A forum gave locals a heads up on how candidates feel about pressing issues Thursday night. The Iola Register sponsored the forum. Managing Editor Tim Stauffer moderated the event.
Candidates represented the offices of the Allen County Sheriff, Allen County Commission District 3, 2nd Congressional District, 9th District House of Representatives, and the 12th District Senate. County Commissioner David Lee was also present to discuss the proposed half-cent EMS sales tax.
About 60 attended the meeting with several hundred tuning in over the course of the evening to the Register’s livestream coverage posted on its Facebook page.
Allen County Commission District 3
Voters will decide on Nov. 5 between Republican John Brocker and Independent Jon Wells.
In his opening statement, Brocker said he has operated a local real estate business for nearly 48 years, has been active on the political side of the Realtors Association for many years and had previously held the commissioner role for six months. Wells is a transplant to Iola from Tulsa, Okla. Moving here when he was 24, Wells has taught political science, history, and ethics courses at Allen Community College for more than 17 years.
What are your thoughts on the proposed half-cent sales tax that is designed to support emergency medical services (EMS) and raise the county sales tax to 1.75%, while generating $1.2 million in additional revenue?
Brocker pulled from his experience serving on the Southeast Kansas Regional Planning Commission for his answer. “I meet with all the commissioners in the other 12 districts,” he said. “That’s how the majority of the other counties run their EMS — strictly on sales tax.” Brocker noted that he is in favor of the tax if it proportionally draws down property taxes.
Wells, who was initially in favor of the idea, now has concerns with it. “The plan that’s being pushed is a $1.2 million tax increase and $600,000 (4 mills) are returned to the taxpayer,” he explained. “In my mind, this is a tax increase — plain and simple — disguised as a tax decrease.” He commended Commissioner David Lee for his efforts in reaching the public on the issue, but stated he thinks citizens should have been more involved in the planning process. “We’re raising taxes and we haven’t shown a need for it because we’ve been lowering the mill levy for a decade,” he said. “The two don’t match up in my mind. If we want to do a quarter-cent tax with a $600,000 decrease in property taxes, that adds up. Right now, I can’t be in favor of it.”
With the newest landfill cell costing approximately $3 million, it has an expected lifespan of 8 to 10 years — noticeably shorter than previous cells. What is our landfill’s future and how can we better manage trash in Allen County?
Wells believes the county should explore a waste energy plan. “This may be something we want to explore with Chanute and some of the surrounding counties to ease their landfill and to ease ours,” said Wells. “Waste energy is being run out of Tulsa right now. It is environmentally sound and is not putting a lot of pollutants in the air.” He noted there is also a recycling portion of the process where metals and a lot of the plastics are sorted out of the waste. “Not only would we save the landfill and extend that time, but we also would generate income on the energy,” he said. “For the longest time, Iola had to pay up to $120,000 for capacity. Not the ability to generate, but a theoretical ability to generate. We got used generators and now we make $100,000 on our excess capacity that we sell back to the market. That’s a $220,000 swing to the taxpayer.”
Brocker would like to look at the cost benefits of the methane gas produced at the landfill. “Methane gas has been a big commodity across the country and the landfill makes quite a bit of it,” he said. He noted that one of the biggest sellers of methane gas are dairy farms. “They’re not making their money off the dairy side of it. They’re making it off of the methane gas side of it,” he added. “That could be a plus for us if we figure out a way we can ship it just like they’re shipping it. We need to look at the whole picture to see if there is another way that we can make more money off of doing stuff like that.”
When the Allen County Airport is finished, it will be a prime space for economic development. How can the county build on this energy? Who are our partners in “selling” the airport? What can or should the county do to further develop infrastructure and economic development?
“What we need to look at is the infrastructure,” said Brocker. “Infrastructure is why people come to our county.” He touted that he helped bring the VA Center to Allen County. “Highways 54 and 169 are a major traffic pattern,” he said. “You can be in any major town around us in two hours. We do not market that enough. I have ideas on how to strengthen that to bring more people and factories into our area.” He added that bringing factories to Allen County that have the potential to grow the population with a workforce of 50 or 75 employees would be an ideal place to start.
“Growth plans? Energy, energy, energy,” said Wells. “Energy is the future and it’s also our past. When Allen County had 20,000 to 30,000 people, it was because we had a cheap source of domestic energy.” He noted the number of flights that come into the airport is thanks to its cheap gas. “We need to build on that. When the pipeline came through, it increased the tax base by about $50,000 per mill,” he said. “Same with the wind farm. Those are the areas we need to focus on and we need to diversify.” Wells suggested exploring new energy options, whether they are green or fossil energy. “Energy is not going anywhere,” he added.
