It's interesting to look at campaign finance reports. Following, a few highlights on a report from David Dennis, a candidate for Sedgwick County Commission.
Posts tagged as “Sharon Fearey”
Announcement of a new developer proceeding with a Save-A-Lot grocery store project -- without any of the subsidies Wichita approved -- raises questions as to whether the city's original offer of public assistance was genuine economic development, or just another instance of corporate welfare.
It's reported that the City of Wichita is facing a $6.5 million shortfall. The city's looking at several ways to reduce costs, including closing police substations during the overnight hours ($148,000), reducing lawn mowing at parks ($100,000), and cutting back on swimming pool hours ($2,000).
Here's one simple thing the city could do to save money that won't cause very many people any pain at all: cut back on celebratory luncheons.
A local non-profit organization, held in high esteem, seeks to purchase property owned by the City of Wichita. So what's the problem?
Bob Weeks recommends postponing approval of a Wichita TIF district until new procedures are put in place. Plus, a question about future mill levies, with…
At the December 16, 2008 meeting of the Wichita City Council, Sharon Fearey expressed her displeasure with reporting done by the Wichita Eagle.
Mustering all the sarcasm she can, Sharon Fearey says “Thank you, Wichita Eagle.” Speaking from the bench at the December 16, 2008 meeting of the…
Rhonda Holman's Wichita Eagle editorial today (Need vetting of City Hall partners) correctly states that city staff "missed the mark in vetting negotiator Grant Gaudreau." Or is the proper title "principal developer," as stated by Wichita’s director of urban development Allen Bell? (See Wichita’s Faulty Due Diligence for video.)
Sharon Fearey asked this question:
"Do we all get free nuts or anything?"
Today the Wichita City Council holds a special meeting to consider a reformulated plan to provide tax increment financing (TIF) for the area surrounding the…
Today, September 4, 2008, marks the first day of the ban on smoking in Wichita. It’s not quite a total ban, and that has some…
A post titled Keeping TIFs from a public tiff by Wichita Eagle business reporter Bill Wilson on the Eagle’s Business Casual blog reveals his bias…
In a Wichita Eagle article City tax districts aren’t breaking even we find this whopper of a quote: Vice Mayor Sharon Fearey likened the situation…
Do we really want government art in Wichita? David Boaz, in his recent book The Politics of Freedom: Taking on The Left, The Right and…
In a statement read by Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer and released on the city’s website at Mayor Brewer Warren Theatre [sic] Statement, the mayor states…
A system of absolute respect for private property rights is the best way to handle smoking, as it is with all issues. The owners of bars and restaurants have, and should continue to have, the absolute right to permit or deny smoking on their property.
On August 22, 2006, the City of Wichita hosted a Visioneering Committee "Public Forum on Community Revitalization" featuring Mr. Richard Baron, Chairman and CEO of McCormack Baron Salazar (MBS) of St. Louis, Missouri in the Sudermann Commons Room at the Wichita State University Hughes Metropolitan Complex. An August 14, 2006 letter from City Manager George Kolb explains, "This forum is part of the City's commitment to and participation in a prisoner reentry initiative to help transform not only the lives of returning ex-offenders, but also to transform the communities/neighborhoods into which they will return."
There is an interesting academic paper titled "The Failures of Economic Development Incentives," published in Journal of the American Planning Association, and which can be read here: www.planning.org/japa/pdf/04winterecondev.pdf. A few quotes from the study:
Given the weak effects of incentives on the location choices of businesses at the interstate level, state governments and their local governments in the aggregate probably lose far more revenue, by cutting taxes to firms that would have located in that state anyway than they gain from the few firms induced to change location.