Letters on blight bill, legislative leadership, CIF, strange dream

Blight bill is not a power grab

Much has been written about Senate Bill 338, the abandoned housing bill passed by the 2016 Legislature and vetoed by Gov. Sam Brownback. As mayor of the city of Topeka and 2016 president of the League of Kansas Municipalities, representing more than 600 Kansas cities, I would like to set the record straight.

The notion this bill would let cities rip land and homes away from people is wrong. The properties this bill pertains to don’t have residents. They sit empty, without utilities, attracting criminal activity and violations that put you and your family at risk and degrade your property values.

It’s also wrong to say the bill destroys property rights. The bill contains numerous opportunities, including judicial review, for rightful property owners to step forward and take responsibility. And the families living next door to these abandoned, forgotten properties have those same property rights – rights that are crushed under broken windows and failing roofs. Rights we could restore with SB 338.

We want to get to these properties before they become safety hazards, before we spend thousands of your tax dollars trying to find these negligent owners, mowing weeds and demolishing homes.

We are at the table with compromises to pass SB 338. We hope to see the governor there.

Elect new leadership

Kansas is on the brink of bankruptcy. Revenues necessary to fund the duties and responsibilities of the state no longer exist. The pro-growth tax relief has not realized the governor’s promised effects on the state’s economy. Just the opposite has resulted, and the debacle continues to worsen under the current leadership. The governor continues shifting money within the budget and delaying payments to keep the current budget barely legal, all the while asserting that the sun is shining.

But as the election approaches, expect individual legislators to appear to make a break with the governor’s agenda as though they have not been a major part of the state’s current fiscal problems. They are part of the leadership problem that is in danger of bankrupting the state.

We need to rid ourselves of the current leadership and elect reasonable individuals to return our state to a sound economy. We need a return to high-quality highways and safe bridges. We need a return to outstanding institutions of higher education and respect for dedicated public school teachers and administrators who work in districts adequately and fairly funded by a Legislature that serves its citizenry.

Don’t rob the CIF

Since 2011, Gov. Sam Brownback has taken nearly $100 million from investments in kids’ early education and health. Now, facing continued low revenue estimates, he has restated his interest in taking money from the Children’s Initiatives Fund.

Since its inception in 1999, the CIF has served as the cornerstone of funding for Kansas’ early care and education system, its funds having been derived from a national settlement with tobacco companies. The governor’s current thinking, however, is to sell off the rights to some of those funds for a one-time payment of about $158 million.

This is a rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul approach that will seriously endanger early education programs. Kansas taxpayers would spend the next 30 years paying off principal and interest instead of investing in our youngest children.

In 2014, hundreds of thousands of children were served by programs at least partially funded by the CIF – and some programs generate an $11 return for every $1 invested, as documented by the firm hired by the state to identify places to save money.

In Sedgwick County alone, more than 1,200 children and families are served by seven organizations that have CIF funds. These funds help low-income parents afford child care, infuse money into pre-K classrooms, and provide home visits for struggling families, along with parent education and developmental screenings that identify problems early.

The board of directors of Child Start and I ask that you contact your legislators immediately and let them know that using money from the CIF to pay for budget shortfalls is unacceptable.

Dream made sense

As a school counselor, I would sometimes have students come to me about having bad dreams. Sometimes they were about a scary movie or program they had watched. I would say, “Maybe you should not watch that kind of show if it bothers your sleep.” I would often tell them that I believe they can be in charge of their dreams. They can have happy dreams if they think that kind of thought.

Not long ago I had a dream about my father, who has been dead for more than 25 years. I dreamed we were getting ready to go fishing, something I always enjoyed doing with him. This time we were waiting for another man to come over so the three of us could go fishing together.

After we waited awhile, a man came to the door. He said, “Are you waiting for (some man’s name)?” I said, “Yes, he is going fishing with us.” He said, “Well, he is dead.”

I went back to where my father was and said, “Dad, the man we are waiting for is dead.” Dad said, “I know.” My dream ended.

Of course Dad knew, because Dad was dead, too. Maybe I should stop waiting to go fishing with my dad.

This story was originally published April 25, 2016 at 7:03 PM with the headline "Letters on blight bill, legislative leadership, CIF, strange dream."