The Wyandotte County Third Saturday Democratic Breakfast Saturday, May 19, will feature some candidates for the Democratic nomination for Kansas governor.
The breakfast begins with a buffet at 8:15 a.m. followed by the program at 9 a.m. at Las Islas Marias, 7516 State Ave., Kansas City, Kansas.
Scheduled to speak at the breakfast are three candidates for governor, Carl Brewer, former Wichita mayor; Josh Svaty, former state representative and state agriculture secretary; and Michael Tabman, retired FBI special agent in charge and news commentator.
Three other candidates for governor, Laura Kelly, a state senator; Jim Ward, a state representative; and Dr. Arden Andersen, spoke at the April breakfast meeting. Since then, Rep. Ward has withdrawn from the race.
The cost of the buffet is $10, or $6 for students and those on limited income. Reservations are requested to [email protected] by Friday, May 18, for those planning to attend. It is not necessary to RSVP, but it is encouraged. It is not necessary to purchase a breakfast to listen to the program.
The meeting is open to all Democrats, and all Democratic candidates may distribute campaign literature and signs before and after the program.
The Unified Government Commission voted unanimously Thursday night to put the renewal of a three-eighths cent sales tax for public safety and neighborhood infrastructure on the Aug. 7 ballot.
The three-eighths of a cent sales tax currently generates about $10 million a year for the UG, according to UG documents.
The dedicated three-eighths cent sales tax was originally passed in 2010 and will expire in 2020, UG Administrator Doug Bach told the commission tonight. If approved at the polls this year, it would continue at the same three-eighths cent rate from 2020 through 2030.
A “yes” vote at the polls would not result in a tax increase, as residents already are paying the same amount of sales tax, according to Bach.
Bach told the commission three-eighths cent sales tax for public safety and infrastructure passed in 2010 with 70 percent support of the voters. It applies only to the city of Kansas City, Kansas, he added.
He said the three-eighths sales tax has resulted in $54 million in revenues so far, and is expected to reach $80 million by 2020.
The issue is coming up now because the UG is currently planning its 2019 budget, and wants to know what will be happening as it starts to plan for 2020, he said.
Bach said this benefits residents by putting more of the tax burden on retail sales and less on property taxes. He added that the Village West area receives 12 million visitors a year, and the sales tax is paid by tourists and visitors, benefiting all Kansas City, Kansas, residents.
When the bonds were paid off at Village West at the end of 2016, $1.5 million and more came from the sales taxes in that area.
The current sales tax in Kansas City, Kansas is 9.125 percent, he said. There are additional sales taxes in some designated areas here. Most, about 6.25 percent, goes to the state of Kansas. One cent goes to the county, one cent to the city, one-fourth cent goes for EMS services, and three-eighths of a cent goes for public safety and infrastructure, he said.
Bach said if a person purchased a large pizza for $15, this three-eighths of a cent sales tax would result in 6 cents, and if the person purchased $100 worth of groceries, a three-eighths of a cent sales tax would result in 38 cents.
Currently, the proceeds of this special sales tax are divided in three parts, with about $3.9 million to fire operations, $3.3 million to neighborhood infrastructure, and $3.9 million for police, he said.
This sales tax has funded 25 police and 25 fire jobs, and also has purchased fire trucks, police cars, and will go toward funding police car cameras and body cameras, according to Bach. Neighborhood street and park projects have taken place throughout the city.
Bach noted that a community survey taken recently showed that residents were in line with these spending priorities. Residents’ top concern was street maintenance, and police services were ranked as the second priority, he said.
There was no opposition from the commission tonight to the sales tax ordinance.
Commissioner Brian McKiernan said residents are already paying this sales tax and he was very much in favor of continuing it. It has been in place for 10 years and will not represent any additional taxes, he said.
Commissioner Gayle Townsend discussed how some of the neighborhood infrastructure funds were being used by the commissioners to pay for Community Neighborhood Improvement Projects, including specific projects such as improving sidewalks and ball fields.
Commissioner Melissa Bynum said she would like to see the CNIP discussed at a future meeting.
The wording on the Aug. 7 ballot, according to the ordinance passed tonight, will be: “Shall the following be adopted?
“Shall the City of Kansas City, Kansas, be authorized to impose an additional three-eighths of one percent citywide retailers’ sales tax the proceeds of which shall be used for the purposes of financing public safety and neighborhood infrastructure, including the construction, repair, and maintenance of roads, curbs, and sidewalks, the collection of such Sales Tax commencing on July 1, 2020, or as soon thereafter as permitted by law, and terminating ten years after its commencement?”
More information on the sales tax may be found at www.wycokck.org/salestax.
In other action, the commission approved a second amendment to the Legends Parking Garage development agreement. According to the UG’s economic development director, it includes some new language clarifying penalties for not meeting local, minority and women business requirements.
To see more of this UG meeting, visit the YouTube video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03SDgLjNH0g.
Tony Martinez, a Kansas City, Kansas, attorney, is a candidate for Wyandotte County District Court judge, Division 5.
The position is open this year as Judge Dexter Burdette is retiring. Also running for Division 5 are Jane Sieve Wilson and Mike Nichols. Martinez also ran for judge in the 2016 election.
Martinez emphasized his 27 years of experience as an attorney, handling criminal law, juvenile, family law, probate, trust and estate cases. He said he wanted to give back to the community.
His two main themes in running for office are that he is very qualified, and it is important to have more diversity on the bench, he said. Currently there are no Hispanic judges in the Wyandotte County District Court.
“This is my community, and I think I can serve this community very well as a judge, as well as I’ve served this community as an attorney,” Martinez said. He held a campaign launch event recently at the Kansas City Kansas Community College Mary Ann Flunder Lodge by the Lake.
He has always worked for the people, not for the corporations, coming back to serve the community in the best way possible, he added.
“I also believe there is a need for more diversity on the bench, and I think I represent the face for that,” Martinez said.
Martinez, originally from the Armourdale, Argentine and Rosedale areas, is from a second-generation Mexican-American family in Kansas City, Kansas.
“I believe I represent the best there is to come out of Kansas City, Kansas,” he said.
“My parents were hard-scrabble, hard-working people,” he said. One grandfather started as a meat-cutter, another grandfather worked for the railroad, his father was a teamster and his mother was a mill worker, he said.
Martinez received his law degree from Washburn University, Topeka. He attended several schools and graduated from Bishop O’Hara High School in south Kansas City, Missouri.
He began work before he got out of high school, starting at age 14 working in a grain elevator near 18th and Kansas Avenue, he said.
It was that job that eventually led to him becoming a lawyer. He worked for years shoveling at the grain elevator when his employer recommended that he go to work in the company’s laboratory in Topeka, he said.
After a while, his employer convinced him to further his education, and he went to law school.
“I was lucky enough to have him push me,” Martinez said. “I was encouraged by some really nice people who thought I had the ability to think.”
Martinez said he worked his way through law school, paying for it himself.
If elected, Martinez said he would want to streamline the process by which the court accepts cases, to bring about more of a scheduled way of accepting and disposing of cases.
Criminal cases represent only 10 percent of the cases judges handle, he said. While he has not been a prosecutor, he has handled criminal law from the defense side. He said he is more qualified, practicing law longer than the other candidates, and he has handled all the other types of cases.
“There needs to be more of a transition so all the judges know how to handle all the different types of cases,” Martinez said.
Besides his experience in most areas of the law, Martinez has served as a judge pro tem in Municipal Court.
“We have a population that’s culturally so diverse here in Wyandotte County,” he said, “it’s densely populated with a diverse background.”
Three groups, whites, blacks and Hispanics, are nearly equal in population.
“There isn’t any face that looks like mine on the bench,” he said. It’s important to have a bench that reflects the culturally diverse population, he said. Young Hispanic people wonder if they can ever become a lawyer or judge if there are none there that look like them.
“I’d like to be one of those faces in the community, where Hispanics and all people can say, we have a diverse bench that reflects the community,” he said. “We don’t have that yet, but I’d like to see it.”
Martinez and his wife, Angela, have been married 21 years. He has five children and four grandchildren.
He serves on the executive boards of the Kansas City, Kansas, Rotary Club, the Kansas City, Kansas, NAACP, and the Armourdale Renewal Association. He also is a member of the Greater Kansas City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Kansas City, Kansas, Downtown Shareholders.
