Print edition: 
State Sen. and congressional candidate Jean Schodorf fenced with some anti-tax Republicans at a meeting of the Wichita Pachyderm Club on Friday, defending her vote to raise the sales tax by one percentage point.
The tax issue came up during a question and answer session at the end of the meeting, which — in honor of the upcoming Memorial Day holiday — was mainly devoted to Schodorf reading from a war diary her late father wrote during the World War II battle for Okinawa.
Schodorf's father — Capt. William A. Kuretich, who later Americanized his name to Kurtis — was a military aviator who retired as a Marine brigadier general.
Schodorf, R-Wichita, is the only candidate from the Republican Party's moderate wing seeking the GOP nomination for Kansas' 4th Congressional District.
She faces opposition in the GOP primary from businessman Wink Hartman, Republican National Committeeman Mike Pompeo and Jim Anderson, a retired airline pilot who owns a small business.
Sedgwick County Commissioner Karl Peterjohn pointed out that Schodorf voted for the sales tax increase — to close a $500 million budget gap and fund ongoing highway projects — while the likely Democratic nominee in the 4th District, Rep. Raj Goyle of Wichita, voted no.
Craig Gabel, restaurateur, conservative activist and tea-party enthusiast, questioned how Schodorf squared her votes in Topeka with standard GOP planks.
"I'm a little confused," Gabel said. "The Republican Party tends to push for lower taxes, less regulation and smaller government. Your voting record recently... a smoking ban, which is regulations; increased sales taxes and an increase in the budget. Those don't seem to be in harmony with your party affiliation."
Schodorf replied, "My grandfather was a Republican, I'm a Republican. I'm a pro-business Republican. My family has always been longtime Republicans, and I will continue to be a Republican."
She said she had voted for tax increases twice to bridge government across years of deep recessions — in 2002 and this year.
"That's the only time that I have voted for a tax increase," she said.
Schodorf said she didn't see another way forward without gutting programs such as Meals on Wheels, along with aid to the elderly, education and public safety.
"We've cut everything," she said. "For the last two years, we've cut a billion dollars out of the budget. We've cut prisons, we've cut education, we've cut SRS (Social and Rehabilitation Services), we've cut social services, we've cut everything.
"Sometimes you have to govern," she said. "Sometimes you have to make really tough decisions from bad and worse."
Peterjohn, who ran the Kansas Taxpayers Network before he was elected to the commission, corrected the record, telling Schodorf that in addition to the tax increases she cited, she had also voted for increased sales and income taxes in 2004. He even read the bill numbers.
"OK, you're right, you're right," Schodorf replied.
But she called this year's increase a "very fair one-cent sales tax increase.
"I have had hundreds of people support it because they believe we could not decimate education and social services," she added.
She said the important thing is that the sales tax comes back down when most of the increase is scheduled to expire in three years.
And she said the County Commission, by following through with ending the one-cent sales tax increase used to build the Intrust Bank Arena, had made it easier for the state to try its own temporary tax hike.
"You may want to blame Wichita, the County Commission, for being so diligent," Schodorf said. "I can't tell you how many times people have said that, over and over and over again, 'Well, look what they're doing.' "
Peterjohn opposed the arena tax and wasn't on the commission when voters approved it.
