Wichita city government Archives - Page 144 of 146 Voice For Liberty

Mar

Let markets fund arts and culture

Writing from Miami, Florida Former Wichita City Council member and present Arts Council chairwoman Joan Cole wrote an article titled "City needs dedicated arts funding" that appeared in the March 16, 2006 Wichita Eagle. This article advocates continued and increased government funding for arts in Wichita. In her article Mrs. Cole mentions a policy that she seems to approve of: "Moreover, for the first time, performance measures and desired outcomes will be used to assess the progress that these organizations demonstrate." The organizations are the various groups that will receive funding from the City of Wichita. I do not know…

Feb

By Bob Weeks

AirTran subsidy is harmful

(This is a longer version of my opinion piece that appeared in The Wichita Eagle last week.) From the beginning, we in the Wichita area have been told each year that the AirTran subsidy was intended as a temporary measure, that soon AirTran would be able to stand on its own, and there will be no need to continue the subsidy. Mayor Mayans said as much last year, and so did City Manager Kolb this year. But State Senator Carolyn McGinn, R-Sedgwick, on a recent television program, may have made a revealing slip when she referred to the AirTran subsidy…

Jan

By Bob Weeks

Public Access, or lack there of

Dear Bob's Blog, I recently moved to wichita from chicago... a while b4 i decided to move I had completed my Comcast public access certification. Comcast is basicaly the equivalence to Cox here. Un / Fortunately I was unable to put it to any good use while in Chicago due to some circumstances.... however I was searchin around the web and came across your blog entry on the lack of public acess for the public here in wichita. I wondered if you had any luck with your letter and/or knew any sources of information on the subject. I would be…

Nov

By Bob Weeks

Local economic development in Wichita

Writing from Memphis, Tennessee Today's Wichita Eagle (November 5, 2005) tells us of a new economic development package that our local governments have given to induce a call center to locate in Wichita. The deal is described as "one of the biggest the two-year-old economic development coalition [Greater Wichita Economic Development Coalition] has landed." There is an interesting academic paper titled "The Failures of Economic Development Incentives," published in Journal of the American Planning Association, and which can be read here: www.planning.org/japa/pdf/04winterecondev.pdf. A few quotes from the study: Given the weak effects of incentives on the location choices of businesses…

Aug

By Bob Weeks

Consider carefully all costs of gambling in Wichita

In a free society dedicated to personal liberty, people should be able to gamble. But that's not what we have, as in a free society dedicated to personal liberty, people wouldn't be taxed to pay for the problems that others cause in the pursuit of their happiness. How does this relate to the issue of casino gambling in or near Wichita? There is a document titled "Economic & Social Impact Anlaysis [sic] For A Proposed Casino & Hotel" created by GVA Marquette Advisors for the Wichita Downtown Development Corporation and the Greater Wichita Convention and Visitors Bureau, dated April 2004.…

Aug

By Bob Weeks

How to decide arts funding

Writing from Miami, Fla. In an editorial in The Wichita Eagle on August 9, 2005, Randy Schofield wrote, explaining why government should support culture: "Because cultural amenities make Wichita a more desirable place to live, work and visit, and thus help realize Wichita's quality of life and economic development goals." We might examine some of the ideas and reasoning behind this statement. Do cultural amenities make Wichita more desirable? That's quite a judgment to make. Personally, I enjoy many of the music events held at Wichita State University. I look forward to attending the recitals in the Rie Bloomfield Organ…

Aug

By Bob Weeks

The misplaced morality of public officials

In Wichita some public officials, particularly mayor Carlos Mayans, are seeking to eliminate adult businesses and stores selling pornography. This focus on private morality lies in sharp contrast with government's large-scale acts of public immorality. If government allows people to gamble, look at nude dancers, or buy pornography and sex toys, it is not government that is "sinning" or acting immorally. Government is not requiring that we do these things. Government is merely allowing those who wish to do so to engage in these activities. But when government -- say the Wichita City Council -- takes the property of one…

Jul

By Bob Weeks

Privatization is good for Century II and Wichita

Opponents of privatization of Century II, including the website www.savecenturyii.org, seem to think that the operating procedure of a profit-making business is to place so many restrictions on the use of their product, and to raise the price so high, that no one uses it anymore. The reality is quite the opposite. For a business to make a profit and survive, it must provide a product or service that people want to pay for, and provide it with costs less than its price. What could be wrong with that? A few examples from www.savecenturyii.org illustrate common misperceptions: "These private management…

Jun

By Bob Weeks

Tax Abatements For All

Recently I wrote about the Mississippi Beef Plant (The Mississippi Beef Plant Has a Lesson For Us) and its spectacular costs to the taxpayers of Mississippi. I wondered if there were less spectacular failures that we didn't know about because they weren't reported in the news media. Failures in this context could mean a situation where the taxpayers have to make good on a bond or debt that the benefiting company didn't pay, or it could mean a situation where the company doesn't default, but fails to deliver on the promised economic development activity. In an article in the June…

May

By Bob Weeks

Where Is Our Public Access Cable Television?

This is a letter I am sending to Cox Communications, plus government officials who I think can help. Recently I was in Portland, Ore. I happened to notice that there was true public access cable television. I watched several talk shows covering a variety of topics. There were locally-produced music shows, featuring local bands. This experience caused me to wonder why Wichita doesn't have this type of community cable television access. I seem to remember that when cable television was new, that local governments were granted public access channels as part of the franchise agreement. In Wichita we have a…