Letters on Kansas Chamber, representing special interests, state efficiency study, Naismith

Kansas Chamber picking winners

The Kansas Chamber of Commerce represents Kansas businesses, with one exception – wind energy.

The organization advocates that government should stop picking winners and losers, but that’s exactly what the chamber is doing by aggressively seeking repeal of the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) while ignoring tax abatements for business aircraft, oil and gas pipelines, refineries and other industry-specific incentives.

In legislative testimony, chamber president Mike O’Neal said the chamber supports the wind industry, yet he submitted trumped-up data implicating wind for 37 percent higher electric rates. The reality is that utilities and the Kansas Corporation Commission agree wind costs are responsible for only 1 to 2 percent of rate increases, with Environmental Protection Agency coal regulations being the real culprit.

Interestingly, while killing the RPS is a top priority for the chamber, not one Kansas business testified for its repeal. However, one prominent Wichita business appears to want the RPS repealed, as its lobbyists are seen frequently at O’Neal’s side at RPS hearings, but don’t testify.

In pandering to the ideological whims of one business, the Kansas Chamber risks jobs and economic growth by undermining an industry that local chambers of commerce have worked hard to acquire – and risks the credibility of its organization.

Represent you?

I am disappointed in Wichita state lawmakers Rep. Les Osterman and Sens. Mike Petersen and Michael O’Donnell. In the past two legislative sessions, despite representing a lot of working-class households with schoolchildren, they have consistently voted against the interest of their districts in order to please their party leaders.

Despite what their campaign literature to you will say in 2016, they have voted to weaken public-employee unions with the long-term goal of eliminating workers’ rights, destroyed due process for teachers, and supported their party’s agenda to starve public schools so they can “prove” public education doesn’t work.

They will claim to believe in small government, yet they vote to override local authority recommendations and bring big government into our bedrooms, public safety and even whether we can take charitable giving out of our paychecks.

The bullying and shenanigans in Topeka must stop. To the voters who live in these men’s districts: I ask you to take the time and really decide if they represent your interest or if they are tied to strict special interests.

Efficiency tips

So the Kansas Senate wants to spend $3 million on an efficiency study. Let me help: Adopt the Nebraska model of a nonpartisan, unicameral legislature; consolidate the number of counties from 105 to 25; stop passing laws to further the right wing’s culture wars that result in federal lawsuits. Now, where do I go to get my consulting fee?

Would be thrilled

An Opinion Line contributor wondered “if March Madness is what James Naismith had in mind when he invented the game of basketball.” The answer is “no.”

In 1891, Naismith was given 14 days to invent a game that would help track athletes stay in shape, without injury, during the long New England winters. He didn’t see the game as anything more than exercise initially.

However, Naismith lived to see basketball become an Olympic sport, and former University of Kansas coach Phog Allen raised money to send Naismith to the 1936 Summer Games to hand out the medals. Naismith stated that seeing the game played by many nations was the greatest compensation he could have received for his invention. He lived to see the start of the National Invitation Tournament and the first NCAA men’s basketball championship in 1939.

I feel certain Naismith would be thrilled to see the popularity of March Madness. A better question might be: How would Naismith feel about the fact that the Naismith Men’s College Coach of the Year managed to coach his team to victory over KU?

This story was originally published March 29, 2015 at 7:05 PM with the headline "Letters on Kansas Chamber, representing special interests, state efficiency study, Naismith."