Letters on agriculture, tax cuts, Beier invitation, Reagan building

Develop strategy to grow agriculture

I had the opportunity last week to travel throughout south-central Kansas, talking with and hearing from leaders in agriculture. The challenges they face are different than those faced by their ancestors.

Today, concerns about preserving water resources, increasing global competition and changing consumer demands must be addressed for agribusinesses to succeed. Weather conditions from drought to flood or excessive heat to extreme cold always present a risk to crop yields and agriculture. Kansas farmers also face low commodity prices.

Growing the Kansas economy is a key priority for me, and that means helping our agribusinesses to succeed.

There are substantial things we can do long-term: We must be focused on ensuring our agricultural producers have access to reliable, efficient and modern transportation networks to move their products to market. We must recruit and retain the employees these businesses – big and small – need to be successful. We must partner with industry to address regulatory and statutory roadblocks at the local, state and federal levels.

We know Kansas has been blessed with tremendous natural resources – from water to fertile land – and that we must be good stewards of those resources so they are available for our children and grandchildren.

This is a key time for Kansas to focus on moving into the future as we develop strategic plans for agricultural growth.

Restore taxes

There is a difference between raising taxes and restoring taxes.

In 2012, the governor advocated, and the Legislature approved, income tax exemption for more than 300,000 Kansans, many in the higher-income brackets, acting on ill-advised counsel from a so-called expert. In the process, they decimated a reasonably balanced tax policy that relied on income, property and sales taxes.

In the ensuing years, the revenue stream has shrunk, essential services are being curtailed, ill-advised transfers of one-time funds have occurred, and other accounting maneuvers have caused an unprecedented fiscal crisis.

In a stunning display of hypocrisy, Secretary of Revenue Nick Jordan wrote that “the answer is not higher taxes” (“Tax policy is helping small business grow,” Sept. 11 Opinion). But their answer was higher taxes – an increase in the sales tax (including the super regressive full rate on food), the elimination of a deduction for health-related expenses, and a 50 percent reduction in the deduction of property taxes and mortgage interest in 2015 with a full elimination in 2016 and beyond.

These tax increases have disproportionately and adversely affected lower- and middle-income Kansans.

So, yes, those of you in executive and legislative authority, the answer is the elimination of all the income tax cuts. This amounts to restoring taxes, not raising them, on those fortunate high earners who have been enjoying a tax holiday for these several years at the expense of all the rest of us.

Invite Beier back

I write to express concern about the decision of Newman University to disinvite Kansas Supreme Court Justice Carol Beier (“Newman cancels talk by Supreme Court justice after anti-abortion backlash,” Sept. 9 Eagle). Private religious colleges have every right to preserve doctrinal integrity. But withdrawing an invitation once issued signals a rejection of the open dialogue and inquiry essential for teaching and learning.

Silencing, rather than debating, controversial viewpoints runs counter to education. President Obama himself has warned students about the dangers of refusing to hear speakers who challenge their beliefs.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Condoleezza Rice, Christine Lagarde and George Will have all been barred or discouraged from campus visits. Places that should be sanctuaries for free inquiry have become equal-opportunity censors, repressing voices from the left, right and center.

Newman leaders should not be part of academia’s drift toward censorship. Even their own student handbook reads: “It is recognized that diversity of viewpoints, particularly as expressed by speakers invited to campus, encourages additional inquiry and examination.” Therefore, the university should restore Beier’s invitation to speak.

Pursuit of truth

The university as a center where various disciplines unite under the common pursuit of truth comes out of Medieval and Catholic Europe. It held that natural and supernatural truths spring from the same source, God, and thus are not in competition. Hence, places like the University of Paris and Oxford educated not only scientists and but also theologians. This is also the reason Harvard originally engraved the words “Christ and Church” into its seal.

Undoubtedly, higher education today is different. Many recoil at the idea that an overarching and objective theme like “truth” manifests in all areas of human inquiry. Even so, others embrace it with joy.

Newman University claims to be a place for this. It lists “Catholic identity” as the first of four core values with reference to a Pope John Paul II document. That document describes Catholic universities as places which foster “the integration of human and professional education with religious values in the light of Catholic doctrine.”

This is why the university’s invitation to Kansas Supreme Court Justice Carol Beier was at the very least confusing, for her pro-choice record models a dis-integration of professional skill with Catholic doctrine. Newman students and supporters who expect the school’s officials to walk their talk have well-founded concern.

Reagan legacy

It is wholly appropriate, of course, to name our former IRS building for a president whose economic policies slashed taxes, increased defense spending, created deep deficits, and tripled our national debt (“Reagan name going on former IRS building,” Sept. 15 Eagle). He left a legacy from which subsequent generations still struggle to recover.

Lie, deception

Hillary Clinton has mastered the art of the lie, while Donald Trump has merely mastered the art of deception.

This story was originally published September 18, 2016 at 5:05 AM with the headline "Letters on agriculture, tax cuts, Beier invitation, Reagan building."