How much would the county raise property taxes if this was not an election year?  Appraisal growth continues to hit taxpayers.

However, the county set their mill levy at 31.315 (2008 county budget) this year.  In 2006 the county raised their mill levy over 2.5 mills.

I spoke out against this tax hike.  I urged the commissioners to place this issue on a tax referendum ballot.

Voters in Oklahoma, Missouri, and Colorado get to decide if their property taxes should be raised or not.  Why not Sedgwick County taxpayers?  

The county commission seems intent on grabbing more and more roles for itself.  Recently, the county commission is discussing franchising of trash haulers and possibly imposing new unfounded mandates onto the citizens of this community in the form of mandatory trash recycling. 

Taxpayers should recall that there is a long history of local government failure in the trash business that goes back decades.  The city’s local trash collection efforts were such an abysmal failure that all trash hauling except by the Wichita school board was privatized back in the late 1970’s.  More recently, even Wichita public schools even eliminated their trash trucks.

Franchising is the process whereby the county would select the haulers who would have the monopoly franchise to collect trash from residential and/or commercial businesses (depending how the county structures this) in a certain geographic area.

This seems like an odd idea because the idea of creating government protected monopolies does not have a good or illustrious history in our community or elsewhere.  Supposedly this idea is being proposed to limit rate growth.   The history indicates that higher trash rates are the likely outcome.

There is another example locally.  Look at the soaring city water and sewer rates.  Last year rates went up again about six percent.  Past year city increases have often been in the same percentage range that exceeds inflation and growth.  The city’s monopoly on the sale of water and sewer services has not kept rates down here.

The trend nationally has been to try and create more competitive markets.  The role of government is to establish a fair and level playing feed for producers and consumers to engage in open and fair competition.  We do not need more state sanctioned monopolies.  The myth that “public/private partnerships” work well does not have much in the way of evidence here in Wichita proving that this works.

I am concerned that so many of these “public/private partnerships,” mean that the private sector gets the profits and the public sector gets the bills for taxpayers to cover.

See you out on the campaign trail.

Initially I planned to petition my way onto the ballot.  I petitioned before family illnesses and health problems with other members of my family forced me to stop.  I had to put my campaign in hibernation for several weeks in April due to family illnesses, funerals, and other health burdens with other family members that unexpectedly occurred since late March.

However, in my initial discussions with voters while walking my district I discovered that there is a real desire for fiscally responsible change down at the Sedgwick County courthouse.

Local government growth is hurting many homeowners, farmers, and small businesses.  Those on fixed incomes are being especially hard hit.  A lot of taxpayers remember the role that county government played in raising the county’s mill levy 2.5 mills in 2006.  People have gotten wiser about the role the appointed county appraiser performs in raising appraisals every spring too.  Many taxpayers are unhappy that the county (as well as the city) managed to eradicate the property tax lid that did limit local tax growth.

Citizens want more protection for their homes and property.  The role of the judicial edict that expands governmental eminent domain powers raises the risk of arbitrary and capricious government confiscations as the role of “public/private partnerships” grow.

Many voters feel disconnected with their local government in general and their county government in particular.  They see their tax bills going up and look at the growth in county government without seeing the supposed “benefits” of soaring county spending.  There is also concern about government’s powers growing and expanding too.