A KansasWatchdog article this morning reveals that Kansas Representative Don Hineman (R-Dighton), and not the Kansas Economic Progress Council, requested the pro-sales tax study released Monday by Wichita State University.
The study concluded that a sales tax increase would cost private sector employment, but would fuel government jobs, thus saving close to 2,000 in the first year. The study confirmed a January study by Dr. Art Hall of the University of Kansas who ran a 6 year projection of over 26,000 private sector lost jobs. Monday’s study by Dr. John Wong of WSU only made one year projections.
Monday’s study received significant media coverage because of it’s pro-tax sympathies, while Hall’s January study received little attention.
Read more at:
Wind turbines along I-70
According to a Lawrence Journal-World article this evening, the Kansas Supreme Court has moved to shut down wind turbines in the Kansas Flint Hills.
Whether or not wind power should be sought in Kansas is still up for debate. It is clear that wind power is unreliable and can not be used for base power. Further, wind power has been proven to be extremely expensive without government (taxpayer) subsidies.
But what can certainly be questioned is why wind power is such a wonderful thing for western Kansas but untouchable for eastern Kansas counties. (more…)
Kansas lawmakers are asking the Kansas Attorney General to investigate SRS funding decisions. When this story began to come to light earlier this year, we did some background investigation on the firm in question and found more questions than answers regarding how one firm was chosen to receive money and what they did with your tax dollars. You can read it here: Firm receiving extra Medicaid funding from Sebelius administration makes nearly $1 million in improvements to property
State Representatives Peggy Mast (R-Emporia) and David Crum (R-Augusta) sent a letter this week to Attorney General Steve Six, requesting that his Medicaid Fraud and Abuse Unit conduct a formal investigation to determine whether SRS violated Medicaid funding rules when it directly awarded $712,000 in extraordinary funding to Community Living Opportunities (CLO) in November, 2008.
Rep. Mast chairs the House Social Service Budget Committee and serves on the House Health and Human Services Committee as well as the Joint Committee on Home and Community-Based Services Committee.
Rep. Crum is Vice-Chairman of the House Health and Human Services Committee and serves on the House Social Service Budget Committee.
Rep. Brenda Landwehr (R-Wichita), who chairs the House Health and Human Services Committee, said she was pleased Reps. Mast and Crum requested the investigation.
“Kansans deserve a determination whether SRS has again violated Medicaid funding rules through its funding decisions. If the Attorney General’s investigation does find SRS at fault, those responsible for and involved with the additional funding decision should be held accountable for their actions,” Chairman Landwehr said.
Kansas Liberty is also covering this story and has additional background information. AG Six has said he’ll look into it but won’t comment during the investigation.
What is quickly becoming a liability for Gov. Mark Parkinson, the Service Employees International Union is asking the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services for thousands of employees names, addresses and telephone numbers so they can be contacted about SEIU’s “services.” The SRS has stated that they will comply with the request.
According to records obtained by the Kansas Meadowlark, SEIU donated $100,000 to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius in the last election cycle. Is this new request a payback for all of that invested money? It certainly is beginning to look that way.
According to an SRS spokesperson, the department will ensure that the information is not used for “marketing purposes” and that SEIU will be picking up the expense of the request. And how does the SRS or any other government agency plan to enforce the use of information already handed over to the SEIU? Ask for it back? Shake their finger and say, “Bad SEIU, bad!”
Governor Parkinson and his agency heads should quickly abandon this payback scheme and a full legislative investigation should occur. It’s quite troubling that a simple KORA request can result in personal information being released to the public without the employees knowledge.
For more coverage, see Kansas Liberty.
There's nothing ethical about a government body that disregards the free speech rights of private citizens while breaking the law themselves.
The Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission today spit in the face of the law they have been sworn to up hold. The commission today declined to award Kris VanMeteren, a Topeka activist who was unlawfully sanctioned by the Commission, $17,500 in real damages. There has never been a more clear case in recent memory where a government body has gone out of its way to trample the free speech rights of a private citizen.
(more…)
Loading ...