Letters on property tax lid, abortion, Red Cross ride program, new library, basketball league

Property tax lid is the ultimate local control

As a lifelong Kansan, I know that property taxes are the most despised taxes in our state. In response to the continued outcry, I introduced an important proposal last year that would allow you to vote before your property taxes can increase beyond inflation.

The proposal became law but with some unsavory changes, such as delaying implementation until 2018 and allowing exemptions that would make it easier to get around the public vote. This year I introduced a bill to move implementation to 2016 and remove many exemptions.

Opponents of the measure suggest a voter-approved property tax lid impedes local control. Nothing could be further from the truth. This property tax lid advocates for the ultimate local control: direct voter approval of property tax hikes. This does not mean cities and counties will never get an increase beyond inflation. It simply means that they have to make the case to those they represent.

If cities and counties had kept their property tax increases at the rate of inflation, it would have saved Kansans $5.3 billion since 1997.

Please contact your legislators and ask them to trust Kansas voters by giving you the right to vote on property taxes in 2016.

Trust women

I encourage people of reason to contact their state representatives to allow hearings on House Bill 2580 (repealing a ban on abortion insurance), HB 2581 (repealing a ban on telemedicine for abortion services) and HB 2586 (expanding access to long-acting reversible contraception). These bills are effective means of reducing poverty and dependency.

The moneyed, sectarian interests have corruptly aligned themselves with criminals. Their obstinate agenda is ethically bankrupt. Women deserve health care congruous to their needs, not the malpractice of medicine by politicians.

Trust women to determine what is best for themselves and their families.

Ride service needed

I am bereft that the American Red Cross has chosen to drop its rider services for the elderly (Feb. 11 Eagle). I have had to use that service in Wichita and Virginia, and would not have made doctor, chemotherapy and physical therapy appointments had the service not been available.

I am hoping another agency in Wichita and nationwide will pick up this service. It is a desperately needed, vitally important service.

Your vote is important

A recent Opinion Line contributor asked: “Since when does the Wichita City Council have the authority to approve a new $33 million library? When do the taxpayers get to vote on their approval or disapproval?”

Though I don’t necessarily agree with council members on the library, I certainly recognize their authority to decide. In a democracy, the people vote on almost every government action. But we do not live in a democracy; we live in a republic, where we elect officials to make these decisions for us.

This is why elections are so important. If you don’t vote or don’t fully vet the candidates you vote for, your government will not represent you.

Get rid of unread books

Instead of building a new downtown library, why not temporarily hire 10 intelligent and interested bookworms to look at every book in the present Central Library? Then get rid of 90 percent of the books that have not been checked out in the past 20 years. Then rebuild the present library as needed, for less than the new library will cost.

And, yes, let Wichitans vote concerning the new library.

Real teamwork

My husband and I had the opportunity to watch a Tri-County Sports League basketball game recently. We pulled our son out of Levy Special Education Center on a Friday afternoon to support the school team, the Levy Legends. What we witnessed was truly inspiring and uplifting.

Bill Billingsley, who works at Levy, has been the team’s coach since the beginning of the league. He always has a smile on his face and hugs to give.

Some of the players struggle to run and walk, others are in wheelchairs, and many have a short attention span and need constant redirection. Billingsley has a way of making all the players feel special and believe they are as good as LeBron James or Lynette Woodard (from my day). During halftime, he pulled Levy students from the stands who can’t play on the team to include them in a shootaround for fun. The Levy Legends cheerleaders also did a great job cheering on their team and firing up the crowd.

After the game, Billingsley pulled everyone together on center court – including players, coaching staff, cheerleaders, family and friends. He told us all that he wasn’t going to lie, we’d been beaten pretty badly that day. Then he announced we were going to have a pizza party at the next practice, and cheers went up from all the players.

We could all learn about teamwork and how to treat others by watching the players in the Tri-County basketball league and their dedicated coaches. We need more selfless people like coach Bill Billingsley in this world.

This story was originally published February 15, 2016 at 6:06 PM with the headline "Letters on property tax lid, abortion, Red Cross ride program, new library, basketball league."