Voice For Liberty

Tag: Sedgwick county government

  • Economic development incentives questioned at Sedgwick County Commission

    Last week’s meeting of the Sedgwick County Commission featured a discussion of economic development incentives unlike the genial rubberstamping these items usually receive. From the bench, Commissioner Richard Ranzau was the driving force in asking the questions.

    The issue was a forgivable loan of $220,000 to be made to Apex Engineering International LLC. The company has already received approval of a forgivable loan of the same amount from the City of Wichita The company will also receive grants and tax credits totaling $1,272,000 from the state of Kansas.

    Apex, a manufacturer of airplane parts, claims it has received an offer from Jacksonville, Florida for the company to move there. The actions by Sedgwick County, Wichita, and Kansas is to persuade Apex to remain in Wichita rather than move to Jacksonville.

    Some interesting points raised by Ranzau:

    Is this an “economic emergency or unique opportunity” as claimed by the county’s economic development staff?

    Ranzau notes that our economic development policies need to address the overall climate for business, instead of picking just a few companies to grant money to.

    Ranzau questions why the county does not require collateral for the loan it is making. The answer given by staff is that this is a standard agreement and is the same that the City of Wichita uses. Staff said that the county considers the forgivable loan to be an investment.

    Financial statements have been reviewed by a CPA on county staff, and also by the Greater Wichita Economic Development Coalition. Other than that, the statements are private and not available to the commissioners for review.

    Ranzau made the point in that if the employees of the company would take a pay cut of $0.07 per hour for the next five years, they could finance the subsidy that the taxpayers are being asked to pay. He asked: “Why are the taxpayers of this community having to bear the burden when the average salary there is $46,000? I find it hard to believe that someone would be willing to lose their job for seven cents per hour. I don’t believe this question was ever asked, but this is the thing that should be asked. There are alternatives to this.”

    Ranzau also laid bare the motivations of politicians: “It does allow politicians to pound their chests and say ‘See, I care about jobs, because I gave your money to this person over here.’ But that’s very shortsighted.”

    The measure passed by a vote of four to one, with Ranzau in the minority.

  • Sedgwick County Commission to consider corporate welfare as economic development

    Ed. note: the two measures discussed below passed.

    Today the Sedgwick County Commission will consider two measures that, if adopted, will further establish corporate welfare and rent-seeking as Wichita’s and Sedgwick County’s economic development strategy.

    When people are living on welfare, we usually see that as a sad state of affairs. We view it as a failure, both for the individual and for the country. We seek ways to help people get off welfare so that they become self-sufficient. We want to help them contribute to society rather than being a drain on its resources.

    But local economic development officials don’t see corporate welfare as a bad thing. Instead, as these two measures — both which will likely pass — illustrate, welfare is good when you’re a business in Sedgwick County. Especially if you can raise speculation that your company might move out of the area.

    The term rent, or more precisely, economic rent is somewhat unfortunate, as the common usage of the term — paying someone money for the use of an asset for a period of time — contains no sinister connotation. But economic rent does carry baggage.

    What is rent seeking? Wikipedia defines it like this: “In economics, rent seeking occurs when an individual, organization or firm seeks to earn income by capturing economic rent through manipulation or exploitation of the economic environment, rather than by earning profits through economic transactions and the production of added wealth.”

    This explanation doesn’t do full justice to the term, because it doesn’t mention the role that government and politics usually play. The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics adds this: “The idea is simple but powerful. People are said to seek rents when they try to obtain benefits for themselves through the political arena. They typically do so by getting a subsidy for a good they produce or for being in a particular class of people, by getting a tariff on a good they produce, or by getting a special regulation that hampers their competitors.”

    The deals the Sedgwick County Commission will consider are both corporate welfare and rent-seeking. Both are harmful to our community.

    The first item concerns Apex Engineering International LLC, which is proposed to receive forgivable loans of $220,000 each from Wichita and Sedgwick County. (The City of Wichita has already approved its loan.) The company will also receive grants and tax credits totaling $1,272,000 from the state. Surprisingly, no property tax exemption is mentioned for this company. The city’s material on this matter may be read at Approval of Forgivable Loan Agreement (Apex Engineering International).

    Apex will also receive $1,272,000 in tax credits and grants under programs offered by the State of Kansas.

    The second item concerns MoJack Distributors, LLC, a company that makes an accessory for riding lawn mowers. It is proposed that the City of Wichita and Sedgwick County each make a forgivable loans of $35,000 to this company. (Again, Wichita has already approved its loan to this company.) If the company maintains a certain level of employment, the loans do not need to be repaid.

    But this is not the only welfare being given to Mojack. The city also proposes a 100% Economic Development Exemption (EDX) property tax exemption. This exemption obliges the county to abate its share of property tax, too. The term would be five years, with renewal for another five years if conditions are met. The city’s material on this matter may be read at Approval of Forgivable Loan Agreement, MoJack.

    For both companies, there was the treat of moving operations elsewhere, and the incentives offered made the difference, say the companies.

    Targeted investment, or welfare

    Government bureaucrats and politicians promote programs like these as targeted investment in our region’s economic future. They believe that they have the ability to select which companies are worthy of public investment, and which are not. It’s a form of centralized planning by city hall that shapes the future direction of Wichita’s economy.

    Arnold King has written about the ability of government experts to decide what investments should be made with public funds. There’s a problem with knowledge and power:

    As Hayek pointed out, knowledge that is important in the economy is dispersed. Consumers understand their own wants and business managers understand their technological opportunities and constraints to a greater degree than they can articulate and to a far greater degree than experts can understand and absorb.

    When knowledge is dispersed but power is concentrated, I call this the knowledge-power discrepancy. Such discrepancies can arise in large firms, where CEOs can fail to appreciate the significance of what is known by some of their subordinates. … With government experts, the knowledge-power discrepancy is particularly acute.

    I emphasized the last sentence to highlight the problem of the dispersed nature of knowledge.

    Yet this week, our Wichita and Sedgwick County bureaucrats feel they have the necessary knowledge to recommend to the commissions that the citizens of Sedgwick County make investments of public funds in these two instances. All Wichita city council members were gullible enough to believe it.

    One thing is for sure: the city and the county have the power to make these investments. They just don’t have — they can’t have — the knowledge as to whether these are wise.

    We need a dynamic job creation engine

    Furthermore, we have to question the wisdom of investing in these established companies, especially a company involved in aviation, as Wichita and Sedgwick County are always seeking to diversify their economies away from dependence on aviation.

    Through research conducted by Dr. Art Hall and others, we now know that it is dynamic young companies that are the main drivers of job creation in Kansas. Hall wrote: “Embracing dynamism starts with a change in vision. Simply stated, the state government of Kansas should abandon its prevailing policy vision of the State as an active investor in businesses or industries and instead adopt the policy vision of the State as a caretaker of a competitive “platform” — a platform that seeks to induce as much commercial experimentation as possible.” (While Hall wrote about the State of Kansas, Sedgwick County is playing the same role at a local level.)

    The “active investor” role that Sedgwick County is about to take with regard to these two companies is precisely the wrong role to take. These actions increase the cost of government for the dynamic small companies we need to nurture. Instead these efforts concentrate and focus our economic development efforts in an unproductive way.

  • Wichita downtown plan to be considered by county commission

    Next week the Sedgwick County Commission will consider its approval of the Goody Clancy plan for the revitalization of downtown Wichita. In December, the plan was passed enthusiastically by the Wichita City Council. There, not even self-styled conservative members like Sue Schlapp, Paul Gray, Jeff Longwell, and Jim Skelton could muster even one tiny bit of doubt as to the wisdom of this plan, with its centralized planning and calls for massive spending of public money.

    At the county commission, things may be different. Here are a few articles commissioners may want to consider as they prepare to endorse — or not — this plan.

    Wichita should reject Goody Clancy plan for downtown. Mr. Mayor, members of this council, there are many reasons why we should reject Project Downtown: The Master Plan for Wichita. I’d like to present just a few. … First, consider the attitudes of Goody Clancy, the Boston planning firm the city hired to lead us through the process. At a presentation in January, some speakers from Goody Clancy revealed condescending attitudes towards those who hold values different from this group of planners. One presenter said “Outside of Manhattan and Chicago, the traditional family household generally looks for a single family detached house with yard, where they think their kids might play, and they never do.” … David Dixon, who leads Goody Clancy’s Planning and Urban Design division and was the principal for this project, revealed his elitist world view when he told how that in the future, Wichitans will be able to “enjoy the kind of social and cultural richness” that is only found at the core. This idea that only downtown people are socially and culturally rich is an elitist attitude that we ought to reject. Click here to read the article.

    In Wichita, who is to plan? In presenting the plan for the revitalization of downtown Wichita, Wichita’s planners routinely make no distinction between government planning and private planning. In their presentations, they will draw analogies between the wisdom of individuals or businesses creating and following a plan and government doing the same. … An example is Wichita Downtown Development Corporation President Jeff Fluhr, who told the Wichita Pachyderm Club that the development of downtown is like the planning of an automobile trip, so that we don’t make major investments that we later regret. … But government and the private sector are very different, facing greatly different constraints, motivations, and access to information. As a result, the two planning processes are entirely different and not compatible. Click here to read the article.

    Tax increment financing: TIF has a cost. Tax increment financing, or TIF districts, is slated to be used as one of the primary means to raise money for the “public investment” portion of the costs of the revitalization of downtown Wichita. Touted by its supporters as being without cost, or good for the entire city, or the only way to get a project started, these arguments make sense only to those who see only the immediate effects of something and are unwilling — or unable — to see the secondary effects of this harmful form of government intervention. Click here to read the article.

    Wichita’s vision, by the urbanist elites. Why are some in Wichita so insistent on pushing their vision of what our city should look like, and why are they willing and eager to use the coercive force of government to achieve their vision? In the article below, Randal O’Toole, using a work by Thomas Sowell, provides much insight into understanding why. Click here to read the article.

    Wichita downtown planning, not trash, is real threat. A recent plan for the City of Wichita to take over the management of residential trash pickup has many citizens advocating for the present free market system. While I agree that a free market in trash pickup is superior to government management of a cooperative, it is, after all, only trash. There are far greater threats to the economic freedom of Wichitans, in particular the planning for the future of downtown Wichita. … While the downtown Wichita planners promote their plan as market-based development, the fact is that we already have market-based development happening all over Wichita. But because this development may not be taking place where some people want it to — downtown is where the visionaries say development should be — they declare a “market failure.” Click here to read the article.

    Government is not business, and can’t be. As Wichita begins its implementation of the plan for the revitalization of downtown Wichita, stakeholders like to delude themselves that the plan is “market-driven,” that the city will make prudent use of public “investment,” and that the plan’s supporters really do believe in free markets after all. It’s a business-like approach, they say. But government is not business. The two institutions are entirely different. Click here to read the article.

    Eminent domain reserved for use in Wichita. As part of the plan for the future of downtown Wichita, the city council was asked to formally disavow the use of eminent domain to take private property for the purpose of economic development. The council would not agree to this restriction. Click here to read the article.

    At Wichita planning commission, downtown plan approved. At last week’s meeting of the Wichita Metropolitan Area Planning Commission, members were asked to approve the Goody Clancy plan for the revitalization of downtown Wichita. I appeared to make sure that commissioners were aware of some of the highly dubious data on which the plan is based. In particular, I presented to the commission the Walk Score data for downtown Wichita, and how Goody Clancy relied on this obviously meaningless data in developing plans for downtown Wichita. Click here to read the article.

    Wichita downtown plan focused on elite values, incorrect assumptions. One of the themes of those planning the future of downtown Wichita is that the suburban areas of Wichita are bad. The people living there are not cultured and sophisticated, the planners say. Suburbanites live wasteful lifestyles. Planners say they use too much energy, emit too much carbon, and gobble up too much land, all for things they’ve been duped into believing they want. It’s an elitist diagnosis, and Wichita’s buying it. Well, we’ve already paid for it, but we can stop the harmful planning process before it’s too late. Click here to read the article.

    Some Goody Clancy Wichita findings not credible. Last week Boston planning firm Goody Clancy presented its master plan for the revitalization of downtown Wichita. As this plan is now part of the political landscape in Wichita, we ought to take a critical look at some of its components. Click here to read the article.

    Good intentions, and planners, can sap a city’s soul. The following article by Kansas City writer Jack Cashill, courtesy of Ingram’s Magazine, explains some of the problems with city planning of the type Wichita is undertaking at this time. Click here to read the article.

  • Kansas and Wichita quick takes: Monday January 17, 2011

    Kansas legislature website. While there has been some improvement to the Kansas Legislature website, major problems remain. Some calendars and journals are available, but not in time to be useful. … Documents like calendars and journals are presented in OpenDocument format. This is a document format that not all website visitors may be able to open on their computers. Generally, the ubiquitous Adobe pdf format is used for documents like these, as this is a useful format that nearly all computers, even mobile devices like an Iphone, can open and view. … Bills are presented in pdf format, although still in an unconventional viewing frame that reduces functionality and ease of use. … Some files are presented with file names like “sb1_00_0000.zip.odt” which might be an attempt to deliver an OpenDocument format file in zip format. If it is, the file is misnamed and can’t be handled by most computers in the usual fashion. It would be a silly exercise to compress such small files. … Contact information is still missing for many members. … The way the statutes are presented is unusable. … At this point it seems the best course is to bring back the old legislature website. That worked.

    Federal health care reform costs. Timothy P. Carney in The Washington Examiner: “In fighting against Obamacare repeal this week, Democrats portray their health care law as a money saver, claiming Republicans would add to the deficit by abolishing the legislation. But in their franker moments, the bill’s authors admit that ‘reform’ could be something of a time bomb that will cause exploding health care costs down the line. One top Senate aide plainly stated last summer, ‘This is a coverage bill, not a cost reduction bill.’ The time-bomb nature of Obamacare was presaged by Mitt Romney’s health care bill in Massachusetts, which also expanded health insurance coverage by mandating that all individuals buy insurance, prohibiting insurers from dropping customers, and subsidizing the insurance of those with difficulty affording it.” Carney goes on to draw on the lessons of Massachusetts. … Most people seem to forget that the fiscal score of Obamacare uses ten years of taxes to pay for six years of benefits.

    This week at Wichita City Council. There will be no meeting this Tuesday. It’s not a holiday, but the day after a holiday, so the council won’t meet.

    This week at Sedgwick County Commission. Wednesday’s meeting of the Sedgwick County Commission features two grant applications. One is from the Kansas Department of Transportation for a public transit assistance program. The second is also to KDOT for a rural general public transpiration program. From a quick look at the applications — they are lengthy — both require a local matching share. From a public policy perspective, this is the way governments control the levels of government below them: they tax, and then send back the tax money to be used for specific programs, while requiring that even more money be spent. … Also several appointments to boards such as Greater Wichita Economic Development Coalition will be made, marking a transition away from commission members who favor a free market approach to economic development to those who favor increased government activism in this area.

    Eisenhower on military industrial complex. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was concerned about the military industrial complex for two reasons, writes Christopher Preble in Eisenhower’s Lament. First, there was the opportunity costs of military spending. Then, there are the political and social costs of the U.S. becoming a “garrison state.” In conclusion, Preble writes: “But I suspect that the permanence of the MIC would be most disturbing to President Eisenhower, were he with us now. Twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Americans today spend more on the military than at any time since World War II, and more than twice as much — in inflation-adjusted dollars — than when Ike left office. The general-president clearly failed to convince his fellow Americans of the need to limit the military’s growth. For all practical purposes, the MIC won.”

    Rasmussen last week. “Support for repeal of the national health care law passed last year remains steady, as most voters continue to believe the law will increase the federal budget deficit.” See here. … A huge margin think that federal health care reform will cost more than official estimates. See 75% Think Health Care Law May Cost More Than Estimated. … Most don’t feel politics was motive for Arizona shootings. See here. … Few say stricter gun control laws would prevent such shootings; see here.

  • Kansas and Wichita quick takes: Wednesday January 12, 2011

    iPhone screen

    New Kansas Legislature website. The Kansas Legislature website is now online. But important parts don’t work, and other parts of it are a move backwards in functionality. … Journals and calendars are not available. There are links, but they don’t work. These are very important documents. … The text of some bills are available, but not for all. For the bills that are available, the pdf opens in an unusual and non-standard frame. At least in my testing, the window can’t be resized or maximized for easier reading. … In the list of bills, resolutions appear, but only the number appears, without a caption. … The search feature that is supplied doesn’t seem to reach into the text of bills. … The roster of members is inconvenient. Instead of a list of 125 House members in which you can scroll rapidly to find a member, now there is an interface where the members are listed on 11 separate tabs. Which tab would I click on to find a representative whose name started with “S”? … On the page for each member, their hometown is missing. The old system had links to maps of the members’ districts and another link to demographic information. Not so for the new. … Finally, I can’t find a link to the audio of the House and Senate sessions. … Dave Larson, Director of Legislative Computer Services, was apologetic in a telephone call. He said consultants are working hard on bringing important parts of the website online, and he listened to my opinion as to which sections are most important.

    Few states, including Kansas, have good charter school laws. In a press release, the Center for Education Reform says: “Only 11 states and the District of Columbia have charter school laws that do not require significant improvements in order to allow for the effective creation and growth of these innovative school options, according to a new study and legislative blueprint released today by The Center for Education Reform (CER). Of the rest, 14 states received a grade of ‘C’, and 15 a ‘D’ or ‘F’ for their laws governing charter schools in CER’s Charter School Laws Across the States.” Kansas receives a grade of “F” and its charter school law is ranked fourth weakest among the 41 states that have such laws. More information is at charter schools laws across the states.

    Will on Tuscon shootings. “It would be merciful if, when tragedies such as Tucson’s occur, there were a moratorium on sociology. But respites from half-baked explanations, often serving political opportunism, are impossible because of a timeless human craving and a characteristic of many modern minds.” Indeed. More from George Will on this matter at Charlatans Rise To Explain Unexplainable.

    Public safety director at Pachyderm. Bob Lamkey, Director of Sedgwick County Division of Public Safety, will speak this Friday (January 14) at the Wichita Pachyderm Club on the topic “An Overview of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC).” This group is studying overcrowding at the Sedgwick County Jail. … As a bonus, from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm Lamkey will take interested Pachyderm Club members and guests on a tour of the Sedgwick County Emergency Operations Center and 911 Center located in the Sedgwick County Public Safety Center building at 714 N. Main. … The public is welcome and encouraged to attend Wichita Pachyderm meetings. For more information click on Wichita Pachyderm Club.

    Kansas state sovereignty rally. This Friday (January 14) it’s the third annual Kansas state sovereignty rally in Topeka. Speakers include Senator Dick Kelsey, Secretary of State Kris Kobach, Kansas Policy Institute President Dave Trabert, and Jeff Lewis of the Patriot Coalition. There is transportation from Wichita. For more information, click on third annual Kansas state sovereignty rally.

    AFP Kansas podcasts. The Kansas chapter of Americans for Prosperity launches its first podcast. Click on AFP Kansas podcasts.

  • Kansas and Wichita quick takes: Tuesday January 11, 2011

    Legislature website still down. Last week visitors to the Kansas Legislature website were greeted with a message indicating that an upgrade would be forthcoming. As of this moment, that message is replace with a generic error message and the site is not working. In a phone call yesterday, a clerk said the site would — hopefully — be available yesterday afternoon. The legislature’s site needed an update, as parts of it were frustrating to work with. But with it not working at all, Kansans are missing out on vital information. For example, it is not possible to remotely retrieve the Legislature’s calendars and journals.

    Treasurer to ask for more information. In an effort to return more unclaimed property, new Kansas state treasurer Ron Estes will ask the legislature to allow him to obtain contact information from other state agencies. See Treasurer wants more data so office can return property.

    Wichita CID proposals delayed. Proposals for two Community Improvement Districts in Wichita have been delayed from consideration at today’s Wichita City Council meeting. More information about these two proposals is at In Wichita, two large community improvement districts proposed. Today’s action would have simply accepted the petitions, setting a public hearing and approval — or not — for a future date. … In editorializing against these CIDs, the Wichita Eagle’s Rhonda Holman wrote: “As it was, insufficient time had been allowed for staff vetting of the proposals and thorough consideration by the council and public.” Time and time again, city staff assures the public that they have thoroughly vetted developers and projects, but here is another example of why citizens need to be wary of city hall bureaucrats. … In summary, Holman writes: “The council needs to treat the CID designations as the hidden tax hikes that they are — and use them only where and when they are mission critical, such as to implementing the Goody Clancy downtown master plan.. … By that standard, these two proposals don’t even come close.”

    Longwell on citizen knowledge. My reporting on Wichita City Council member Jeff Longwell and his attitude towards citizen knowledge reminded me of a similar incident from the past. Recently, Longwell spoke in favor of signs telling shoppers that they’re about to enter a store that relies on Community Improvement District financing. But the signs would not tell shoppers how much extra tax they would be paying. Longwell said “So having something on the front door that says we are financing this with a CID tax, where they’re made well aware that it’s collected there, I think to try and include a percentage might even add some confusion as we collect different CID taxes around the city.” In other words, giving citizens too much information will confuse them. … In 2008, when a matter was rushed through the council with little time to study the issue, Longwell was quoted in The Wichita Eagle as saying: “It’s unlikely many residents would read the full contract even if it had been made public earlier.” … It doesn’t take many residents to read it. Just a few will usually be enough. … Not surprisingly, the matter Longwell wanted to rush through concerned taxpayer-funded welfare for Wichita theater owner Bill Warren. This is another example of how Longwell has been captured by special interests.

    State of the State tomorrow. On Wednesday, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback will deliver the State of the State Address. It will be carried in Wichita on KPTS channel 8 at 6:30 pm.

    This week at Sedgwick County Commission. Tomorrow’s meeting of the Sedgwick County Commission has a light agenda. It will be the first meeting for commissioners Richard Ranzau and Jim Skelton. At the end of the meeting, commissioners will elect a new chairman and chairman pro tem. Karl Peterjohn has been the chair for the last year. The chairman conducts the meetings and signs official documents. Speculation is that Dave Unruh, who is just starting his third term, has the inside track for election.

    Changes to Kansas campaign law recommended. Washburn University’s Bob Beatty writes about two “common sense bills” bills that the Kansas Legislature will consider this year, and which he recommends be passed “in order to help clarify for voters what they’re seeing when the political ad season begins anew.’ … The first measure would ban state officeholders from appearing in public service advertisements for a 60-day period before elections. The second would require candidates to state their approval of an advertisement. More at Fine-tuning political ads.

  • Kansas and Wichita quick takes: Saturday January 8, 2011

    This Week in Kansas. This Sunday on This Week in Kansas, host Tim Brown produces a double-length show. The first 30 minutes will be an interview with outgoing Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson, and then a second show immediately following will feature incoming Kansas Governor Sam Brownback. This Week in Kansas airs on KAKE TV channel 10, Sunday morning at 9:00 am.

    Tax cuts are not a cost to government. In an article in the Lawrence Journal-World discussing the possibility of repealing the Kansas statewide sales tax increase, reporter Scott Rothschild makes the same error that most media outlets do: he says that cutting taxes is a cost to government: “Repeal of the levy would cost state government another $300 million per year.” The only way tax cuts constitute a cost to government is if you believe that our property — all of it — belongs first to government. Instead, taxes are a cost that people and business pay, and reducing them is a savings for the parties that really matter. How about writing this instead: “Repeal of the levy would reduce revenues to the state by an estimated $300 million.” And if the Journal-World wanted to be accurate, it could add “This action would leave those funds in the productive private sector rather than transferring them to the wasteful and inefficient public sector.”

    Sedgwick County officeholders to be sworn in. On Sunday January 9, three Sedgwick County Commissioners and a new county treasurer will be sworn in. New commissioners Jim Skelton and Richard Ranzau and returning commissioner Dave Unruh will participate. New treasurer Linda Kizzire will also be sworn in. The time is 2:00 pm, in the jury room of the courthouse. Enter on the north side.

  • Kansas and Wichita quick takes: Sunday December 12, 2010

    This week at Wichita City Council. This Tuesday, six speakers have signed up to appear on the public agenda. This is a portion of the meeting where citizens may speak on nearly any topic. Five are speaking on the city’s proposed trash plan, while one is speaking on a city-wide recycling project. … Approval of the city’s legislative agenda will be considered. Probably the greatest threat to economic freedom is this plank: “City of Wichita supports continued use of effective private-public partnerships and the appropriate intervention of state and local governments to spur economic development.” Also the city expresses support for highly subsidized, expensive, and little-used passenger rail service. … Also the council will consider amending the Wichita-Sedgwick County Comprehensive Plan to include Project Downtown: The Master Plan for Wichita. This is the plan that consulting firm Goody Clancy developed for the revitalization of downtown Wichita. The complete agenda report is at Wichita City Council, December 14, 2010.

    Sedgwick County Commission this week. On Wednesday the Sedgwick County Commission will vote on its legislative agenda. The agenda, or platform, is not law, but expresses the sentiment or desire of the commission. Last year Commissioner Karl Peterjohn shepherded through the requirement that voters approve all tax rate increases. This year the same language is proposed, but it may not pass. (The proposed language is this: “All local sales tax increases must be approved by voters under Kansas law. All property tax increases that raise the mill levy should also be required to receive voter approval.”) Some commissioners believe that voters elect them to use their judgment to make decisions on taxes, while other commissioners believe voters should have the final say on something as important as this. The agenda and backup material for Wednesday’s meeting is at Sedgwick County Commission, December 15, 2010.

    Wichita Eagle: Adopt downtown plan. Today’s Wichita Eagle editorial calls for passage of the downtown master plan recently developed by planning firm Goody Clancy. Rhonda Holman argues that a “busier, richer core” will benefit the town economically, adding that “downtown matters too much to be left to chance.” The idea that the core is essential to progress is taken as a given, but when downtown supporters are questioned, no evidence to support this nostrum is given. Also, this concept of “chance” that Holman doesn’t trust could also be described as a dynamic marketplace of ideas and capital, with many diverse players with dispersed knowledge acting to advance their own self-interest by creating things people will freely buy, all coordinated through the magic of the price system. What Wichita — with Holman’s support — plans to do is to replace this with the bureaucratic and political system.

    City planning by “Those Who Know Best.” “While the fixations of trendy planners might not register on the list of things that average Americans think about, these new utopian land-use ideals are filtering down into government agencies and city councils, and might eventually impact the way we all live.” Writing in the Orange County Register, Steven Greenhut quotes the definition of New Urbanism: “New Urbanism is the most important planning movement this century, and is about creating a better future for us all. It is an international movement to reform the design of the built environment, and is about raising our quality of life and standard of living by creating better places to live. New Urbanism is the revival of our lost art of place-making, and is essentially a reordering of the built environment into the form of complete cities, towns, villages and neighborhoods …” He warns: “Whenever some ideologue claims to offer the most important thing since sliced bread and then promises to reorder my life around it, we should all get nervous.” (The downtown Wichita planners do not use the term “New Urbanism,” but they share the same characteristics and goals.) And even more strongly: “The New Urbanists claim to want to give our lives meaning by creating superior urban forms of living, yet they miss the most meaningful things in life because they emphasize architecture over people. Like all totalitarians, they assume that what they prefer is so good and noble that they have the moral right to impose it on everybody else. The rest of us need to take notice now, so there is still time to oppose it.”

    Anderson appointment criticized. KU political science professor Burdett Loomis criticizes the appointment of Steven J. Anderson to be the new Kansas budget director, branding him an “ideologue” that has made “broadside attacks on public education.” Anderson believes in limited government, and his “attacks” on public — let’s be clear here — government schools are advocating school choice through vouchers. In states where vouchers are used, evidence is that public schools improve in response to the competition from private schools that parents can now actually afford. Plus, the state saves money, too. Loomis also criticizes Anderson for uncovering the large unspent fund balances in many Kansas agencies, balances that Loomis seems to doubt exist. Overall, Loomis presents an argument for the status quo in Kansas government, and the potential for change in the direction of restraining its growth has Loomis — in his own words — “concerned — worried, even.”

  • Perhaps an end to legislative time-wasting

    Politico reports that the practice of issuing proclamations and similar matters during sessions of the U.S. House of Representatives may end. Says the story: “Republicans are moving to get rid of House votes on symbolic resolutions and are planning to post their internal conference rules online, two minor yet politically important changes to the party’s operating guidelines. … The GOP next Wednesday is set to adopt a new set of Republican Conference rules that will place tight restrictions on who and what the House can honor, a bid to cut time they consider wasted on the floor.”

    This would be a great step forward. Not only do these resolutions, etc. waste time, they serve as taxpayer-funded, continual advertisements for the glory of government and all its trappings. It happens not only in Washington, but in Topeka and other state capitals across the country. It happens at county commission meetings. It happens at city council meetings and school board meetings.

    At Wichita City Council meetings, there have been cases where the meaningful business of the council has not started until nearly one hour after the start of the meeting. The hour has been consumed by proclamations, awards, remarks by council members, etc.

    While this happens, citizens with business before the council wait. And wait. They’re wasting their time and money. Their attorneys, representatives, or employees may be there with them, racking up legal bills and wasting time and money while listening to the mayor or other official read proclamations.

    Sometimes this period before the start of the meeting’s meaningful business is given over to business-like activities that government owns and that compete with private sector business. For example, Sedgwick County Commission meetings feature promotion of events upcoming at the Intrust Bank Arena, which the county owns. Can you imagine being the owner of a business that competes with the arena — and almost any business involved in entertainment, sports, or leisure competes for consumers’ disposable entertainment dollars — and having to listen to these advertisements, paid for by taxpayer dollars?

    We need to dedicate these public meetings to public business. Members of Congress, legislators, council members, and school board members, and commissioners need to be respectful of citizens’ time, and of their own and that of the government staff that must attend these meetings.