Tag: Wichita city government
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Problems with Wichita’s Economic Forecasts
On October 7, 2008, the Center for Economic Development and Business Research at Wichita State University released a glowing economic forecast for the near future in Wichita. Events immediately following the release of this report, however, illustrate just how hard it is to forecast economic conditions. When policymakers rely on these reports, bad decisions are…
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What? Wichita’s Air Service Subsidy Isn’t Working?
Recently a travel and tourism expert visited Wichita and said (and I hesitate to repeat his exact words on this family-oriented blog) “Your air service sucks.” (See Tourism expert has frank tips for Kansas.) I’m more than a little distressed to hear that. Right now we spend $6.5 million per year in subsidy to low-cost…
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Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer’s Reformulated TIF Plan Still a Bad Idea
Today the Wichita City Council holds a special meeting to consider a reformulated plan to provide tax increment financing (TIF) for the area surrounding the downtown Wichita arena. It’s still a bad idea. It appears there are two major changes in the new plan. First, the TIF district is smaller. Second, spending on the district…
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City Council divvies up tax dollars for the arts
A Wichita Eagle news story today tells how City Council divvies up tax dollars for the arts. Can you imagine sitting through these meetings with people like Joan Cole and other members of the Arts Council as they decide who gets — and who doesn’t get — government largesse? I imagine that these people actually…
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Wichita’s new airport terminal: Has its time passed?
As shown in the accompanying chart, Wichita’s air traffic has been growing at a faster rate than the nation as a whole. Recently it has leveled off and even dropped. What will happen in the future? Almost no one has an optimistic outlook for airlines, and with the recent turmoil in the markets, the outlook…
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Should a Beat Journalist be a Layman?
Keeping TIFs from a public tiff by Wichita Eagle business reporter Bill Wilson on the Eagle’s Business Casual blog contains some comments that are troubling to me. In these comments, reporter Wilson wrote this: “Instead, a TIF, to this layman, actually is a government bet on the success of a development.” (emphasis added) Now I…
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Records Requests Sent Today
Today, I’ve made two records requests under the Kansas Open Records Act. The first, to USD 259, the Wichita public school district, is this: All correspondence between USD 259 and Schaefer Johnson Cox Frey Architecture and its representatives from July 1, 2007 to the present. I ask for both written and electronic correspondence such as…
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Wichita School District: TIF Action Tests Accountability and Ethics
The real problem with this TIF district, however, is the conduct of the applicant, who is a member of this board. At a meeting of the Wichita City Council, Reverend Harding told the council that he had informed his fellow school board members of what he was doing. But two members of this board have…
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Testimony before the USD 259 Wichita Public School board regarding the Ken Mar TIF
From John Todd. President Rogers, School Board Members, and Superintendent Libhart, I thank you for this opportunity to speak. My name is John Todd. I live at 1559 Payne in Wichita, Kansas, and I am opposed to the Ken Mar shopping center TIF that was created by the City of Wichita on August 12, 2008,…
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Are airlines pilots the best judge of airline economics?
I’m not positive about this, but I’m sure that the demand for air travel between Wichita and Oklahoma City is very low. Google maps tells me that the driving time from one city’s downtown to the other is two hours and 30 minutes. The drive to a city’s airport, arriving way early to make sure…
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Wichita Smoking Ban Starts. Sharon Fearey is Excited.
Today, September 4, 2008, marks the first day of the ban on smoking in Wichita. It’s not quite a total ban, and that has some smoking ban supporters upset. In a letter to the Wichita Eagle, anti-smoking activist Cindy Claycomb writes “If you are a supporter of clean indoor air, please do not spend your…
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Being Open and Transparent: A Sedgwick County Commissioner’s View
Yesterday (August 27, 2008) I testified briefly at a meeting of the Sedgwick County Commission opposing the formation of a tax increment financing (TIF) district that will benefit a Wichita political insider. My concern that I wanted the commissioners to be aware of is was that the applicant, Wichita school board member Reverend Kevass Harding,…