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Written by Don Ratzlaff Tuesday, 05 March 2013 14:12

LegislativeCoffeeEmlerSchroeder995 The two legislators representing the Hillsboro area expressed doubt about the effectiveness of the governor’s taxation plan during the legislative coffee hosted Saturday by the Hillsboro Chamber of Com­merce.<p>About 10 people showed up at the Scout House in Memorial Park to hear what Sen. Jay Emler (R-Linds­borg) and Rep. Don Schroeder (R-Hesston) had to say.<p>For both men, this was their first legislative coffee in Hills­boro since the redistricting process changed the boundaries of their respective districts. <p>Emler has represented the western edge of Marion County, and for a time Hillsboro, in the past, but now represents all of Marion County as part of the 35th District.<p>Bob Brookens of Marion had been representing all of Marion County in the Kansas House as part of the 70th District. Follow­ing redistricting, Schroeder received Hillsboro and essentially southern Marion County as part of the 74th District.<p>Taxes and budget <p>The two legislators fielded a variety of questions, but several had to do with Gov. Sam Brown­back’s plan to eliminate the state income tax, and the possible consequences of that move.<p>Schroeder said number crunchers in Topeka are projecting the state will fall $267 million short in revenue for the 2014 budget.<p>“Either we need more revenues coming in or we cut additional budgets,” Schroeder said. “The word is, no more revenues will be coming in.”<p>Schroeder and Emler agreed that additional budget cuts would hurt existing programs, and ultimately the state.<p>Emler highlighted the state corrections budget as one example.<p>“We were doing a great job stopping recidivism for awhile, but in the recession we had to cut the programs that were helping to keep people from returning to prison—teaching them to become carpenters, or take care of their drug problems while they were still in prison.<p>“We can’t do those things anymore.”<p>Both men said they did not share the governor’s proposition that eliminating the state income tax would bring more businesses and jobs to Kansas.<p>Schroeder said most businesses look at a state’s total tax package—which usually includes income, sales and property taxes.<p>Emler said elimination of the income tax will require higher property taxes to pay for state and local services. He said surveys indicate that 42-47 percent of people are most concerned about property tax, around 30 percent are concerned about sales tax and only 17 percent are concerned about income tax.<p>One reason property tax heads the list, both men said, is that people don’t have to pay income taxes if they aren’t generating income, but property taxes are required whether they are earning income or not.<p>Both men said they favored the “three-legged-stool” approach to raising state revenues, which means combining all three approaches at the lowest possible rates.<p>“Our income tax is low enough that it will not be a driver for business, in my opining,” Emler said. “If we have high property taxes, that’s going to be a disincentive to bring business to town.”<p>Hillsboro Mayor Delores Dalke said she supports the governor in general, but questioned the direction he was taking the state on the issue of tax revenue.<p>“It seems like he is pushing us on the local level to increase property taxes, which makes people unhappy,” she said. <p>“I’m in the real estate business, and I have people, when they come to town, say, ‘Oh my, your (property) taxes are high.’ Well, we’ve got the lowest taxes in Marion County, but they say it’s just too much.<p>“Consequently, we’ve got to do something other than push everything to property tax.”<p>Dalke also spoke against the governor’s proposal to eliminate the mortgage-interest deduction and the property-tax deduction.<p>“I know there’s a push for both of those, but please don’t let that happen,” she said.<p>Credibility issues<p>One participant asked the legislators if they were skeptical about the budget numbers the governor’s office has been using to promote its tax and budget initiatives.<p>“Yes, I’ve come across a lot of people who are very skeptical about the numbers,” Schroeder said. “I haven’t dug into it, but some incorrect numbers were used.”<p>Emler said, “Because of the way the last election went (with an increase of Tea Party Republicans), there was pretty broad support for the governor’s numbers and his policies. Hav­ing sat on the Budget Committee for as long as I did, when I heard those numbers, frankly I wasn’t sure they were right.<p>“And it turned out they weren’t right,” he added. “But I can’t say the governor is intentionally misleading us.”<p>Emler criticized the state’s budget director for blaming the error on staff members instead of accepting responsibility himself.<p>“Frankly, if I was the governor I would have been more stern with the budget director,” he said.<p>Other issues<p>Other topics that surfaced during the 1 hour, 20 minute gathering included the pros and cons of subsidizing renewable energy production with public dollars, pending changes in corporate-farm law, and the initiative to prevent tax dollars from being used to lobby legislators.<p>Emler challenged the logic of that last initiative.<p>“Frankly, there are 250 bills in the Senate right now, almost 400 in the House, so they’re talking about over 600 bills,” he said. “There’s no way in the world that anyone can have that many bills memorized. We have to have people who can come to us and make us aware of these bills and what that bill does (to their area of interest).” The two legislators representing the Hillsboro area expressed doubt about the effectiveness of the governor’s taxation plan during the legislative coffee hosted Saturday by the Hillsboro Chamber of Com­merce.

About 10 people showed up at the Scout House in Memorial Park to hear what Sen. Jay Emler (R-Linds­borg) and Rep. Don Schroeder (R-Hesston) had to say.

For both men, this was their first legislative coffee in Hills­boro since the redistricting process changed the boundaries of...

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Hillsboro asked to consider new recycling plan

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Written by Don Ratzlaff Tuesday, 26 February 2013 11:34

Marion County Commis­sioner Roger Fleming challenged the Hillsboro City Council during its Feb. 19 meeting to consider an idea for implementing single-stream recycling.

Fleming, a Hillsboro resident, shared the idea during the public-comment portion of the council meeting.

“I want to commend the city of Hillsboro for taking the initiative years ago to start recycling,” he said at the start. “I felt like (the city has) been a leader in recycling. However, we haven’t been a leader in taking it to the next level of single stream.”

Currently, local residents must sort their acceptable materials, then drop them off at a volunteer-run recycling center that is open two half-days a week.

Fleming said a curbside, single-stream...

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Peabody’s new city administrator focused on infrastructure needs

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Written by Patty Decker Tuesday, 26 February 2013 11:33

PEABODYMarlerNew Shane Marler reviews city records in his new role as city administrator. He added that assignment to his previous role as director of Peabody Main Street. With his second month in the position nearly completed, Shane Marler has been hard at work as the new city administrator and clerk for Peabody.

The Peabody City Council appointed Marler to the job after Mac Manning Jr. retired from the position at the end of December.

Marler’s first day was Jan. 2. Since then, he’s worked on long- and short-term goals, pulling from his experience, but also asking a lot of questions.

“Addressing our infrastructure is key,” Marler said about the city’s primary long-term goal. “We need to minimize unnecessary costs so we can maximize our dollars and reinvest in ourselves to increase our longevity (as a community).”

Revenues flat

Marler said the revenue generated by the local mill levy...

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SNOW JOB

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Written by Don Ratzlaff Tuesday, 26 February 2013 11:27

SnowStorm2013Removal Hillsboro city crews remove snow piles from the central business district Thursday afternoon; they put in a full day Friday as well, according to city officials. Residents and towns across Marion County dug themselves out of the first snowstorm of the season last week.

Snow began falling Wednes­day and picked up intensity through the night and into the early morning hours. Estimates ranged from 8 to 12 inches.

It was the largest snowfall since mid-February 2011, when around 20 inches blanketed the area.

County school districts canceled classes Thurs­day, and many community activities were canceled or postponed.

Some melting occurred under sunny skies over the weekend—just in time for predictions of a second significant snowstorm for this week. Snow did begin falling late Monday morning; forecasters were predicting up to 12 more inches, but with winds up to 50 to 60 mph.

Last week’s...

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Girl Scouts employ new cookie strategy

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Written by Patty Decker Tuesday, 19 February 2013 13:27

Girl Scout Troops in Marion County are taking part in “Cookies Now!,” a new plan for selling cookies.

Cookies Now! means no more taking orders, having customers wait for weeks before the Girl Scouts return for delivery and collecting money,” a spokesperson said.

Pam Loewen, one of three leaders with the Brownie and Junior Troop in Hillsboro, supervised Girl Scouts on Saturday at Ampride on D Street. The other leaders are Brenda Bernhardt and Joy Dalke.

“We will also be here next Saturday,” she said. “So if someone missed (buying cookies), they can come back then.”

Karley Loewen and Kaylee Lopez, two Girl Scouts selling cookies during one of the shifts at Ampride, said they like this new way.

“Instead of going out in...

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