Letters on county sales tax, deputy shooting, Trump, individual rights, bike trails

Force change on county sales tax

What a big surprise it was to see that Wichitans are paying almost 76 percent of a countywide tax passed in 1985 but only benefiting from 58 percent of that tax (Sept. 9 Eagle).

After what the Sedgwick County Commission recently voted on for the county budget and how that will affect Wichita, I would have thought someone would have publicly addressed this inequity during that debate. However, no one did, and from the looks of it, those who voted for that budget are very likely to oppose any tax changes, because the county budget would look more like a disaster than a success with a loss of revenues. County Commissioner Karl Peterjohn is already citing state statute that will keep the status quo in place.

Wichita Mayor Jeff Longwell says that if the county doesn’t agree to changes, he favors changing the statute. That is taking the long road around a stupid problem. The solution is what city officials sought when the city of Eastborough voted to shut down Douglas Avenue back in the early 1990s: The Wichita City Council ordered crews to put up street barricades, which led Eastborough’s belligerent council to change its mind about closing Douglas.

A similar threat would change Peterjohn’s mind, too.

A county tax

The 1 percent Sedgwick County sales tax was passed into law in 1985 by a county citizen vote. It is a county sales tax, period.

The 1 percent tax is assessed by third parties other than by the city or the county and is then mathematically distributed back to the benefactors in the county by use of a customized state formula. The city of Wichita has been unable to pass a sales tax on its own. Therefore, the city should be tickled pink that it is receiving a majority share (58 percent) of the 1 percent county tax as per the state formula.

This generous split has been in existence for 30 years. It has served the test of time.

Shooting justified

The recent shooting by a Sedgwick County sheriff’s deputy (Sept. 17 Eagle) looked like it was an attempted “suicide by cop,” which is a real problem for police officers coast to coast. Perhaps an investigation will show the man was depressed and desperate. Perhaps he hoped to die and thought his family could get a million-dollar settlement.

The in-car camera did its job; it told the facts. More than just protecting the officer, police cameras may even protect the suicidal by showing them that their families will not be able to sue and become rich.

Every person has the same right to defend himself, and so do police officers. If you are being threatened with death or great bodily harm, you can use force to stop the threat. If the threat looks real, it is real. If a knife turns out to be rubber or a gun to be a toy or a pellet gun, you don’t have to wait until you are shot by a .30-caliber Russian rifle before you can use force to stop the threat.

I feel sorry for the deputy, but he did the right thing.

Follow the leader

In his treatise on “The Education of a Christian Prince” (1516), Desiderius Erasmus made the following observation: “The common people imitate nothing with more pleasure than what they see their prince do. Under a gambler, gambling is rife; under a fighter, everyone gets into fights; under a gourmandizer, they wallow in extravagance; under a voluptuary, they become promiscuous; under a cruel man, they bring charges and false accusations against each other. Turn the pages of history and you will always find the morality of an age reflecting the life of its prince. No comet, no fateful power affects the progress of human affairs in the way that the life of a prince grips and transforms the moral attitudes and character of his subjects.”

If there is any truth to this claim of Erasmus, and if you have any concerns about the current spate of bullying behavior that plagues our schools and our cyberspace, you might want to think twice before voting for Donald Trump.

About individuals

I am always confused when I hear people talk about individual rights as a bad thing. It’s as if they are fighting against their own rights.

If we could noticeably help everyone in society by enslaving just one person, shouldn’t we? The idea of the common good would say “yes.” After all, it would only be one selfish person complaining about his individual rights standing in the way of progress for all of society.

Our country was founded on the idea that the rights of the individual should be more important than the rights of the state. Otherwise, we become subjects of the state, which is pretty much the opposite of liberty.

It is all about the individual, and that is exactly what the founders fought for.

Bike trails needed

I’m in the fifth grade, and my dad and I love to go biking. I wish there were more mountain bike trails in Wichita.

We love to go to Sedgwick County Park. We also go to places like Miller’s Meadow in Andover and Air Capital Memorial Park Trail in Wichita. Dad and I have tried going to several other parks, but sometimes biking is not allowed.

Biking is good for me and you. It is fun, too. Can there be more places for mountain biking in Wichita?

This story was originally published September 19, 2015 at 7:05 PM with the headline "Letters on county sales tax, deputy shooting, Trump, individual rights, bike trails."