Priorities and Key Issues
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There's a lovely park just down the street from your house. Your kids go there to play all the time. One of your neighbors doesn't like the park, doesn't like who plays there. They petition the city to build a new park just for their kids to play in, so they don't have play with “those kids”
School vouchers in a nutshell. I'm all for private schools. As long as they're PRIVATE. Your choice to send your children there rather than public school. In Iowa where they enacted vouchers, 80% of the filers for the vouchers were already sending their kids to private schools. But for the last 3 years they're getting paid back, by tax dollars. They spent 200 million the second year, projected 300 million the third. 32 new private schools opened. Why? There's money to be made. 16 public schools closed.
Arizona was the first, budgeted at 65 million. It was over 330 million. Projected to be 420 million this year.
We cannot follow this path. Kansas in the past has been a exemplary example of teaching our children. World class universities, an extensive Community college system, and well run school districts. It has slipped in the last 10 years under a republican supermajority. Budgets have been slashed, teacher salaries are at a low, all attempts to make “vouchers” seem like a good choice. Break the program, then yell about that it doesn't work.
I will be a stalwart advocate for education. And a fierce opponent of vouchers.
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SEK, Kansas, and The US as a whole is in a housing crisis. There's not enough, it's too expensive, it's almost impossible for the generation coming into the workforce now to buy a house. The American dream of home ownership is slipping.
The problem is especially bad in regions like ours, small cities and counties without the resources to create new housing. Developers ignore our areas, there's no profit to be made. New middle income housing is almost non existent.
In my tenure as City Commissioner this has been my primary focus. We instituted a Land Bank. The Land Bank receives property from owners who no longer want it. It then repurposes to a new owner who will renovate, demolish or otherwise improve it, returning it active tax roll status. We've had several houses taken from disaster to neighborhood gem, vacant parcels taken to give an adjacent house a bigger yard. We've been actively demolishing unsafe houses across the town, when no other option is available.
We've actively pursued developers for new housing for almost 4 years. Right now we are have one of the first 3d printed houses in the state under way.
Say a new manufacturer looks at your area. They need 100 employees. If they do come in, where will this new workforce live? If you don't have the housing, or the people, they will move on. It's a catch 22.
You can't attract new business, not enough people. Not enough people because there's no place to live. Currently in my home city of Parsons more than half the work force commutes in every day. We don't have the housing to hold them. This is one area the state needs to step up to the plate. Only the state has the resources to enable small districts like ours to attract developers. Programs to make middle income housing a profitable opportunity for them. This needs to be a program focused on small rural communities and counties.
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The Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court in 2010 has had a catastrophic effect on our elections. It unleashed a flood of money mostly from corporations supporting candidates and issues aligned with their interests. Which almost never aligned with what was good for the people. We've seen 10's of thousands spent on school board elections, county and city commissioners, small local races which have never seen anything like this. That's not to mention the 10's of millions spent on state legislative, congressional and Presidential races. The oligarchs of tech and industry are leveraging their massive fortunes to the detriment of our democratic republic.
There is a way out. Corporations are creations of the state. Each individual state. Even though most are incorporated in Delaware, when they come to do business in Kansas they get a license issued by the state. So they're still under Kansas jurisdiction. Hawaii has shown the way, with legislation that stops corporate spending. It passed unanimously. 14 other states are working on versions of this. It will be challenged in court, but it's a step in cracking the huge money control of our elections.
I will be an advocate for Kansas to enact similar legislation. Too long has Kansas politics been dominated by a few large companies and outside special interest groups.
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Property Taxes. Everybody hates them. Especially your elected representatives who have to not only pay them, they have to figure out how to pay for the services you need from them. Property taxes are the lifeblood of Cities, Counties, School districts, Fire districts, Law Enforcement, every part of your local government. There are only a few traditional ways property tax revenues increase:
Raise the mill levy. By far the most unpopular.
Increase the valuation of the total properties. Unpopular also, but is driven by market forces. As value increases, property tax increases.
Increase the number or type of taxable properties in the district. This is the hardest, and the best way. More businesses, more housing, more valuable property being developed.
As city commissioner over the last 7 years, we've made minimal changes to our mill levy, which I'm proud of. Last year we actually decreased it.
But the current system is flawed. You're penalized for making your house better. Add a deck, increases the value. Pave your driveway, increases the value. There's a better way, called Land Use tax. It separates the value of the land from what's on it. There are 2 valuations, your land, and your house. We split the taxes between the two, 50/50. The value of the house is locked at the current rate, until it's sold. You can make any renovations you like without penalty. The property rate can be changed to reflect needs of the government. What this does is shift the burden. All that vacant property that out of state speculators are sitting on now become significant sources of income, as it's now valued like the land under your house. Of course the ag exemptions will stay in place. Your burden will drop, as more of the bill is now paid elsewhere. It's not a quick fix, it will take time and a complete rethink of how we tax.
This can has been kicked down the road too long. It's a tough, hard problem. Everything Topeka has done so far has just made life harder for your local government. Did nothing to alleviate the burden. I will get the conversation started for a fundamental rethink of how we raise funds for your essential services.
If you want a clear explanation, here's a link to Chuck from Strong Towns explaining more clearly.
