could agree to spending limits. Candidates could also agree to campaign on issues only, avoiding negative attacks on their opponents. The problem is, however, that as Rep. Moran said, he and Rep. Tiahrt agree on almost everything. When that’s the case, campaigns usually shift to the negative.

  • Did Kansas Governor Order Budget Cuts Last Year?

    Has the Kansas budget already been cut for fiscal year 2009, the budget year ending June 30, 2009?

    Some people think so. A commenter to this blog says “the Governor did order these cuts,” referring to cuts made starting last summer.

    But is this the case? I asked the governor’s office about this, and they sent a link to a press release from last June. It’s not clear if it refers to actual cuts, or requests to find ways to spend less. It starts like this: “At the State Finance Council meeting today, Governor Kathleen Sebelius announced that she is asking all cabinet agencies to find ways to reduce their upcoming budget by one to two percent.”

    (The press release is at www.governor.ks.gov/news/NewsRelease/2008/nr-08-0627b.htm.)

    Is this the same as ordering budget cuts? It’s hard to say.

    The Associated Press, however, leads us to believe that cuts were never made by state agencies in their 2009 budgets. From their story of November 28, 2008 GOP leaders to Sebelius: order cuts now:

    In June, Sebelius informed state agency officials it might be necessary to reduce spending 1 percent to 2 percent in the current fiscal year and to be prepared to trim as much as 5 percent the following year.

    After the November election, Sebelius told agencies that planning should reflect a possible 3 percent cut this fiscal year.

    Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat, said he didn’t believe it necessary for the Legislature to pass a bill because the governor is “seriously intending” to make cuts in the current budget.

    Sebelius spokeswoman Nicole Corcoran said the governor will begin a review next week of recommendations from Cabinet agencies of options for reducing costs. She said Sebelius hasn’t ruled out formal action in the near term.

    So did she cut the budget last summer, or didn’t she?

    Does “planning for a possible 3 percent cut” mean the same thing as actually spending less? It doesn’t seem so.

  • Public Forum on Kansas Property Tax Reform

    The Flint Hills Center for Public Policy is holding public forums on Proposition K, an effort to reform property taxes in Kansas.

    The first of these meetings will be held on Thursday, January 29 at 6:00pm at Willowbend Golf Club (8001 Mulberry Drive in NE Wichita). The public is invited to attend. Here’s a link to a map of the meeting location.

  • Nashville Shows Need for Kansas Property Tax Reform

    Using the small town of Nashville, Kansas, a KWCH Television news story shows why property tax reform is needed in Kansas.

    Specifically, reform of the appraisal process is required. In Nashville, just by cleaning up his property, a homeowner’s property taxes doubled. Proposition K would, in part, introduce predictable growth in appraisals, which would eliminate situations like this in Nashville.

    The KWCH news story by reporter Kim Wilhelm, which includes video, is Prop K Could Change Your Property Taxes.

    For more information on Proposition K, see these links:

    Proposition K Will Make Property Taxes Fairer and More Predictable, a news release at the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy.
    House committee hears call for property tax overhaul today, a news story at Kansas Liberty.

  • American Majority Candidate Training in Kansas

    Recently I attended a campaign training event produced by American Majority. This event was targeted to candidates and their supporters for city council and school board offices.

    Dennis Wilson is the Kansas Board Chairman of American Majority. He just completed service as a member of the Kansas Senate. Addressing the audience, he said that individual freedom — through limited government and the free market — is what is important. Government protects and secures our natural rights. Quoting Frederic Bastiat, he said “Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.”

    Wilson promoted the benefit of having private industry do things rather than the government. Free markets are a great concern today, he said. We may now actually be closer to a socialist country than we’ve ever been, when the government is involved with fifty percent of our economy. He quoted Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” We cannot continue on this path of increasing spending without accountability at the local level.

    American Majority, he said, believes in individual freedom and market freedom, and will take this message to candidates, activists, and campuses.

    American Majority will have an activist training session in Wichita on Saturday February 28. Online registration will be available soon.

  • Redesigning Kansas County Government: Follow-up

    Last week I reported on a talk that Kansas Senator Kansas Senator Chris Steineger, Democrat from Kansas City, delivered to some 300 citizens at Americans For Prosperity‘s Defending the American Dream Summit in Wichita.

    One of the things Steineger believes is that Kansas has too many counties, a legacy from the days of travel to the county seat by horseback. So I got to thinking about the consolidation of two counties into one and some of the issues that would be involved.

    In a follow-up call with the senator, he mentioned that even ten to 12 counties could join together to form one new county. How would we decide how to form these new counties? Where would the county seat be? Steineger’s answer is to form new counties based around economic development engines.

    He also said that several factors are coming into play that make the redesign of the county map in Kansas more likely: First, the state is eliminating state revenue sharing with counties. Second, the state is eliminating legislative barriers to consolidation.

    There’s no central place in the legislature focused on county redesign in Kansas, Steineger added. If citizens are interested in seeing this idea proceed, they should talk to their house or senate member.

    As the senator said in his talk to the AFP summit, there is a window of time when the legislature and the people of Kansas are more receptive to these types of reform. That is during times of stress like we are experiencing now. Once times are better, people will be less responsive.

  • A Few Questions for AFP’s Derrick Sontag

    I and a few others met with Americans For Prosperity’s Kansas state director Derrick Sontag on Friday. Following are a few of the questions I asked, and Derrick’s answers.

    Q. Last year AFP had a model budget. Did that have anything to do with the relatively low increase in spending — compared to previous years — in last year’s budget? And does AFP plan to introduce a model budget this year?

    “Yes. I think AFP in general had a lot to do with that. AFP had a direct impact. We’re probably on the next-to-last draft on a model budget for this year. We’ll bring it out next month in time for the legislature to use it for the 2010 budget.”

    Q. Proposition K — the effort to reform property tax appraisals in Kansas: Who will be the opposition to this?

    “Local units of government. When you think about it, it’s been a nice hidden tax increase for years. They can just rely on the appraisal system to do their dirty work. We stress that it doesn’t take away the local’s right or authority to raise property tax rates. But, they won’t like this, because they wont have the appraisal system to lean on. So they’ll have to ask for an increase in the mill levy. They’re going to fight it, but it will be tough for them to justify it. Citizens will ask “why are you fighting this? You still have the right to raise tax rates.’”

    Q. What about transparency in Kansas government?

    “When you look at budget transparency, we want to look at local units of government as well as at the state level. We have the transparency website [Kanview], which I think is very good. It shows the state expenditures and revenues, and local units of government should have to do the same things. Cities, counties, and school districts should have to list their expenditures.”

    Q. Do you think there will be action on the Holcomb Station expansion, the coal plant, this year?

    “Yes. I’m actually optimistic that it will happen.”

    Q. What about judicial reform?

    “I think judicial reform will get attention, too. I think we need to capitalize on the Dan Biles appointment. Even if Biles turns out to be the kind of justice we all hope for, it still doesn’t change the fact that the questions that came out after the nomination should have been asked before. The kind of questions like what is your relationship with the chair of the state Democratic party? That should be asked in the senate.”