Kansas for Liberty has issued a 10-point manifesto for the 2014 Legislature. WHERE TO START. KANSAS IS ON a trajectory to lose $3.7 billion in funding through 2018 because of its recently enacted tax cuts.
The Wichita-based Kansans for Liberty serves as an umbrella-type organization covering ultra-conservatives including the Tea Party, the Kansas Policy Institute and the Kansas Republican Assembly.
Among its dictates for legislators is that they:
• Redefine what an “adequate education” as is defined in the Kansas Constitution, ban the Common Core academic standards, and further undermine public education by authorizing state-issued vouchers to private schools;
• Continue the path to eliminate the individual income tax, phase out a state business development program, and drop the sales tax exemption on services;
• Pull back state efforts to produce “green energy;”
• Privatize the Kansas Employees Retirement System and prohibit any organized opposition by state employees;
• Form a goon squad (my words) to investigate “malfeasance” by the judicial branch, and
• Require all municipalities that add fluoride to their drinking water to say on their utility bills that some research has found fluoride to cause mental and physical impairment.
Fluoride has been overwhelmingly proven to prevent tooth decay to no harm to humans.
Plenty of oversight exists to ensure the judicial branch operates above board, including advisory committees designated to continually study the state’s judicial system and recommend changes; the Commission on Judicial Qualifications which pursues complaints on state judges, and the Office of the Disciplinary Administrator which reviews complaints of misconduct against lawyers.
Putting the state’s pension program into private management is a ruthless tactic to avoiding the tougher issue of keeping a promise. Yes, it is terribly underfunded, but washing our hands of the state’s responsibility to its employees is not the answer. Prohibiting organized opposition borders on tyranny.
As for education, well, Kansans for Liberty simply don’t believe in public schools or that guidelines as to what a good education requires in funding or in curriculum are necessary. Next year, school funding will hit an all-time low as a percentage of Kansans personal income.
And lastly, Kansas for Liberty are willing to starve the Kansas economy by shifting all sources of funding to property and sales taxes. That formula puts a disproportionate burden on the middle class and poor who use a large proportion of their incomes to put a roof over their heads and clothes on their backs.
The decision has resulted in a downgrade of Kansas’ bond ratings by Moody’s. The investment firm figures Kansas’ potential income will not be enough to pay the bills. Investors see Kansas as a risky place to loan money and, accordingly, will charge higher interest rates.
If the manifesto issued by the Kansas for Liberty is enacted, certain things are sure to follow, including prospective teachers will see Kansas as a state that doesn’t reward them for their skills and devotion to our children.
And young people, especially, will look at Kansas in the rear view mirror as they leave for states that are progressive toward the production of clean energy.
Kansas is in a race to the bottom.
It’s a race we should try very hard to lose.
— Susan Lynn
A race Kansas must try to lose
