Voice For Liberty

Search results for: “"school fund" balances”

  • Kansas OpenGov: Here’s the Kansas data

    KansasOpenGov.org provides an easy-to-access repository of data about Kansas state and local governments, giving citizens the data they need to hold officials accountable.

    KansasOpenGov.org is a project of the Kansas Policy Institute. Recently I spoke to KPI President Dave Trabert and received a demonstration of the website and some ways it can be used.

    On its opening page, KansasOpenGov.org displays a map of Kansas, showing the county boundaries. As you roll the pointer over each county, data about taxes and population appears. Clicking on a county displays a table of tax and population data for the last 12 years.

    Many subject areas of KansasOpenGov.org allow you to search the database in your own way, but also provide pre-defined reports and charts that can be accessed with one click. For example, under “Pay and Benefits” there are two such reports, showing state employees earning $100,000 or more, and another showing overtime pay.

    The overtime pay report holds some interesting numbers, as shown in the accompanying video walkthrough. Some employees are earning a lot in overtime. Trabert said: “When government says we couldn’t possibly spend any less — as we heard from the governor and others in the last session in order to justify a tax increase — when you have people who sit behind desks such as planners and program consultants earning over $30,000 in overtime — it begs the question: How close are you looking?”

    High overtime expenses may mean that agencies should look to hire additional employees rather than paying expensive overtime. Some jobs, such as highway patrol officers, are stressful, and high overtime earnings may mean employees are working long hours. This may be unfair to them as well as unproductive.

    Another subject area of KansasOpenGov.org is school district revenue and spending. This data is supplied by the Kansas State Department of Education, which in turn gets data from school districts. The “District Comparison Tool” displays two charts, side-by-side, and visitors can select different districts to be shown in each chart.

    KansasOpenGov.org has added some additional data, such as an indication for each school district as to whether it has joined Schools for Fair Funding, the organization that is suing the state for more funding. This allows users to compare these schools with all schools. Interestingly, the SFFF schools receive substantially more state and federal funding (on a per-pupil basis) than the statewide average for all Kansas schools. The SFFF schools receive less local funding, however. But overall, they received more funding than the average school district.

    Other insight that can be found at KansasOpenGov.org is the fact that schools increased their contingency fund balances last year at the same time they laid off teachers and other staff. Again, this lead Trabert to question the claims of spenders, this time the schools: “What we want to show is that when people say we can’t spend any less, you’re hurting the kids, and they’re asking for a tax increase: taxpayers have the right to know the facts. … The state has the right to justify the spending, but people don’t get a chance to ask for the justification if they don’t know the facts.”

    Growth in Kansas property taxesGrowth in Kansas property taxes. Click for a larger view.

    The section on property taxes lets visitors create charts for each county showing the growth in taxes, inflation, and population. For most counties, and for the state as a whole, taxes increase much faster than inflation or population.

    Some of the data the system makes available requires additional explanation. For example, looking at the state’s checkbook shows a check written by the treasurer for $269,940,000.00 with the notation “DEFEASED DEBT – PRINCIPAL PAYMENTS.” This language — provided to KansasOpenGov.org by the state — certainly needs explanation.

    In other cases, some of the data the state supplies may be misleading at first glance. For example, a look at employees of the Legislature and their pay shows one member of the Kansas House of Representatives being paid over $106,000 in one year — way more than legislators actually earn. But this person also has another state job, and the two pay sources are combined in the data the state supplies.

    KansasOpenGov.org lets users download most data to spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel, which means that the data can be further analyzed and presented.

  • Harm of NCLB to be eclipsed

    By Dr. Walt Chappell, member, Kansas State Board of Education.

    Recent ads in Kansas newspapers have told the truth about the unacceptable level of reading and math scores for Kansas students. Yet, for Diane DeBacker, the State Education Commissioner, and education lobbyists to continue to deny these documented results from Kansas schools is a disservice to our students, their parents and taxpayers. This massive cover-up has gone on for years and needs to stop.

    All outside indicators of how well our schools are doing show that the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandates have been a major disaster and a tremendous waste of taxpayer money. Our students are not dumb plus our teachers and school administrators are doing what they have been told. But, largely due to these bureaucratic regulations, most students who graduate from American’s schools have not been taught the employable skills needed to compete for jobs in the global economy.

    This is not just a Kansas problem. Anyone willing to look at the facts can clearly see that major changes must take place in what and how we teach America’s children the concepts and skills they need to be productive adults. Yet, the Federal and State education bureaucrats and their lobbyists keep claiming that there is nothing wrong with public education — just give them more money to spend.

    Since the Montoy court decision in 2005, the Kansas legislature has appropriated $1 billion more for schools. But for the past 10 years, NAEP, ACT and SAT test scores still show that only about one-third of our students are “proficient.” With this new money, Kansas school districts hired over 6,000 new employees. And, since 2005, they had accumulated $868 million in unspent cash balances — an increase of 90 percent. Clearly, spending more tax dollars is not the answer to higher student achievement.

    In Kansas and the nation, one in four students do not graduate. Of those who do graduate and go to college, over 30 percent need remediation. Only half finish college yet most end up with huge student loans to repay — whether they earned a degree, can find a job, or not.

    A national commission has reported that 30 percent of high school graduates do not score high enough on aptitude tests to qualify to join the military. And, since the NCLB emphasis is only on teaching and testing reading and math, few students graduate with knowledge or skills for any other career.

    Clearly, the NCLB mandates from federal bureaucrats are failing to prepare our students and putting our teachers in a “no win” position of “teaching to the test.” But, the majority of the State Board has “rubber stamped” Diane DeBacker, the Kansas Commissioner of Education’s request that Kansas schools comply with the new Federal mandate to replace the Kansas standards with something new called the “Common Core Standards,” or CSS.

    However, there is no research to show that CCS will improve student achievement or that they are more relevant to what students need to learn. Yet, like NCLB, they will force teachers in every school to focus primarily on just reading and math so students can pass computerized national tests — which will replace the state assessments. As a result, there will be less time to teach all other subjects such as science, technology and careers.

    CCS are an unfunded federal mandate which will cost Kansas taxpayers millions of dollars to implement. These “new” standards were written by unknown, unelected, and unaccountable academics who have close ties to private publishing companies which will make billions of dollars of profits at the taxpayers, students and teachers expense. As a result, no Kansas elected official will be allowed to make key decisions about what and how students are taught in any K-12 school.

    The Kansas legislature and local school boards need to be strong and say “enough of this nonsense.” NCLB has not worked and CCS will be more of the same — but worse.

    Our students and nation are at risk of losing much of what previous generations have worked hard to achieve. Let’s put an end to the federal NCLB and CCS in Kansas schools, and let our teachers teach the employable skills our students need to earn a living wage and keep America strong.

    More information that Chappell has gathered may be found at his website, Walt Chappell: Main Issues.

  • Occupy Koch Town protestors ignore facts

    Below, Paul Soutar of Kansas Watchdog provides more evidence that the campaign against Wichita-based Koch Industries regarding their alleged involvement in the Keystone XL pipeline is not based on facts. Besides this article, U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo of Wichita has also written on this issue in The Democrats continue unjustified attacks on taxpayers and job creators.

    Another inconvenient fact is that if the Canadian oil is not sold to the U.S., it will be sold to and consumed in China. If we are concerned about greenhouse gas emissions leading to climate change, it should be noted that it doesn’t matter where the greenhouse gases are produced. The effect is worldwide. But as we know, the radical environmental movement cares nothing for facts in their war on capitalism and human progress.

    Facts Refute Environmentalist Claims About Keystone XL Pipeline

    By Paul Soutar. Originally published at Kansas Watchdog.

    Protesters are gathering on the Wichita State University campus this weekend for a Sierra Club-sponsored Occupy Koch Town protest against the Keystone XL oil pipeline and Koch Industries, Inc. Koch and its subsidiaries are involved in a wide array of manufacturing, trading and investments including petroleum refining and distribution.

    Many Keystone XL opponents have focused on Koch, claiming its Flint Hills Resources Canada subsidiary’s status as an intervener in the regulatory approval process in Canada proves Koch is a party to the pipeline project. Keystone XL would carry petroleum from Canadian oil sands to the U.S. Gulf coast.

    In a Jan. 25 House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, California U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-District 30, demanded that the Koch brothers, Charles and David, or a representative of Koch Industries appear before the committee to explain their involvement in the pipeline.

    Philip Ellender, president of Koch Cos. Public Sector, which encompasses legal, communication, community relations and government relations, responded to Waxman on a Koch Industries website:

    Koch has consistently and repeatedly stated (including here, here, here, and here) that we have no financial interest whatsoever in the Keystone pipeline. In addition, this fact has been verified by TransCanada’s CEO here.

    Russ Girling, CEO of TransCanada, owner and builder of the Keystone pipelines, addressed criticism of the pipeline and supposed collusion with the Koch brothers in a Nov. 1 conference call to discuss TransCanada’s earnings. “I can tell you that Koch (Industries Inc.) isn’t a shipper and I’ve never met the Koch brothers before.”A March 2010 document from Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) approving the pipeline does not mention Koch or its subsidiary, Flint Hills Resources Canada, on any of its 168 pages.

    The report does note that on June 16, 2009, TransCanada Corporation became the sole owner of the Keystone Pipeline System, acquiring ConocoPhillips’ interest in the pipeline.

    A map of the existing Keystone and planned Keystone XL pipelines shows that Koch’s two refineries in the 48 contiguous states at Pine Bend, Minn., and Corpus Christi, Texas, are not on or near the pipeline routes. Koch also has a refinery in North Pole, Alaska.

    Koch does have substantial interests in Canadian oil though, including the thick oil sands mined in Alberta. Those interests are precisely why Flint Hills Resources Canada requested intervener status in the pipeline approval process in 2009.

    Flint Hills’ application to Canada’s National Energy Board for intervener status said, “Flint Hills Resources Canada LP is among Canada’s largest crude oil purchasers, shippers and exporters, coordinating supply for its refinery in Pine Bend, Minnesota. Consequently, Flint Hills has a direct and substantial interest in the application.”

    Critics have claimed that statement is a smoking gun proving Koch is a party to the pipeline or will benefit from its construction.

    Greg Stringham, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) vice president of markets and oil sands, told KansasWatchdog, “Their intervention itself is not a trigger that says aha, they have a commercial interest or are a shipper on this pipeline.”

    The US Legal, Inc. definitions website says an intervener is, “A party who does not have a substantial and direct interest but has clearly ascertainable interests and perspectives essential to a judicial determination and whose standing has been granted by the court for all or a portion of the proceedings.”

    US Legal, Inc. provides free legal information, legal forms and help with finding an attorney for the stated purpose of breaking down barriers to legal information.

    Stringham said anyone — business, organization or individual — can be an intervener in NEB regulatory proceedings as long as they can show some potential impact, good or bad, from the proposed action. “Then they make a decision whether they’re going to actively engage through evidence and cross examination or whether they’re just there for interest, to get materials and monitor the situation.”

    Market interest

    Like Koch, Stringham said CAPP is an intervener in the pipeline approval process, because the pipeline will have a direct impact on the Canadian oil market. Stringham said:

    The fact that it’s an intervention for interest does not mean that there is a financial ownership or shipping interest. It’s really to make sure that they understand what’s going on in the process and that they have some connection to the project that can be either positive and beneficiary or potentially negative to them. That’s why I believe Koch has intervened in this process.

    The Canadian pipeline company Enbridge, Inc.; Marathon Oil Corp. and Britain’s oil giant BP are also among the 29 interveners in the pipeline application. So is the environmental activist organization Sierra Club.

    Keystone XL would compete with the Enbridge pipeline that carries the thick bitumen oil from Hardisty, Alberta, for delivery to Koch’s Pine Bend, Minn., refinery. If supplies prove insufficient for both pipelines, Stringham said, Koch could be at a competitive disadvantage since it is not a shipper on the Keystone pipelines.

    The National Energy Board’s approval document noted:

    Keystone XL shippers have indicated that they are seeking competitive alternatives, and by providing access to a new market, Keystone XL would be expanding shipper choice. The Board places considerable weight on the fact that Keystone XL shippers have made a market decision to enter into long-term shipping arrangements negotiated through a transparent competitive process. New pipelines connecting producing regions with consuming regions change market dynamics in ways that cannot easily be predicted.

    Political motivation

    On Feb.10, 2011 Reuters published an Inside Climate News article that started the Koch-Keystone explosion. The third paragraph put a political spin on the Koch claims.

    What’s been left out of the ferocious debate over the pipeline, however, is the prospect that if President Obama allows a permit for the Keystone XL to be granted, he would be handing a big victory and great financial opportunity to Charles and David Koch, his bitterest political enemies and among the most powerful opponents of his clean economy agenda.

    Former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olsen, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, highlighted the political dimension of attacks on the Kochs and recent attempts to compel their testimony before Congress.

    When Joseph McCarthy engaged in comparable bullying, oppression and slander from his powerful position in the Senate, he was censured by his colleagues and died in disgrace. “McCarthyism,” defined by Webster’s as the “use of unfair investigative and accusatory methods to suppress opposition,” will forever be synonymous with un-Americanism.

    In this country, we regard the use of official power to oppress or intimidate private citizens as a despicable abuse of authority and entirely alien to our system of a government of laws. The architects of our Constitution meticulously erected a system of separated powers, and checks and balances, precisely in order to inhibit the exercise of tyrannical power by governmental officials.

    Market and environmental realities

    Canada produces about 2.7 million barrels of oil per day with about 1.6 million going to the United States. “About a million of that comes from the oil sands,” Stringham said. “All of that moves through the existing pipeline systems.”

    Two Kansas refineries, the Holly Frontier refinery in El Dorado and National Cooperative Refinery Association’s facility in McPherson, refine Canadian oil, including from oil sands, delivered over existing pipelines.

    With or without the Keystone XL, oil from Canada’s oil sands will continue to go to markets, according to Stringham. “We have been investigating a number of alternatives. Keystone XL clearly is the most direct route to get to the gulf coast and that’s why the market really spoke up and said this is what we want,” he said.

    In a 2010 op-ed in the National Journal, Charles T. Drevna, president of American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, presciently said, “Canada’s leaders have made clear that if the U.S. won’t buy their oil, they won’t abandon development of their oil sands. Instead, they have said they will ship Canadian oil across the Pacific to China and other Asian nations. That will result in America having to import more oil from other countries. Sending Canadian oil to Asia would actually increase global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2010 study by Barr Engineering.”

    The Barr study, Low Carbon Fuel Standard “Crude Shuffle” Greenhouse Gas Impacts Analysis (pdf), concluded that transporting oil to Asia for refining would mean not just a lost opportunity for the U.S., but increased greenhouse gas emissions because of transportation by ship instead of by pipeline and less stringent refinery emission standards.

    TransCanada has said it will continue to seek approval of the Keystone XL and work is proceeding on alternatives to Keystone XL, Stringham said. “There are other pipeline routes being investigated by Enbridge and BP and a number of others as well to move this oil,” he said.

    He said Canada’s oil market is looking at diverse opportunities beyond the United States. “We are looking to the West Coast, which could move it on to tankers. We looked at Asia, it is one of the options, but once it gets to the West Coast, it can also move to the California market,” he said.

    Stringham said a proposal for Enbridge to build a pipeline carrying oil to the West Coast has more than 4,000 interveners.

    Occupy Koch Town promotional materials say they’ll also protest against the Kansas Policy Institute. KPI helped launch KansasWatchdog.org in 2009 but is no longer affiliated with this site.

  • Cause of Kansas budget gap is spending

    Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson says Kansas has a $400 million budget gap, and he’s proposed increasing sales and cigarette taxes to close it.

    The source of nearly all this gap is the governor’s proposal for increased spending in the fiscal year 2011 budget. State general fund spending for FY 2010 — that’s the current budget year we’re a little more than halfway through — is estimated to be $5,451.1 billion, according to the governor’s budget report release a few weeks ago.

    For FY 2011, the governor proposes to spend $5,831.1 billion, which is $380 million more than spending this year.

    There’s nearly all the $400 million gap right there.

    Revenue is projected to fall next year by $122 million, according to the budget report.

    If we could hold spending steady for next year — and remember that inflation is running at very low levels — we could get by without a tax increase. If the governor and the legislature would consider tapping some of the available Kansas fund balances, we could even increase spending without tax increases.

  • Visualization: Presidential data explorer

    Visualization: Presidential data explorer

    Explore the economic record of presidents, starting with Harry S Truman.

    To examine the record of presidents regarding economics, I gathered data from several sources and present it here as an interactive visualization. It holds about 45,000 observations of 71 variables. One of the most interesting views of this data is a timeline chart showing the value of a statistic by month for each president, as can be seen below. (Click for larger version.)

    The extent to which presidents have influence or control over these matters is unknown. Opinions vary.

    Click here to access the visualization, and read the following to learn about the data.

    Here is a description of data that appears.

    Jobs

    Probably the most important data shown in this visualization is all employees working at nonfarm jobs, seasonally adjusted. Data is shown in thousands of jobs. Nonfarm jobs is the statistic most commonly used when measuring the growth or contraction of employment.

    In addition to nonfarm jobs, I also illustrate private sector jobs and government jobs.

    The civilian noninstitutional population, in this visualization, consists of persons age 16 and over, and does not include those in institutions (for example, a correctional institution, a residential nursing home, or a mental health care facility) and those on active duty in the Armed Forces.

    The civilian labor force is the sum of employed and unemployed persons 16 years of age and older. The labor force participation rate is the labor force as a percent of the civilian noninstitutional population.

    The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed persons divided by the civilian labor force.

    This data is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, part of the United States Department of Labor.

    Dow Jones

    For this visualization, I used the average closing price of the Dow Jones Industrial Average for each trading day in a month.

    CPI

    For inflation, I use the Consumer Price Index, specifically the all items in U.S. city average, all urban consumers, seasonally adjusted, with base period 1982-84=100. This data comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. CPI is the statistic most commonly cited when measuring inflation.

    GDP (Gross Domestic Product)

    For Gross Domestic Product, I use data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce.

    BEA defines GDP as “the value of the goods and services produced by the nation’s economy less the value of the goods and services used up in production.” It is the value of the final goods and services produced. Also, “GDP is also equal to the sum of personal consumption expenditures, gross private domestic investment, net exports of goods and services, and government consumption expenditures and gross investment.”

    The GDP series I use is in real dollars, meaning the effects of inflation are removed. This data is produced quarterly.

    GDP is the most common statistic cited when measuring the size and growth of economies.

    Consumption

    This is the BEA series Real Personal Consumption Expenditures by Major Type of Product, Quantity Indexes, for all expenditures. This series consists of index numbers, with 2012 = 100. It is seasonally adjusted and produced quarterly.

    Consumer sentiment

    This is an index of measure of how people view the economy. It is an index, with 1966:Q1 = 100, and is not seasonally adjusted. It is produced by the Survey Research Center, under the direction of Richard T. Curtin, at the University of Michigan. The Center says:

    The Surveys of Consumers have proven to be an accurate indicator of the future course of the national economy. The Index of Consumer Expectations, produced by the Surveys of Consumers, is included in the Leading Indicator Composite Index published by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis. The inclusion of data from the Surveys of Consumers by the Commerce Department is a significant confirmation of its capabilities for understanding and forecasting changes in the national economy. Each series included in the composite Index of Leading Indicators is selected because of its performance on six important characteristics: economic significance, statistical adequacy, consistency of timing at business cycle peaks and troughs, conformity to business expansions and contractions, smoothness, and prompt availability. No other consumer survey meets these rigorous criteria.

    The Index of Consumer Expectations focuses on three areas: how consumers view prospects for their own financial situation, how they view prospects for the general economy over the near term, and their view of prospects for the economy over the long term. The Expectations Index represents only a small part of the entire survey data that is collected regularly.

    The citation is Surveys of Consumers, University of Michigan, University of Michigan: Consumer Sentiment © [UMCSENT], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

    Trade

    Data on exports and imports is presented in inflation-adjusted dollars, specifically billions of chained 2012 dollars, at a seasonally adjusted annual rate. The citation for this data is: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Real Exports of Goods and Services [EXPGSC1], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/EXPGSC1, and also U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Imports of Goods and Services [IMPGS], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IMPGS.

    Real Balance of Trade is calculated as exports – imports. A positive value means a trade surplus, and a negative value means a trade deficit.

    Interest rates

    Mortgage Interest Rate: Value is percent, not seasonally adjusted. Citation is Freddie Mac, 30-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Average in the United States [MORTGAGE30US], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MORTGAGE30US.

    Prime Loan Rate: Averages of daily figures of rates posted by a majority of top 25 (by assets in domestic offices) insured U.S.-chartered commercial banks. Prime is one of several base rates used by banks to price short-term business loans. Citation is Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (US), Bank Prime Loan Rate [MPRIME], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MPRIME.

    New Auto Loan: Finance rate on consumer installment loans at commercial banks, new autos 48 month loan. Citation is Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (US), Finance Rate on Consumer Installment Loans at Commercial Banks, New Autos 48 Month Loan [TERMCBAUTO48NS], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/TERMCBAUTO48NS.

    Federal Funds Rate: The federal funds rate is the interest rate at which depository institutions trade federal funds (balances held at Federal Reserve Banks) with each other overnight. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meets eight times a year to determine the federal funds target rate. The federal funds rate is the central interest rate in the U.S. financial market. It influences other interest rates such as the prime rate, which is the rate banks charge their customers with higher credit ratings. Additionally, the federal funds rate indirectly influences longer- term interest rates such as mortgages, loans, and savings, all of which are very important to consumer wealth and confidence.

    Citation is Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (US), Effective Federal Funds Rate [FEDFUNDS], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FEDFUNDS.

    Energy

    This is Primary Energy Net Imports from the primary energy overview, from U.S. Energy Information Administration. Primary energy is “Energy in the form that it is first accounted for in a statistical energy balance, before any transformation to secondary or tertiary forms of energy. For example, coal can be converted to synthetic gas, which can be converted to electricity; in this example, coal is primary energy, synthetic gas is secondary energy, and electricity is tertiary energy.” See http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/#summary

    Economic indexes

    The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia calculates two indexes that track and forecast economic activity in the states and the country as a whole. The coincident index is a measure of current and past economic activity for each state. The average value for the complete year 2007 is given the value 100. The leading index predicts the six-month growth rate of the state’s coincident index. Positive values mean the coincident index is expected to rise in the future six months, while negative values mean it is expected to fall.

    For more about these indexes, and for a visualization of these for each state, see Visualization: Economic indicators in the states.

    Partisan Conflict Index

    This is an index produced by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The authors explain:

    The Partisan Conflict Index tracks the degree of political disagreement among U.S. politicians at the federal level by measuring the frequency of newspaper articles reporting disagreement in a given month. Higher index values indicate greater conflict among political parties, Congress, and the President.

    The index is an outgrowth of recent Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia research that finds that the index tends to increase near elections and during debates over such contentious policies as the debt ceiling and health-care reform. Research suggests that increased partisan conflict increases uncertainty among firms and households. Such uncertainty has been shown to slow economic activity by delaying business investment and consumer spending.

    For more, see Partisan Conflict Index.

    Views of data

    For each president, data is presented by month, with the first month of each president’s term having number one. Presidents that served two full terms have data up to month 96 of their term, while others have fewer months.

    Data is shown in several views:

    • A table.
    • A timeline chart showing the monthly value of a statistic by month for each president. There are two versions.
    • A chart showing the change in the absolute value of a statistic by month for each president.
    • A chart showing the proportional change in the value of a statistic for each president.
    • Grids of the same data.

    For most views, you may select a range of months and which presidents appear.

    Most data starts with the Truman administration in April 1945.

    Data may be monthly, quarterly, or annual, depending on availability from sources.

    Assigning a range of months, quarters, or years to each presidential term requires making a few judgments. For example, when a new president takes office on January 20, should that month be assigned to the new president or the predecessor? Whatever decision is made, it doesn’t have much effect on the broad trends. For the table of presidents and terms that I used, click here.

    Click here to access the visualization.

    For more visualizations, click here.

  • Brownback appointments a mixed bag

    Incoming Kansas governor Sam Brownback has made some appointments to his economic team. Two of the appointments illustrate why Kansans need to maintain a cautious watch on Brownback as he takes over the governor’s office. A third gives us hope that the Kansas budget can be fully understood and managed.

    The major mistake made by the new governor is retaining Deb Miller as Kansas Secretary of Transportation. Miller promoted the very expensive and largely unneeded highway plan that passed the legislature and was signed by the governor. She also promotes the expansion of passenger rail service in Kansas, which is a very expensive proposition that will be used by very few people.

    An appointment that has both positive and negative aspects is that of Nick Jordan to be Kansas Secretary of Revenue. Jordan served in the Kansas Senate for several terms where he earned a moderate-to-conservative voting record, based on my assessment of ratings from the Kansas Taxpayers Network. The most troublesome aspect of Jordan’s legislative career is his shepherding of the Kansas Economic Growth Act. This legislation greatly expanded the power of the state to engage in large-scale economic intervention. It’s all in the name of growing the economy of Kansas, which is a noble and desirable goal. But the legislation presumes that government knows how to grow an economy better than markets do, which is a false presumption.

    The very pleasant surprise is the appointment of Steven J. Andersonas Budget Director. He has worked to develop model budgets for Americans for Prosperity. He also prepared a document titled Analysis of State Unencumbered Fund Balances in Kansas for the Kansas Policy Institute.

  • Tax increment financing: The right tool for Wichita jobs?

    The following document is from The Heartland Institute. Its original location is The Right Tool for the Job? An Analysis of Tax Increment Financing (Summary).

    As the Wichita City Council seems to have job creation as a primary goal, the council may wish to take notice of one of the article’s conclusions as it consider forming a new tax increment financing (TIF) district: “Job losses in areas surrounding each TIF district more than offset any increase in the number of jobs inside the TIF district, resulting in a rate of job loss greater than the citywide rate.”

    It’s easy to drive by a new store or project and observe people working there. Concluding one’s analysis there is an example of stopping the thinking process at stage one, as Thomas Sowell has said. We need elected officials and bureaucrats who look beyond the immediate, easy-to-see effects of their policies. See Wichita economic development: And then what will happen? for more about the effect of TIF on jobs.

    The Right Tool for the Job? An Analysis of Tax Increment Financing

    Developing Neighborhood Alternatives Project

    Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is an economic development tool that uses the expected growth (or increment) in property tax revenues from a designated geographic area of a municipality to finance bonds used to pay for goods and services calculated to spur growth in the TIF district. The analysis performed for this study found TIF does not tend to produce a net increase in economic activity; favors large businesses over small businesses; often excludes local businesses and residents from the planning process; and operates in a manner that contradicts conventional notions of justice and fairness. We recommend seeking alternatives to TIF and reforms to TIF that make the process more democratic and the distribution of benefits more fair to residents of TIF districts.

    Tax increment financing (TIF) is seldom evaluated from a community perspective.

    Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is an economic development tool that uses the expected growth (or increment) in property tax revenues from a designated geographic area of a municipality to finance bonds used to pay for goods and services calculated to spur growth in the TIF district. It is widely heralded as “one of the last remaining fiscal devices for repairing areas of the city afflicted by urban decay.” But TIF is also a controversial tool.

    Evaluations of TIF typically focus only on the number of new jobs thought to be created in the TIF district and how much property values rose. Such evaluations overlook what happens to community residents and to areas surrounding the TIF district. Were community residents given an opportunity to apply for the new jobs? Were these jobs genuinely new, or were they simply shifted into the district from surrounding areas? Did the jobs pay as well as the jobs that may have been displaced?

    Our work provides the basis for public understanding and discussion of TIF from a community standpoint. We studied five TIF districts in Chicago and the neighborhoods surrounding them to show how a community-centered analysis might be performed. The case studies included both qualitative data on neighborhood-wide changes and interviews with individuals and organizations affected by the TIF district. We also performed a policy analysis, examining TIF law to see what types of development TIF would best be able to facilitate, and what types it can perform only with great difficulty.

    TIF has only a limited impact on economic development.

    The five case studies found TIF increased land values. However, the case studies also found:

    • TIF did not consistently increase the number of businesses: Two of the three commercially oriented TIF districts and their surrounding areas experienced a net loss in businesses. The third had a net increase, but at a rate slower than the city average. The two residentially oriented TIF districts and their surrounding areas saw net increases in number of businesses above the city average.
    • TIF did not create a net increase in the number of jobs: Job losses in areas surrounding each TIF district more than offset any increase in the number of jobs inside the TIF district, resulting in a rate of job loss greater than the citywide rate.
    • TIF tended to increase residential property sales: Three of the five TIF districts and their surrounding areas saw dramatic increases in the number of residential sales, well above the citywide rate. Two reported small decreases.
    • TIF’s impact on housing prices was mixed: In some instances, median housing prices increased faster than the citywide median, in other cases slower. In the two residential TIF districts, the sale prices of the TIF-subsidized housing were considerably higher than the citywide median.

    (more…)

  • Testimony supporting an arena re-vote

    From Karl Peterjohn, Executive Director Kansas Taxpayers Network

    We need to correct the flawed downtown arena proposal’s mistakes. Since the legislature authorized the county sales tax for the downtown arena it has become abundantly clear that the case against proceeding with the flawed arena project has been made. Enclosed with this testimony is a copy of the 2004 flyer used in that election campaign that shows that the critics of this proposal were correct on the key points in this project.

    Here are key points why there should be a revote:

    1) The 2004 cost estimates for the downtown arena project at $184.528 million were inaccurate (see county’s Sept. 1, 2004 arena document). The county now projects $201 million and that is likely to grow. In addition, new reports indicate that there is an effort to have the city fund $108 million in additional infrastructure changes for the arena and the area around it.

    If the 1 cent sales tax was used entirely for property tax relief, the county’s mill levy could be dropped by roughly 20 mills or roughly 65 percent of the current mill levy.

    If you divided the total county and city costs ($201 M + $108 M), that’s almost $700 per person or over $2,700 for a family of four. That’s excessive.

    2) There is no anchor tenant for this facility. The Kansas Coliseum rarely sells out. With the same shows and sports franchises, why build a larger facility?

    3) There is inadequate parking for this facility. Adding necessary parking will drive the cost of this project even higher.

    4) Downtown arena advocates threatened voters with higher property taxes if they did not vote for the sales tax. Sadly, the county property tax mill levy was raised roughly six percent last year and two incumbent commissioners were defeated in their reelection bids as a result.

    5) A privately owned and funded arena in Park City is likely to be built and opened well before the downtown arena project is completed. One of the current users of the coliseum will move to this new private facility.

    In 1993, Wichita city voters rejected a proposed downtown arena project by better than a 2-to-1 margin. In 2004 voters narrowly, by a 52-to-48 percent margin, approved the downtown arena at $184.5 million. Since then, more realistic cost data about the increased price for a downtown arena has become available.

    Let the people vote again on the following four point proposal:

    The county will not proceed with the flawed downtown arena project. The roughly $200 million in sales tax revenue that has been raised will be put to the following uses: 1) The Britt Brown Arena will be remodeled with roughly ¼ of the funds generated by the current 1 cent arena sales tax; 2) The current costs that have been incurred in land acquisition, designs, and other contractual costs will be paid with these funds; 3) The remaining sales tax revenue balances will be used to pay down the county’s mill levy (that should be well over ½ of the entire amount raised so far). In addition, the county will seek state authorization to continue the existing 1 cent countywide sales tax with the proviso that it be used entirely to reduce county property taxes. That would provide a reduction of about 65% of the county’s property tax mill levy; 4) All future county mill levy increases must be submitted to voters and approved at a referendum election in the same way that local sales tax increases are approved.

    Eliminating this large a portion of the county’s mill levy will provide Sedgwick County businesses, taxpayers, and citizens with a significant comparative advantage over other Kansas counties by reducing this tax on assets as well as reducing the uncertainty concerning future property tax hikes. This will take us one step towards becoming more competitive with progressive states where all tax hikes have to receive voter approval: Colorado, Missouri, and Oklahoma.

  • In Kansas fourth district, debates reveal differences

    In this article, Wendy Aylworth of Wichita takes a look at candidates for the Republican Party nomination for United States Congress from the fourth district of Kansas and their responses to questions at several candidate forums. In particular, she examines the candidates and their attitudes towards free trade.

    The well-known candidates for this nomination (and their campaign websites) are Wichita businessman Jim Anderson, Wichita businessman Wink Hartman, Wichita businessman Mike Pompeo, and Kansas Senator Jean Schodorf. Election filing records maintained by the Kansas Secretary of State indicate that Paij Rutschman of Latham has filed for the Republican Party nomination, but little is known about this candidate at this time, and no website is available.

    Aylworth supports the campaign of candidate Mike Pompeo.

    Part one: Flip-flops, free markets, and NAFTA

    Are you getting a good chuckle yet when listening to the forums featuring the candidates vying for the Republican nomination for the 4th Congressional District seat? If you haven’t yet, you’ll find a few here for your enjoyment.

    We’ll look at the changes in the candidates over the various forums and appearances.

    The positions of three of the candidates appear similar on the surface, but their explanations and tone of voice often reveal whether the candidate has a real grasp of the topic. Three of the four candidates claim to be in favor of limiting the scope of government and shrinking it down to only the powers granted it in the Constitution, yet the answers given by these same candidates reveal a conflicting ideology.

    Have there been flip-flops by the candidates? Yes.

    (more…)

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