Commentary

Two legislative coffees are planned Saturday, April 6, in Ellsworth County with Rep. Steven Johnson, R-Assaria, and Sen. Richard Wilborn, R-McPherson.

The legislators will be in Wilson at 8:30 a.m. at Grandma’s Soda Shop. They will be joined by Rep. Troy Waymaster, a Russell County Republican.

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Thank you, Ellsworth City

Letter to the Editor:

To Mayor Alan Stefek and the City Council, city administrator Scott Moore and the city street department, Thanks to all of you for your wonderful job of snow removal this past winter! It was a pleasure to leave the house on those very cold days to find the streets clean.

The people of the City of Ellsworth should be very proud of the snow removal that took place. Thank you for all of your efforts and great work!

Virgil and Connie Ranker

Ellsworth

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FROM OUR READERS

March 4, 2019, a Wall Street Journal article reported that the American Academy of Family Physicians political action committee had contributed a much larger sum of money to political candidates that earned an “F” rating by the National Rifle Association than candidates with an “A” rating.

One might find such contributions reasonable given human cost in the number of deaths and injuries attributed to firearms every year. Add to that an estimated economic cost of hundreds of billions of dollars a year, depending on how one tabulates the data. Taxpayers pick up much if not most of the tab, including the cost of the recent active shooter in-service at USD 327 reported on three weeks ago in the Indy.

Dear Editor

The Ellsworth Kiwanis Club gives a big “THANK YOU” to everyone for your donations to the Kiwanis Splash Pad.

We have successfully raised all the money needed to build the Splash Pad, water features and mechanicals. With weather warming up, you’ll be seeing lots of progress in the near future in Preisker Park.

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It’s been a grueling winter. We’ve had record snowfalls in parts of Kansas, and cabin fever has taken its toll on all of us.

The time has come for a hearty dose of sunshine.

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During the terrible farm crisis of the 1980s, those of us who wrote about agriculture often heard the same story from farmers and others with a feel for the industry.

“Farming is more than a business,” a farmer or rancher on the verge of losing his operation would tell us.

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LET’S TALK

It sure feels like we’re working awfully hard to not work very hard in Topeka.

Throughout the last two months, it has become clear that there’s an effort to create the illusion of activity while accomplishing virtually nothing. I think the corporate world calls this “busy work.” Despite repeated assurances that the Kansas Legislature is a place where “good ideas bubble up to the surface,” the only bubbles I see are those of good ideas struggling to breathe while a handful of people hold them underwater.

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The following article gives reason for concern and one reason why I push for lower sales tax on food. Saturday at a legislative forum in Salina, I heard legislators express concern, willingness and need to lower the corporate tax burden. I heard little willingness to lower the tax burden on those at the bottom of the food chain. The article below gives substance to my concerns regarding state fiscal policies that reflect little concern for those people. Granted the article is based on national figures, but I suspect the trends described are reflected in Kansas as well. Saturday I heard how much a one percent decrease in sales tax on food would cost the state in revenue. A sales tax decrease lightens the burden on those most in need while an increase in income tax increases the burden on those best able to bear it. Sure seems fair to me.

Independent Ellsworth County Reporter I would like to submit a plan for USD 112 consideration: Operate two K-through-12 schools in the district. If this becomes unsustainable; and a request is made, agree to release either school from the district; with buildings, contents, share of debt, share of funds and original tax base area; to operate on their own or to consolidate with another district. Chuck Crawford Wilson

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Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly visited the recent Kansas Press Association convention in Topeka. Her remarks were brief — yet she hit all the right notes. Transparency. Common sense. Moving the state forward.

What a difference a few years can make.

“Remember when Sam Brownback was here?” a friend whispered as Kelly spoke.

It was after the infamous income tax cuts, a policy that continues to haunt the state even after its repeal. Brownback was at the KPA convention — not as governor — but to support his father-in-law, who was inducted into the Kansas Newspaper Hall of Fame that year.

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