Kansas Conservative Politics and Beyond
Kansas Confidential, a new liberal blog in Kansas, has an interestingly truthful post regarding the leadership void within the Kansas Democratic Party and who’s to blame for it. According to the new blog, the primary culprit is none other than Kathleen Sebelius.
According to the Kansas left, Sebelius was more interested in her own political ambitions during her time in Kansas than in helping grow the Democratic Party. As Kansas Confidential puts it:
A TEE Party activist displays his T-shirt
Around 80 citizens attended AFP’s TEE Party in the capital. Activists stood outside the House chambers to greet legislators as they entered and then moved to the viewing balcony to see our government at work. One activist had a campaign flyer from her Senator stating that she had worked to remove the franchise tax, eliminate the estate tax and make Kansas a more tax friendly state. She planned to remind her Senator what she said on the campaign trail.
At noon activist regrouped for a quick lunch. A few legislators joined the group including Sens. Susan Wagle, Dick Kelsey, Mike Petersen and Rep. Steve Brunk. A few organizers quickly addressed the group, including FairTax from Kansas City, Sedgwick County Commissioner Karl Peterjohn and grassroots activist and TEA Party organizer Amanda Grosserode.
FairTax activists have plan in place to bring the FairTax to Kansas. A bill is currently working its way through the Missouri Senate. Advocates noted the devastating effects that could happen here in Kansas if Missouri becomes much more business and tax friendly than Kansas.
Karl Peterjohn gave some tips on effective lobbying. He spoke about the important impact citizens can have on their government.
Amanda Grosserode mention another protest for Congressman Dennis Moore. Details will be announced on their website soon.
Participants were encouraged to visit legislators in the Docking State Office building and in the capital. Some plan to stay and hear the Governor’s address at 4pm if possible. Buses leaving for Johnson County and Wichita will still leave on time at 4pm however.
Reactions from citizens vary. A common theme seems to be the amount of taxpayer funded lobbying that is occuring under the dome. A group from invisiblekansas.com was also under the dome urging no cuts to their taxpayer funded activities. There seems to be every constituency imaginable under the dome lobbying legislators right now except taxpayer citizens.
The Community Living Opportunities website now features video and other stories from clients and their families about why CLO needs additional funding from the state of Kansas. The justifications can be found on every page.
Community Living Opportunities (CLO) was recently highlighted for their unusual protest and subsequent Medicaid reimbursement from the state of Kansas. The Board of Directors for the non-profit include Lew Perkins, athletic director for the University of Kansas and Larry Gates, chairman of the Kansas Democratic Party and former law partner of the newest Kansas Supreme Court Justice, Dan Biles.
The CLO website now features written and video testimonies from clients and their families on every page justifying the additional funding the group received. The main story on the homepage is an explanation of the additional costs to the state to operate this non-profit organization.
Although based in Lenexa, CLO’s website indicates it provides various services across the state and has offices in Lawrence and southeast Kansas in addition to Lenexa.
On a suggestion, I searched for properties owned by CLO in Douglas County. The search returned numerous pieces of property but only one was outside the city limits of Lawrence, a small tract northeast of Baldwin City. A further search of online records and a trip to the Douglas County courthouse raised further questions about the property.
The proprty was purchased in July 2005. A search of documents at the Register of Deeds office confirms a $400,000 lean placed against the property at that time. Sale prices are not public record.
2005 Appraisal. Click to enlarge.
2008 Appraisal. Click to enlarge.
2009 Appraisal. Click to enlarge.
Douglas County has appraisals online from 2007 to 2009. A search at the appraisal office shows a varied appraisal in 2005 before the sale of the property.
The actual market value of the land is difficult to determine because part of the land was appraised for residential, part farm, and part was exempt from property taxes.
The appraisal remains somewhat steady until 2009. Apprasied improvements in 2008 according to online tax records was $161,950. Combined with the land value, total appraisal was $263,950. According to the county appraisal office, the numbers do not reflect market value because the land is exempt from property taxes (CLO is a non-profit), so the property is summarily ignored by the county since it carries no tax liability.
However, appraised improvements to the property increased by nearly $1 million from 2008 to 2009. Because the property is exempt from taxation, any valuation of improvements likely reflects actual cost of the improvement versus any market value it might have.
A GIS map of the property.
A newly built pond in the southwest corner of the property.
A new structure in the northern part of the property. Away from public roads, it looks like a new house but one can't be sure.
A small sign at the entrance gives the name of the property as Midnight Farms
Pictures of the property reveal new and ongoing construction.
A pond has been newly built in the southwest corner of the property, in behind the existing house. New overhead poles have been erected above a new main driveway along with a small sign identifying the property as part of Midnight Farms, a subdivision, so to speak, of CLO.
“No Trespassing” and “Keep Out” signs have been posted around the property on both the road on the south side of the land and on the east, although some of these appear to have been in place for some time by comparing to Google Maps.
Most curious is a large new building built in the back of the property. Based on what can be seen from the road, it appears this is the main reason appraised improvements increased by nearly $1 million. Google Maps confirms the building was recently built.
CLO was called before a House Committee to give testimony justifying the over $700,000 in additional funds they received. If the non-profit is able to afford hundreds of thousands of dollars for a new piece of land and then nearly $1 million in improvements, why is additional funding from the state needed? Is CLO using their connections to get extra state funding to pay the mortgage on their newly aquired land? What other pieces of property does CLO own that they are using taxpayer money to buy and support which is then taken off the tax rolls?
It further raises questions as to how the non-profit was able to secure extra state funding while expanding operations. Was the ability of CLO to fund nearly $1 million in improvements taken into account by the Sebelius administration before authorizing more funding, or did the administration simply rubber stamp the extra money because of CLO’s connections?
CLO claims on its website that it receives special funding because, “(W)e serve Persons with Specialized Needs!” But don’t other non-profit health organizations in the state also serve people with special needs? Aren’t other health care providers in the state asked to make do with what the state can afford? Why should an organization like CLO be allotted more than their fair share simply because they are able to pull the right strings in Topeka while others play by the rules?
If CLO is in such dire financial straits, why justify their extra funding on every page of their website? How can CLO afford a $400,000 lean on a newly purchased property? How can CLO afford nearly $1 million in improvements if they can’t make ends meet without an extra $700,000 from the state?
The Kansas House and Senate have passed a $13 billion state budget set to begin July 1. The budget makes some minor cuts to K-12 education and major cuts to other areas, but in the end signifies only a 6.8% decrease in general fund expenditures in comparison to 2009 spending levels.
While 6.8% sounds like a significant decrease, it’s just a drop in the bucket compared to previous spending sprees. And once again K-12 has only been dealt a 1% cut in funding even though it’s budget amounts to half state general fund expenditures.
But that number, $13 billion, that really got my attention. After multiple bailouts, billions and trillions just seem to mesh together in my mind and have become meaningless. It reminds me of the demonstrations done in high school to show just how far away Pluto was from the Sun or changing seconds into years to try and get a handle on millions/billions of years.
So, in order to understand just how much $13 billion is, I thought I’d break it down a bit.
First, $13 billion for the year means the state will spend just over $35.5 million every day. That’s just under $1.5 million every hour, or $24,734 every minute. Most frightening, that’s $412 every second of every day for an entire year.
$13 billion divided by nearly 3 million Kansans (2.776 million to be exact) means the state will spend $4,683 for each citizen. That’s $18,732 of spending for a family of four in one year. That means Kansas will spend $13 every day on each Kansan or $51 every day for a family of four. If you wanted to put money in a jar to pay your share, a family of four would have to add $2.12 every hour or about a quarter every seven minutes.
And that’s just state government. That doesn’t include money you’d have to give to local government.
Legislators made cuts in spending and they should be commended. But when put in perspective, the figures beg the question, “Does the government tax too little or spend too much?”
Would you make a $390 monthly payment for the services state government provides? Are you getting your money’s worth?
Fox News headlines Sebelius tax problems
News is breaking today that Kathleen Sebelius has paid over $7,000 worth of back taxes over a three year period, thus becoming just another Obama nominee who loves to tax but apparently hates to pay up.
You can see all the articles here.
So far, Senate Democrats seem to still be behind her nomination but one has to wonder if it’s because there truly isn’t any problem with not paying taxes or if the administration is simply running out of options for the HHS post. Sebelius has previously been passed over for VP, other administration posts and was the second line choice for HHS. Maybe it has less to do with what is ethical and more to do with limited options.
This combined with problems of favoritism in Medcaid reimbursements and political and financial support from abortionist George Tiller, who is now under investigation from the Board of Healing Arts, has to be taking its toll.
My question is, would the “unintentional mistakes” have been caught if Sebelius hadn’t been nominated for HHS? Probably not. And that’s over $7,000 that the rest of us honest taxpaying citizens would have had to cough up.
Perhaps we should ask Obama to nominate more elected Democrats. It seems to be doing wonders for the government’s tax revenue.
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