Kansas views on taxing farmland, state workers, foster parents, state hospital, sex ed, strip clubs
Taxing farmland – The seeds sown two years ago to fundamentally alter Kansas’ time-tested three-legged stool of taxation seemingly have matured, and now the state is reaping a sour crop of shifting tax burden to landowners. Senate Bill 178 seeks to change the method in which farmland is taxed. The proposal – the second time in two years such a plan has surfaced in Topeka – would increase taxes on farmers and ranchers between 169 and 1,000 percent, according to an early analysis by the Kansas Farm Bureau. That’s more than a tax increase; it’s a crippling and debilitating blow to the cornerstone industry in the state and one that, had we chosen to listen to history, wouldn’t be so surprising.
State workers – If Kansas state employees weren’t feeling unappreciated before, Gov. Sam Brownback has given them several more reasons to be concerned about the security of their jobs and their retirement. First came the governor’s decision to use $58 million that was supposed to go into the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System to pay other state expenses for the current fiscal year. Then Brownback decided to rescind a 2007 executive order that protected state employees from harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The next day, in timing they claimed was only coincidental, Kansas Department of Administration officials announced a whole package of changes to the state’s personnel policies. State employees have received low or no salary increases for a number of years. Now the state is adding less job security and an uncertain retirement system to the deal. How can the state hope to hire top talent with such an unattractive package?
Foster parents – A bill introduced by Sen. Forrest Knox, R-Altoona, would try to reform our state’s foster care system using 1950s morality. We applaud the senator for acting to improve foster care in Kansas. But what he is talking about in this bill is a dream, and a bad one at that. Many, many good families today have no resemblance to the family in “Leave It to Beaver.”
State hospital – The state of Kansas, which has allowed conditions at the Osawatomie State Hospital to deteriorate shamefully, must spare no expense in upgrading the mental health facility and providing good care to patients. Safety matters even if the $3 million price tag places further stress on the Kansas budget.
Sex ed – In what’s become a re-enactment of a misguided pursuit a decade ago, radical-right state lawmakers want to prohibit student access to public school sex education classes without parental consent. It was the same story in 2005, when ultraconservatives on the Kansas State Board of Education wanted to alter student access to education on human sexuality by requiring parental permission. The mandated “opt-in” idea made no sense then, and doesn’t now, either.
Strip clubs – Legislators have much more important issues to deal with, but once again are being asked to make it difficult for sexually oriented businesses to exist. They shouldn’t waste much time on the issue, and Senate Bill 147 should be allowed to suffer the same fate as similar legislation proposed in 2010, 2011 and 2013, when it passed the House but died in the Senate.
This story was originally published February 22, 2015 at 6:07 PM with the headline "Kansas views on taxing farmland, state workers, foster parents, state hospital, sex ed, strip clubs."