Voice For Liberty

Tag: Kansas Watchdog

  • Kansas and Wichita quick takes: Monday April 25, 2011

    American exceptionalism. This Friday (April 29) the Wichita Pachyderm Club features Kenneth N. Ciboski, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Political Science at Wichita State University. He will speak on the topic “American Exceptionalism: How and Why Are We Different From Europe?” The public is welcome and encouraged to attend Wichita Pachyderm meetings. For more information click on Wichita Pachyderm Club. … Upcoming speakers: On May 6, Dr. Malcolm C. Harris, Sr., Professor of Finance, Friends University on the topic “Shale gas: Our energy future?” On May 13, Craig Burns and Glenn Edwards of Security 1st Title Co. on the topic “Real Estate Transactions, Ownership, Title, and Tales From the Trenches.” On May 20, Rob Siedleckie, Secretary, Kansas Social Rehabilitation Services (SRS) on the topic “The SRS and Initiatives.” On May 27, Todd Tiahrt, Former 4th District Congressman on the topic “Outsourcing our National Security — How the Pentagon is Working Against Us”.

    Wichita City Council this week. As this week is the fourth Tuesday of the month, the Wichita City Council considers only consent agenda items. This agenda has two acquisition of property by eminent domain, one for improvements to East 13th Street, and another for land involved in the aquifer recharge project in Harvey County. … There will also be council member appointments, and with three new council members on board, there could be a number of these. … A workshop will follow to present updates to the downtown Wichita public incentive policy. A Wichita Eagle story reported on this, but raised more confusion than answers. For example, the story reports the proposal will include “A private-to-public capital investment ration [sic] of 2-to-1.” This differs from the Goody Clancy plan for downtown Wichita, which calls for a five to one ratio.

    The Great American Bailout. Tim Huelskamp, a new member of the United States Congress from the Kansas first district, warns of the seriousness of the problem the country faces with the budget and debt: “This past Monday, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) announced that it was cutting its outlook on the U.S. from “stable” to “negative,” increasing the likelihood of a potential downgrade of America’s credit rating. This should be a dire wake-up call to Washington that the time is now to address federal red ink. For all of America’s greatness, it is embarrassing that the United States may become a credit risk.” He details the rising amount of national debt, and also the increasing percentage that is held by foreign countries. … Soon we will be faced with the decision to raise our national debt limit. Huelskamp says the only way he could support increasing the ceiling is there is also a “serious and meaningful compromise that makes substantial and real cuts to the deficit and debt.” He also supports a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

    “Not yours to give rally” in Topeka. Next Thursday (April 28) a coalition of groups is holding a rally at the Kansas Capitol building. The event starts at 10:00 am and lasts until 2:00 pm. The lineup of speakers and topics includes Rep. Charlotte O’Hara: “Federal control of the state through the state budget,” Larry Halloran (Wichita South Central 9-12 Group): “Government Charity, the Constitution and the Rule of Law,” Dave Trabert (Kansas Policy Institute): “Kansas Budget Policy and Spending Habits,” Rep. Kasha Kelley: “House Budget,” Richard D. Fry (Patriots Coalition ): “Govt. Lawlessness and Implementing Obama Care,”Angelo Mino (Born in Ecuador – MADE in America): “Reason to Become a New Born American,” Derrick Sontag (Americans for Prosperity): “History of a Growing Kansas Budget,” and Rep. Lance Kinzer: “Court of Appeals Legislation.” … AFP is sponsoring a free bus trip from Wichita for this event. The bus will leave Wichita at 7:00 am, and should be back by 6:00 pm. The bus trip is free but reservations are required. For more information on the bus trip contact John Todd at john@johntodd.net or 316-312-7335, or Susan Estes, AFP Field Director at sestes@afphq.org or 316-681-4415.

    Kansas Bioscience Authority benefits from exemptions. The Kansas Bioscience Authority has benefited from exceptions to the Kansas Open Records Act written for its own benefit. Kansas Watchdog reports.

    The presidency in liberal society. Eighteen months before the election, presidential politics consumes a lot of energy. Conservatives complain that President Obama is already in full campaign mode. Liberals poke fun at Republicans for, well, for a lot of reasons. But with a properly limited government, we should care very little who is our president. Lew Rockwell explains in this excerpt from a speech titled “An American Classical Liberalism”: Every four years, as the November presidential election draws near, I have the same daydream: that I don’t know or care who the president of the United States is. More importantly, I don’t need to know or care. I don’t have to vote or even pay attention to debates. I can ignore all campaign commercials. There are no high stakes for my family or my country. My liberty and property are so secure that, frankly, it doesn’t matter who wins. I don’t even need to know his name. In my daydream, the president is mostly a figurehead and a symbol, almost invisible to myself and my community. He has no public wealth at his disposal. He administers no regulatory departments. He cannot tax us, send our children into foreign wars, pass out welfare to the rich or the poor, appoint judges to take away our rights of self-government, control a central bank that inflates the money supply and brings on the business cycle, or change the laws willy-nilly according to the special interests he likes or seeks to punish. His job is simply to oversee a tiny government with virtually no power except to arbitrate disputes among the states, which are the primary governmental units. He is head of state, though never head of government. His position, in fact, is one of constant subordination to the office holders around him and the thousands of statesmen on the state and local level. He adheres to a strict rule of law and is always aware that anytime he transgresses by trying to expand his power, he will be impeached as a criminal.

  • Kansas and Wichita quick takes: Thursday April 14, 2011

    Kansas State Board of Education vs. Walt Chappell. There is another development in the tenure of Walt Chappell, Kansas State Board of Education member. Chappell holds some opinions that differ from the rest of the board, or at least the majority of the board, and they don’t like Chappell expressing his opinions in newspaper columns, etc. The board would rather have a unified front, even if the position taken is incorrect. Of particular, the issue of the unspent Kansas school fund balances has been prominent. Kansas Watchdog reports on a recent meeting of the board where the issue of Chappell and his speech was an issue.

    Protest on tax day. A message from Wichita State University Students for Liberty: “You are cordially invited to a tax protest on Friday, 15 April at 3:00 pm. It will be held on the southeast corner of 21st Street and Rock Road. I and several members of WSU Students for Liberty will be in attendance, and we welcome yours as well.” For more information see Wichita State University Students for Liberty.

    Tax day tea party events. AFP Kansas has a list of tea party events at Kansas Tea Parties. Nothing in Wichita, though.

    Steineger, Kansas senator, to address Pachyderms. This Friday (April 15) Kansas Senator Chris Steineger will speak to the members and guests of the Wichita Pachyderm Club on the topic “Using Business Principles to Restructure State and Local Government For Long-Term Efficiency.” Steineger, of Kansas City, has served in the Kansas Senate since 1997 and in December switched his affiliation from the Democratic to Republican party. Steineger has voted with Republicans on fiscal issues for many years. Explaining why he switched parties, he wrote “I am a fiscal hawk who believes Americans have been borrowing, spending, and living beyond their means for too long.” Steineger has spoken at events organized by Americans for Prosperity.

    Trade protectionism makes us poorer. The president of a large labor union is urging President Obama to not implement pending free trade agreements. Should we have free trade with other countries, or not? Richard W. Rahn explains, starting with the complexity of even the most humble and simple of consumer goods — the pencil — as highlighted in yesterday’s article: “As simple as a pencil is, it contains materials from all over the world (special woods, paint, graphite, metal for the band and rubber for the eraser) and requires specialized machinery. How much would it cost you to make your own pencils or even grow your own food? Trade means lower costs and better products, and the more of it the better. Adam Smith explained that trade, by increasing the size of the market for any good or service, allows the efficiencies of mass production, thus lowering the cost and the ultimate price to consumers. … It is easy to see the loss of 200 jobs in a U.S. textile mill that produces men’s T-shirts, but it is not as obvious to see the benefit from the fact that everyone can buy T-shirts for $2 less when they come from China, even though the cotton in the shirts was most likely grown in the United States. Real U.S. disposable income is increased when we spend less to buy foreign-made products because we are spending less to get more — and that increase in real income means that U.S. consumers can spend much more on U.S.-made computer equipment, air travel or whatever. … The benefits of trade are not always easy to see or quickly understand, and so it is no surprise that so many commentators, politicians, labor leaders and others get it wrong.”

    City government under control. From Reason.tv: “While cities across the country are cutting services, raising taxes and contemplating bankruptcy, something extraordinary is happening in a suburban community just north of Atlanta, Georgia. Since incorporating in 2005, Sandy Springs has improved its services, invested tens of millions of dollars in infrastructure and kept taxes flat. And get this: Sandy Springs has no long-term liabilities. This is the story of Sandy Springs, Georgia — the city that outsourced everything.” Click here for video.

  • Kansas and Wichita quick takes: Friday April 8, 2011

    Kansas Meadowlark blog recast. Earl Glynn of Overland Park has reformed his Kansas Meadowlark site from a blog to a news site along the lines of the Drudge Report. Glynn’s full-time job is working for Kansas Watchdog.

    Economics in one lesson next week. On Monday, four videos based on Henry Hazlitt’s class work Economics in One Lesson will be shown in Wichita. The four topics included in Monday’s presentation will be The Lesson, The Broken Window, Public Works Means Taxes, and Credit Diverts Production. The event is Monday (April 11) at 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm at the Lionel D. Alford Library located at 3447 S. Meridian in Wichita. The library is just north of the I-235 exit on Meridian. The event’s sponsor is Americans for Prosperity, Kansas. For more information on this event contact John Todd at john@johntodd.net or 316-312-7335, or Susan Estes, AFP Field Director at sestes@afphq.org or 316-681-4415.

    Government shutdown guide. Americans for Limited Government reports on What happens if the government shuts down? :Well, nothing really, and the consequences of a shutdown are really rather mundane. The worst part of it all, Congress would still be working, oh, and all government museums and tourist sites will close.” Tourist sites closing: that’s the “Washington Monument Strategy,” where any threatened cuts to the National Park Service will first cause a closing of the Washington Monument. Instead of looking for the ways to save money with the least impact, agencies propose cuts with the most impact first. … The Washington Post has more, noting that only essential government employees would work during the shutdown. Which causes me to ask: Why do we have non-essential government employees?

    Halve the deficit by doing nothing. Writes Ezra Klein: “Just let the Bush tax cuts expire in 2012, as they’re currently scheduled to do.” But this is not “doing nothing.” It’s government taxation at a higher level than present, which is far from nothing. It’s redirecting resources from the productive private sector to government, which almost always means less effective application of these resources. The Wichita Eagle editorial board approved enough of this that they mentioned it — favorably, I think — on their blog.

    State debt worse than federal. While many are aware that the U.S. federal government is awash in debt and that any plan to forcefully deal with this problem is denounced by liberals, the states, collectively, are in worse shape. Washington Examiner explains: “House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin talked Tuesday about cutting federal spending by a staggering $6 trillion in the next decade and in the process eliminating the $14.3 trillion national debt. As incredible as these numbers are, all 50 states face perilous fiscal times as well, but they are less able to cope than the federal government. States can’t print money, as the federal government can, and they are far more limited in whom and how much they can tax. There is one common factor here, though: Washington and the state capitals are drowning in red ink largely because professional politicians promised excessive entitlement benefits without making provisions to pay for them. … These liabilities are coming due as the baby boomers begin to retire, which means entitlement reform — at the federal and state levels — is likely to be the defining political issue for the next decade.”

    This Week in Kansas. On “This Week in Kansas” Chapman Rackaway, Kenneth N. Ciboski, and myself discuss local elections in Kansas, and then the Kansas Legislature. Tim Brown is the host. “This Week in Kansas” airs on KAKE TV 10 Sundays at 9:00 am in Wichita, and 11:30 am Saturdays on WIBW in Topeka.

  • There are a lot of government employees

    Two recent articles — one national in scope, the other covering only Kansas — tell us why our budgets are so bloated and why the private sector is struggling to survive.

    Kansas Watchdog reports “In February more than one in five non-farm employees in Kansas worked for government.” This is government all levels. Why is this a problem? Reporter Paul Soutar explains:

    Malcolm Harris, a professor of finance at Friends University in Wichita, said the level of government employment is an indicator of a bigger problem, “It tells me that we’ve got a lot of our resources going into government.”

    “Government spending squeezes resources that might be available for increasing productivity,” Harris said. “It makes us less competitive.”

    Harris said Kansas and the U.S. need to be more competitive in order to increase exports and reduce our trade imbalance.

    The second article in is the Wall Street Journal, penned by Stephen Moore. Titled We’ve Become a Nation of Takers, Not Makers: More Americans work for the government than in manufacturing, farming, fishing, forestry, mining and utilities combined, it starts off with a startling statistic: “Today in America there are nearly twice as many people working for the government (22.5 million) than in all of manufacturing (11.5 million). This is an almost exact reversal of the situation in 1960, when there were 15 million workers in manufacturing and 8.7 million collecting a paycheck from the government.”

    Later Moore highlights the decline of America’s manufacturing tradition at the expense of more government: “Even Michigan, at one time the auto capital of the world, and Pennsylvania, once the steel capital, have more government bureaucrats than people making things.”

    Moore finds that since government has been hiring, and since rarely is anyone fired or laid off from a government job, many college graduates want to work for government: “Sadly, we could end up with a generation of Americans who want to work at the Department of Motor Vehicles.”

    Moore notes that productivity in government is measured differently than in the private sector: “But education is an industry where we measure performance backwards: We gauge school performance not by outputs, but by inputs. If quality falls, we say we didn’t pay teachers enough or we need smaller class sizes or newer schools. … The same is true of almost all other government services. Mass transit spends more and more every year and yet a much smaller share of Americans use trains and buses today than in past decades. One way that private companies spur productivity is by firing underperforming employees and rewarding excellence. In government employment, tenure for teachers and near lifetime employment for other civil servants shields workers from this basic system of reward and punishment. It is a system that breeds mediocrity, which is what we’ve gotten.”

    Moore also uncovers a paradox of government employees: “Public employees maintain that they are underpaid relative to equally qualified private-sector workers, yet they are deathly afraid of competitive bidding for government services.”

  • Affordable Airfares audit embarrassing to Wichita

    Last week’s release of a report produced by the Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit is an embarrassment to City of Wichita elected officials and staff, the Kansas Regional Area Economic Partnership, and the Wichita State University Center for Economic Development and Business Research. The audit found that economic development claims of the Kansas Affordable Airfares program are significantly overstated. This program pays a subsidy to discount airlines providing service in Kansas, primarily Airtran Airways in Wichita.

    The primary finding of the report is this: “Overall, the program appears to have had the desired effect. Since Wichita’s original affordable airfare program (FairFares) began in 2002, fares have decreased, while the number of passengers and the number of available flights have increased. However, the Regional Economic Area Partnership’s (REAP) annual reports on the program contain numerous inconsistencies and inaccuracies. Further, the economic impact of the program has been significantly overstated. Specifically, the estimated number of jobs created and the State’s return on investment were overstated because of key methodological errors and the use of some inaccurate data. We also found that overall accountability for the State funds is lacking.”

    The audit may be read in its entirety at Affordable Airfares: Reviewing the Benefits Claimed As a Result of State Funding to Lower Airfare. A summary of highlights is here.

    Several news stories provide additional coverage. See Wichita Eagle: Audit: Airfare subsidies’ impact was overstated, Topeka Capital-Journal: Audit: Wichita air subsidy questioned, and Kansas Watchdog: Analysts and Elected Officials Ignored Flaws in Air Subsidy Claims .

    The airline subsidy program in Wichita has a long tradition of overreaching. In 2004, Troy Carlson, who was at the time chairman of Fair Fares, a group that sought to provide a guarantee of business and operating subsidy to a discount airline, wrote that a discount airline’s presence in Wichita had an annual economic impact of $4.8 billion for the state. His claims had their starting point in a WSU CEDBR study, although Carlson extended them in a way I’m sure the study’s authors hadn’t intended.

    In 2005, Sam Williams, who had taken over the role of chairman of Fair Fares from Carlson, testified to the Wichita City Council that Wichita’s leadership in providing subsidies to airlines was just like the role Kansas played when it entered the Union in 1861.

    Fortunately, these ridiculous claims fell by the wayside. Except gullible city council members and legislators believed them.

    Future of targeted economic development subsidies

    The big takeaway from the Affordable Airfares audit is that boosters of state-sponsored and funded economic development rely on figures that often vastly overstate the effect of the programs they’re promoting. Having made a large mistake like this, agencies like REAP and CEDBR need to be watched carefully.

    More fundamentally, we need to question the role of targeted economic development subsidies in Kansas. The day after the Affordable Airfares audit was released, Governor Sam Brownback released his economic development plan for Kansas. This plan calls for an end to present practices, especially the heavy-handed methods cities like Wichita use. While the plan and the governor’s budget include continued funding for Affordable Airfares, this decision was made before the audit’s findings were released to the public.

    There is an alternative method of funding the airline subsidy besides taxing everyone in the state, or City of Wichita for that matter. When government provides services that benefit everyone, such as police protection, most people agree that taxes to pay for these services should be broad-based. But we can precisely identify the people who benefit from cheap airfares: the people who buy tickets. Wichita could easily add a charge to tickets for this purpose. The mechanism is already in place.

    The charge wouldn’t have to be very much, either. With 1,549,395 passengers in 2010, and with the Affordable Airfares program costing $6.67 million, the charge would need to be just $4.30 per passenger, or double that for a round trip ticket.

    City and REAP officials will argue that low airfares benefit everyone. But as we’ve seen, these claims are overstated.

  • In Kansas, school reformers not wanted

    Paul Soutar of Kansas Watchdog has found that some members of local school boards who ask for information face pushback and opposition as they try to exercise the type of oversight that many people want. Many people, that is, except those within the public school system. For them, board members are expected to be compliant and unquestioning.

    Kansas Public School Governance: Reformers Need Not Apply

    By Paul Soutar

    An expert on school policy seems to have summed up what’s going on around the country, including right here in Kansas. “Even if by some miracle a dissenter can slip onto the board, there are tricks that the status quo uses to neutralize that person.”

    Tim Blakenship liked using his math and science training to help out at the local high school. He also attended school board meetings and noticed that board members weren’t discussing large expenditures before voting their approval. What he saw motivated him to run for a seat on the USD232 De Soto Board of Education in 2007.

    “The biggest thing I talked about during that campaign was the need to scrutinize administrative proposals and ask questions,” Blankenship said. “When I’d come to a board meeting and see that no questions were asked at all. They just voted to do it.”

    Kansas Watchdog has heard similar concerns directly from other citizens and board members around the state and anecdotes reported second-hand from others, but few board members have been willing to speak on the record about their concerns.

    Continue reading at Kansas Public School Governance: Reformers Need Not Apply.

  • Kansas and Wichita quick takes: Tuesday January 18, 2011

    Education reformer to speak in Kansas. Next week the Kansas Policy Institute hosts education reform expert Dr. Matthew Ladner at several events in Kansas. In Wichita, he will speak at a free breakfast event on Tuesday January 25th. Information on that event and those in Topeka and Overland Park can be found at Kansas Policy Institute Upcoming Events. Ladner, of the Goldwater Institute, will speak on the topic “Good to Great — Lessons for Kansas from Florida’s education revolution.” Florida has been at the forefront of education reform in recent years, according to a study by EducationNext. Kansas, on the other hand, ranks very low in studies that look at education reform among the states. An invitation to the Wichita event is here. RSVPs are requested by January 20th.

    Wichita council candidate websites spotted. This is not a comprehensive list of candidates. Instead, these are city council candidates’ websites that have been noticed. District 2, currently held by Sue Schlapp, who may not run due to term limits: Steve Harris, Paul Savage, Charlie Stevens. … District 3, currently held by Roger Smith on an interim basis: Clinton Coen, James Clendenin…. District 4, currently held by Paul Gray, who may not run due to term limits: Joshua Blick, Michael O’Donnell. … District 5, currently held by Jeff Longwell: Jeff Longwell, Lynda Tyler.

    Schools’ funding claims questioned. “Much of the increase in state spending for schools since 2005 has accumulated in cash reserve funds rather than being spent in classrooms, according to an analysis of unencumbered cash reserves held by districts.” The Kansas Watchdog story by Paul Soutar continues: “Carryover cash in accessible district funds has increased by $306 million since 2005, the year the Kansas Supreme Court’s Montoy decision went into effect. Cash in these funds grew to about $743 in 2010, up $187 million since 2008. The carryover, or unencumbered cash, is money appropriated in previous years but not spent and with no claims against it for unpaid bills or other obligations. The cash accumulates in more than 30 distinct funds.” … The balances in these funds rise when money is not spent as fast as it is put in. School districts argue that they need some fund balances — and they do — but the growing balances, year after year for most districts, undermines the claims of school spending advocates.

    Kansas schools rated. “Kansas elementary and secondary schools rose one spot in a new national performance ranking, but are still below the U.S. average and many other states, the publishers of Education Week reported this week. The publication’s 15th annual ‘Quality Counts’ survey of how precollegiate schools are faring across the nation, ranks Kansas’ performance 37th in the nation, up one place from last year’s assessment, but still lower than the national average.” The Kansas reporter story mentions state school board member Walt Chappell and his concern that Kansas’ state-controlled student achievement scores — which show rapidly rising performance — may not be valid or reliable: “Even so, the Education Week rankings and others like them are important, said Walt Chappell, a state board of education member who in the past has expressed skepticism about claims of educational excellence that he believes don’t square with students’ college entrance exams or the state’s double digit high school dropout rates. At the very least, ‘here is another outside observer taking another look at our schools and telling us there is room for improvement,’ Chappell said.”

    Insurance costs on the rise in Kansas. From Kansas Reporter: “Health insurance premiums have gone up 5 to 7 percent in Kansas because of the federal Patient Affordable Care Act, an underwriters’ group official told lawmakers Thursday.” Mandates for increased coverage are seen as a cause.

  • Kansas and Wichita quick takes: Thursday January 6, 2011

    State GOP chief to speak in Wichita. This Friday (January 7th) Amanda Adkins, who is Chair of the Kansas Republican Party, will speak at the Wichita Pachyderm Club. The topic is “Conservative Leadership Now — 2020: Building Long-term Political Infrastructure for the State of Kansas.” The public is welcome and encouraged to attend Wichita Pachyderm meetings. For more information click on Wichita Pachyderm Club. Upcoming speakers include Bob Lamke, Director of the Sedgwick County Division of Public Safety on January 14th, and Ed Flentje, Professor at the Hugo Wall School of Urban and Public Affairs at Wichita State University, will be discussing a book he co-authored titled “Kansas Politics and Government” on January 21.

    Kansas budget under more stress. The gap in the Kansas budget for fiscal year 2012 is now estimated at $550 million. In context, the general fund budget is around $6 billion, so the gap is about none percent of the budget. Fiscal year 2012 starts on July 1, 2011, and is the budget year the legislature will be working on when the session starts next week — although usually the real work on the budget is delayed until near the end of the session. It’s important to remember that the gap is the difference between projected revenues and desired or forecast spending. There’s nothing that says we have to spend what past plans call for.

    Education and Medicaid spending protected. Governor-elect Brownback said this week that education and Medicaid will be protected from budget cuts. Furthermore, there will be no tax increase. But these two budget items are such a huge portion of Kansas spending, it’s difficult to see where the governor will find room to create a balanced budget.

    Kansas school spending, constitutional issues discussed. Last Friday (New Years Eve) the Kansas 9.12 and Kansans for Liberty groups held an educational event and I made a presentation on Kansas school spending and ideas for reform. Video of my presentation is available at Vimeo. Other speakers included Larry Halloran on The Year Ahead, David Losey on states’ nullification rights, and Richard Fry on Article 3 Original Jurisdiction.

    Low interest rates and saving. Thomas A. Page, President of Emprise Bank in Wichita, recently wrote a letter to the Wichita Eagle in which he explained how government intervention in the economy has negative — and surely unintended — consequences: “Much has been written about the efforts of various federal agencies, specifically the Federal Reserve, to maintain interest rates at unprecedented low levels. The most frequent argument for these rates is that they will cause consumers and businesses to borrow more money, which will stimulate the economy by increasing demand. It’s not working — for many reasons. What has been ignored is the impact on the economy of lowered incomes for America’s savers, particularly retirees. Their incomes have been devastated and, consequently, so has their purchasing power.”

  • Kansas and Wichita quick takes: Monday December 27, 2010

    This week at Wichita City Council. This week, as is the usual practice for the fourth Tuesday of each month, the agenda for the Wichita City Council features only consent items. These consent items are thought — at least by someone — to be of routine and non-controversial nature, and the council votes on them in bulk as a single item, unless a council member wishes to “pull” an item for discussion and possibly a separate vote. One such consent item is “Payment for Settlement of Claim — Estate of Christopher Perkins.” As Brent Wistrom reports in the Wichita Eagle’s, Wichitopekington blog, “A police car en route to an emergency call smashed into a Saturn coup last December, killing the coup’s 30-year-old driver, Christopher Perkins. Perkins’ family filed a negligence claim, and, on Tuesday, Wichita City Council members will vote to settle the case for $300,000.” The agenda packet is at Wichita City Council, December 28, 2010. … Also, the city will vote whether to spend $400,000 for an analysis of nine aging fire stations and what repairs and upgrades they might require. Whatever work is found to be necessary would cost much more, presumably. The cost of the analysis is being paid for by borrowing money through general obligation bonds. … Usually these “fourth Tuesday” meetings are followed by a workshop, but as of this moment, no agenda is available. … The Sedgwick County Commission will not meet this week.

    Kansas schools’ unspent funds. Perhaps this will be the year in which Kansas schools — along with other state agencies — will publicly confront the reality of their budgets and unspent funds. Kansas Watchdog takes a look on Truth Emerging on Unencumbered K-12 Education Funds .

    Which Brownback will govern? The Lawrence Journal-World looks at the future of incoming Kansas Governor Sam Brownback and wonders how he will govern. Perhaps the most telling observation is that of Wichita State University professor H. Edward Flentje: “Then Brownback got elected to Congress as a budget-taming conservative, Flentje said. But the budget couldn’t be tamed, and Brownback morphed into the social conservative for which he is most well-known, or, as Flentje describes it, ‘wearing his faith in the public square.’” So now I’m wondering: Can this year’s Kansas budget be tamed? … On the role of national politics: “Kansas University political science professor Burdett Loomis said that although Brownback is known for his social conservative views, he may be moderated somewhat by national aspirations.”

    Rapidly rising costs at Kansas Universities criticized. Tuition at our state’s two flagship universities — The University of Kansas and Kansas State University have risen much faster than inflation, writes John R. LaPlante, educational policy fellow the Kansas Policy Institute in a letter to the Topeka Capital-Journal. Rapidly rising administrative costs are one reason, he writes. But costs can be controlled: “Cutting administrative expenses isn’t just a nice thing to do, it is possible. Iowa State, Texas A&M and the University of Missouri actually reduced their administrative expenses. It should be no surprise that they had smaller tuition increases than every other university in the conference, save Texas Tech.”

    States and their pension problems. George Will in the Washington Post writing on the problem with under-funded state employee pension plans: “The nation’s menu of crises caused by governmental malpractice may soon include states coming to Congress as mendicants, seeking relief from the consequences of their choices. Congress should forestall this by passing a bill with a bland title but explosive potential.” Will goes on to describe a bill in Congress that would mandate transaprency of just how bad the problem is: H.R. 6484: Public Employee Pension Transparency Act. … In Kansas, efforts to merely describe the severity of the problem result in attacks on the messenger. In Wichita, the head of Service Employees International Union Local (SEIU) 513 appeared before the board of USD 259, the Wichita public school district, in order to denounce the reports and what he claimed where the political motives behind it. See video at KPERS report sparks backlash from Wichita SEIU.

    Airport security found lacking. From the ABC News report Gaping Holes in Airline Security: Loaded Gun Slips Past TSA Screeners: “But the TSA did miss [the loaded gun], and despite what most people believe about the painstaking effort to screen airline passengers and their luggage before they enter the terminal, it was not that unusual. Experts tell ABC News that every year since the September 11 terror attacks, federal agencies have conducted random, covert “red team tests,” where undercover agents try to see just how much they can get past security checks at major U.S. airports. And while the Department of Homeland Security closely guards the results as classified, those that have leaked in media reports have been shocking.”

    Compact strategy against Obamacare outlined. From the Weekly Standard: “An issue of interest to two or more states can lead to a compact. It works this way: State legislatures approve a proposal, the states agree on the parts of mutual concern (such as buying insurance across state lines), then the compact is dispatched to Washington for ratification by Congress and the president (though the need for White House assent isn’t spelled out in the Constitution). Ratification turns the compact into federal law. However, there’s a bigger reason for forming a compact against Obamacare. By banding together, states would have far more political clout in Washington.”