Category: Opinions

Column: Legislators to face tough session

Views West
Opinion column

by Murrel Bland

Kansas state legislators are going to face some hard choices when they meet early next year for the 2017 session.

State government, headed by Gov. Sam Brownback, continues to come up short as revenue estimates fall short. Three of the state’s major industries, oil, agriculture and aircraft manufacturing are all down. This has caused a severe shortage of revenue.

This is the message that the Legislative Committee of the Kansas City, Kan., Area Chamber of Commerce heard Friday, Oct 14. Shawn Sullivan, the director of budget and business processes for the state of Kansas, spoke to the committee via a teleconference.

“Average growth of tax receipts going back to the 1990s has been 3.2 percent per year,” Sullivan said. “Tax receipts have grown by 1.1 percent per year since fiscal year 2014. “
Sullivan said that crude oil production was down 25.8 percent compared to last year. He also said during 2015, annual net farm income dropped from $120,000 to $4,568. This is a time when aircraft manufacturing, longtime a major employer in Wichita and in other areas of Kansas, is down.

The total current state budget is about $16 billion. However, about $10 billion of that amount is from federal sources that goes to such areas as transportation and Medicaid. That leaves about $6 billion that state legislators control in the state general fund. Of that amount, about 62 percent goes to education.

Gov. Brownback, along with his ultra-conservative legislators, led the effort to exempt small businesses from state income tax—the so-called “LLC loophole.” The governor’s political opponents, such as State Sen. Anthony Hensley, a Democrat from Topeka, blamed the governor’s tax policy for the tax shortfall. The governor and his conservative allies blame the tax woes on the lack of revenue from agriculture, aviation and oil.

To make things worse, the Legislature will most likely be faced with a decision from the Kansas Supreme Court to come up with more money for education. In the meantime, the ultra-conservative folks want to remove four of the five Supreme Court justices. The justices are up for a retention vote in the Nov. 8 general election.

Kansas voters, particularly those in Johnson County, ousted several of the ultra-conservative Republican legislators in the recent primary election. Moderate candidates argued that the “LLC loophole” was what was hurting the funding for education. Even if this loophole is closed, it may not be enough to fund education, according to the court’s decision. Then the Legislature will be faced with either raising taxes or cutting state services, or both.

Murrel Bland is the former editor of The Wyandotte West and The Piper Press. He is the executive director of Business West.

Bar and grill opens near 74th and State

by William Crum

The new Mason Jar Brews and Burgers, 941 N. 74th Drive in Kansas City, Kan., is truly a winner. I have heard about this restaurant earlier from other people in the community.

What a great experience. When I entered, my server waited on me, and I asked what she likes. One item which she suggested was the steak stack – pastrami, steak and cheese on marble rye bread. This sandwich is so good it melts in your mouth. My server was a Turner graduate who has plans of going into microbiology. She is phenomenal and very knowledgeable, the best I have seen in a long time.

The menu, for starters, has pretzel sticks and brat wedges, just to name a couple. They have different types of wings including honey chipotle, grilled barbecue, and traditional hot wings.

The Mason Jar has some of the best burgers ever made.

One of their specialty items is prime rib with garlic mashed potatoes, which is reasonably priced.

When I went there it was on Friday night, and it was when they started getting busy. I was amazed how clean this place was even when they are busy.

The restaurant was started by Cliff Dale, who is from Kansas City, Kan. Dale wanted to get into the restaurant business. The site, on 74th Drive a little south of State Avenue, was formerly the Sports Page restaurant and bar.

I give the Mason Jar five stars for excellence, for service, cleanness, product quality, and an easy to read and understand menu. This place is great. It’s a place where you can take the whole family. I personally want to thank the management team and my server, who made me feel welcome. Will I be back? You can count on it. Give it a try for yourself.

For more information, visit http://www.masonjarkc.com/. The restaurant’s hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday.

Taking a swing at campaign 2016

Window on the West
Opinion column
by Mary Rupert

Some comments on the news:

An almost-unprecedented tour by former Kansas governors, both Democrats and Republicans, took place recently, according to news reports.

The former governors are urging voters to choose to retain four Kansas Supreme Court justices. A campaign has started by a conservative group to oust the justices because the group was unhappy with some rulings.

It has always seemed to me that a campaign to oust judges because of their rulings is a little bit like a little kid who gets mad at the umpire because the batter struck out. He blames someone else for his own failure. When the batter starts admitting that he is at fault for striking out, then he can start making progress toward improving his batting, resulting in a better batting average. But if he blames someone else, he is unlikely to get better.

The same goes for lawyers who are losing cases. I guess some people must think that if they appoint their pals as judges, who might share their conservative viewpoints, they won’t lose as many cases. It doesn’t sound fair and impartial.

A survey of lawyers and judges found substantial support for retention of the judges in Kansas who are being challenged by conservatives this year. The survey is found at http://www.kansasjudgereview.org/retention-opinion-summaries-for-all-justices-and-judges.html.

While I object to the ouster campaign against the judges, I would not object, however, if the losing side decided to try to hire the best attorneys who they kept losing to.

How many jobs will Amazon have?

Earlier this week, Amazon held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new facility at the Turner Diagonal and Riverview Avenue in Kansas City, Kan.

One of the Amazon officials at the groundbreaking said there would be more than 1,000 jobs provided there. The Unified Government newsletter later reported there would be more than 1,500 jobs. I’m not sure how many there will be, but it is possible the number will fluctuate.

A knowledgeable source tells me that a similar Amazon facility in the Greater Kansas City area provides mostly part-time jobs to workers, and many of the jobs are seasonal, ramping up before the holidays, then tapering off afterward. The source tells me that the other facility might be viewed as an excellent supplemental job for some people who already have other jobs.

When I attend a meeting, groundbreaking or similar event, sometimes I am thinking about something slightly different than the rest of the crowd. At the Amazon groundbreaking, I wondered whether there was a quorum of the UG Commission present, possibly making it an official UG public meeting.

There were five UG Commissioners introduced, along with the mayor, at the groundbreaking. Six is the number of minimum votes required to pass the average resolution at UG meetings. At a meeting in August, the mayor voted the sixth vote with only five other commissioners voting. UG rules state that the mayor can be considered a member of the commission in order to determine a quorum, and that six people constitute a quorum, including the mayor.

Since you asked …

The Unified Government spokesman recently asked by email if I had any opinions about the UG website, www.wycokck.org, since they will be revamping the website. They are taking a survey about it, and the survey can be found on the website.

Yes, I have some opinions about it. Generally I try to work with whatever system various organizations have in place, and the availability of information will affect the speed with which we can get the information to the readers, and even whether it is reported at all.

But since you asked, I will share some of my opinions. In no way are my opinions meant to take away from all the work the UG has done previously to improve open data and access to information. I appreciate any steps toward more openness. My opinion is that there is a lot of information that is on the UG’s website, but it is not always what I am looking for. The way it works now, information sometimes may be more easily available to those news organizations that have a larger staff, more money to ask hire staff to visit these offices in person to look at records.

The methods of obtaining information have changed a lot since I first started in this field around 40 years ago. It was once common practice to go to an office and look at a record, or call an official to get the information, and a lot of us are continuing this practice. But more and more, everything is computerized and online.

I am of the opinion that information should be free and easily accessible to the public on the UG’s website. That is in keeping with the philosophy of the state’s open records law, which says that government information is considered public unless there is an exception. Under this philosophy, government information is not proprietary, not owned by the government, but owned by the people, who should have access to the information that taxes are paying for.

From my standpoint, the UG agenda is one of the best parts of the UG website, and is usually available in detail. There have been a couple of weeks lately when “blue sheet” last-minute changes were made to the agenda, and then those changes were not placed on the agenda online before the meeting. They were available to those who attended the meeting in person, but not to those who were watching online or on the UG’s cable channel.

The real estate records online are also one of the good points of the UG’s website.

I would like to click on the KCK Police Department or Fire Department on the UG website and easily find the latest police reports or fire reports available for free to the public. There is no reason to hide them or to charge for them. There is a pretty good state standard based on state law that outlines what parts of the police reports are public information, and what parts of the form are not public information, so I think the public parts of the police reports should be more accessible.

Many police and fire departments also place their news releases online, easily available for the public to find, and have other online information available. For example, Edwardsville, Kan., currently is placing its police blotter online, and it is fairly easy to find. The Kansas Highway Patrol and the Missouri State Highway Patrol place their accident reports online, fairly easy to find.

I would like to click on Wyandotte County District Court and find the latest case information available for free, similar to the Shawnee County District Court website, or Missouri Casenet at www.courts.mo.gov/casenet. These are public courts, and I don’t believe people should be charged to see electronic records that have to be produced, anyway. To charge for access or documents gives the edge to those news organizations that have a bigger budget. I realize that the Wyandotte County District Court is a state office, not a local office, and it is not controlled by the UG, but it has a page on the UG’s website.

The Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Office’s bookings and releases page is helpful, yet there are so many people listed by alphabetical order that I feel it would be more helpful to break these listings down to the date that people are booked and released, similar to the Johnson County Sheriff’s bookings and releases page. People could see at a glance who was booked on a certain day, or released.

Most of the UG’s older news releases are not easy to find by anyone who is new to the website. There should be a button on the front UG webpage to direct people to the news releases – you can find this feature on many of the other county and city websites. The latest news releases are often posted on the front page of the UG’s website and are accessible.

To reach Mary Rupert, editor, email [email protected].