Letters on discriminatory caucuses, Westar hike, Brownback’s banana republic, importing elephants, aviation museum, senior renters

Caucus voting unfair to elderly, disabled

Does no one care how the political parties of Kansas discriminate against the elderly, the disabled, the slightly disabled, the military, the police, the firefighters, the medical workers and a host of other people with essential jobs by using caucuses instead of the good old primary?

This practice denies thousands of people a way to vote. With baby boomers aging, the near future will have an even larger group of people who might be ill, not able to stand or walk far, or disabled.

At least the Republicans provided absentee ballots for the disabled, if you called them to do so. And of course, they catered big time to Wichita State University sports fans. The Democrats didn’t even do that.

While I’m complaining, I must include the unfairness of the electoral vote. Even a child would know popular vote is the fair method.

Another Westar hike

Westar Energy is back at the feed trough again for its semiannual rate increase (March 9 Eagle), and with the Citizens’ Utility Ratepayer Board in disarray, we can all rest assured that the Kansas Corporation Commission will rubber-stamp the request.

Until such time as Westar has legitimate competition for its service, this monopolistic enterprise should be turned into a public utility in which the hard costs for managing and servicing the generation and distribution of electricity are the only costs incurred by customers. Under no circumstances should an 11 percent guaranteed return for its investors be part of this or any other rate increase.

Banana republic

The banana republic that Gov. Sam Brownback and his benefactors have nearly completed should give pause to all Kansans. His unpopularity is little comfort as we watch him and his legislative lackeys – House Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, and Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita – sack or bully fellow party members and undercut the separation of powers that safeguards democracies.

Though Kansans support KanCare expansion 2-to-1 in a new poll, Merrick removed three Republican health professionals from the House Health and Human Services Committee who he feared would ask for debate. Remaining on the committee are a tractor dealer, banker, CPA and real-estate agent. Meanwhile, rural hospitals face financial ruin.

On the judicial front, Kansas Supreme Court justices who had the audacity to say Kansas should fund its schools at a decent level are being attacked in every manner. There’s no word to describe the failed court defunding measure other than “extortion.” Currently, Wagle’s fellow senators are crafting new impeachment grounds so laughably ambiguous that the upcoming witch hunts would make the townfolk of Salem blush.

Make no mistake: This is Third World governance come to Kansas. Brownback, Wagle and Merrick recognize no limits in democratic government, but Kansans should recognize them for what they are: bullies.

Headed down river

The budget crisis is now producing the possibility that Gov. Sam Brownback is secretly trying to sell, as the Topeka Capital-Journal put it, “future state tobacco settlement receipts for a one-time payment of $400 million to help address state government budget problems.” One Republican senator professed ignorance of any such deal. Really?

So now the governor may be willing, in order to protect his legacy, to throw some of Kansas’ most vulnerable children under the bus. As someone who has watched him since his days in the U.S. Senate, I am not surprised.

The crisis in our budget is also forcing the Legislature to create a plan (Senate Bill 463) to deal with the ongoing shortfalls by placing in the general fund $500 million from the Kansas Department of Transportation, as well as casino revenues and funding for economic development.

Our state government is now in a rowboat merrily going down the Kansas River. When it hits the Missouri River, will someone turn out the lights in Kansas?

Get behind museum

I was the first full-time employee at the Kansas Aviation Museum in 1990. I spent 60 percent of the time raising money that wasn’t there and 40 percent of my time plugging holes at the museum. I had a great set of volunteers, and we worked seven days a week. Literally.

But you couldn’t get money from a stone. The Eagle finally stepped up with $1,000. Private citizens gave memberships, but you can’t run a project like that on memberships.

Pressure was on Beechcraft and Cessna Aircraft to provide nothing but display items. Boeing gave a lot of articles, thank you very much. And it provided a lot of support, but little money.

Part of the problem at the museum was that the board was occupied by people who had no real pull in the community. If you weren’t somebody in this town, you got nothing. It is still the same.

I now call on the somebodies of the community who sit back and complain to get up, go out and fund-raise. This is a piece of history that we risk losing. Please don’t let this happen.

If Spirit AeroSystems wants to be a part of this community, and also Bombardier, please get behind this and push. Once it’s gone, it is gone.

Ready for elephants

Regarding the controversy about the importation of elephants to three of our nation’s zoos, I wish to offer my support.

The ongoing situation in Africa is taking the the species toward extinction. The management efforts to sequester herds and keep the populations safe are overwhelmed by poachers and human intrusion.

Zoos in this country no longer exist to put animals on display at their expense. They promote our own species appreciation of them through education, research and the careful maintenance of genetic diversity.

It is true that zoos cannot duplicate the elephants’ home environment, and that is good. A migration route model, in reality, includes starvation, terror, profound grief and early death by poaching.

As one of the beautiful, dignified and last remnants of the Pleistocene megafauna, these intelligent individuals deserve help.

The Sedgwick County Zoo is equipped, staffed and ready to proceed with this noble mission.

Help senior renters

It’s true that the number of seniors facing housing crises is growing, and it’s not just because they haven’t saved enough money (“Affordable senior housing: Finding it is challenging,” Feb. 28 Progress 2016). Without adequate protections at the federal, state and local levels, seniors – especially renters – who live on fixed incomes or who are still struggling to recover from the financial crisis increasingly find themselves in danger of losing their homes.

In Kansas, 27.4 percent of renters ages 65 and over – nearly 15,000 households – pay more than half their income in housing costs. I run Make Room, a national advocacy campaign focused on renters, and we found recently that the number of Kansas seniors paying unaffordable rent is higher now than any year in the past decade. Nationwide, 1.8 million senior renters face the same burden.

Federal, state and local policymakers must make smart investments and support policies that can offer seniors the support they need. They should expand the low-income housing tax credit and the Section 8 rental assistance program, both of which already help seniors in every state live in homes they can afford. Keeping seniors healthy and housed should be a priority, and legislators in Topeka should take note.

This story was originally published March 12, 2016 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Letters on discriminatory caucuses, Westar hike, Brownback’s banana republic, importing elephants, aviation museum, senior renters."