Time for a political do-over

It might be time for a local, county, state, national do-over.

We, the people, have let greed and social engineering take over our country. Those who have the power have bellied up to the public trough and taken what they wanted for themselves and their pet projects, leaving everyone else to fend for themselves.

The cycle is compounded by those who do not want to see the cycle broken and the decisions that could correct the ills are put off into the future. It appears that many want something for nothing, and if they know the right folks they can get it. I think that cycle needs to be broken, sooner rather than later.

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Ever since I plugged an additional mouse into the other end of my keyboard my productivity has gone way up.

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Have you ever noticed how awkward the word ?awkward? looks?

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I rode with partner Don to the state basketball tournament in Hutch on Wednesday night. When the game was over I put my hands in my back pockets and noticed that my billfold was missing. What a panic feeling.

I then called home to see if I had left it on the counter or in the slacks I had worn to work that day. Not there.

Then I combed the area where I had been sitting and, even though I knew it couldn?t be there, I looked anyway.

Then the light went on. I called home again and had Nancy look in the laundry basket for the jeans I had worn the day before. The wallet had been there the whole time and I never missed it during the whole day.

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I didn?t realize it until recently, but they have a soup named for me at Little Pleasures Coffeehouse. It is called Pasta For-Joel-ie (Fagioli).

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It?s possible the next KU-KSU basketball game will be April 2. We can only hope for it.

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Our jail issue will not go away anytime soon. No doubt everyone recognizes that something needs to be done about it.

I am not convinced we are on the right path to the solution. And why is it on the ballot again before any public meetings will be held?

The sales tax, even though it is proposed now as a half-cent, still puts our business community at a severe disadvantage with surrounding counties and their ability to compete, especially on bigger-ticket items.

The majority of sales tax comes from utilities, but you know those entities will just pass it along to the consumer. Utilities are guaranteed a certain amount of profit.

Those who do all of their shopping out of town at the big box stores will not participate in paying the sales tax, so the burden really falls on the businesses selling the more expensive items.

And it will take more than just a sales tax to run the jail, if I understand it correctly. The sales tax is to build it and the property taxes will surely need to increase to fund operations.

We need a more equitable way to pay for it. I believe the jail committee was on the right track with an assessment that affects everyone in the county. That idea possibly could be tweaked and then proceed with a new law that would allow it. We still have time to do it better, in my opinion.

Ultimately, the voters will decide April 5 if this is the way to go. Based on the last election, I believe it will fail again.

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