Hillsboro Senior Center needs help

This is a call for help for the Hillsboro Senior Center. About 40 to 50 folks depend heavily on the center for at least five good meals each week as well as other health-related services.

This call was somehow relegated to low priority by our city council which denied a request for minor funding help.

The center has no way of increasing income by raising the price of meals. That is regulated by state and federal mandates that do not allow raising these fees.

However, as various sources of income through past business connections have almost dried up, the costs have steadily climbed. All of us know that the cost of groceries, power for light, heating and cooling, and every kind of service, all have climbed to levels we have never seen before.

Thank you, however, to the two council members who voted in favor of the request, while the three votes opposed denied the request.

I would simply like to remind everyone, young and old, that we all sooner or later reach that senior age where some of us will need to reach out to a place like the Senior Center for help. I hope it is still available when you reach that point in life.

Thank you to those who donate and support fundraising efforts such as special sales, dinners and socials. Presently, these are major reasons the center still exists, even as uncertain as these sources are.

Jona Baltzer

Hillsboro

Help non-profits help your community

Think of all of the non-profit organizations that may have helped you or a loved one over the years. A few examples come to mind:

n Your local hospital.

n Your college or university.

n Social service agencies.

n Retirement communities.

n Scholarship funds.

n Hospice.

n Your local school district.

n Your family church.

These organizations and dozens more like them exist to provide services that benefit society. They depend on the generosity of individuals for private support.

You can help ensure that your favorite charity continues to provide services beyond your life through a bequest or a charitable gift. By doing so, you'll be making a difference that lasts beyond your own lifetime.

?Leave a Legacy? is a public awareness campaign designed to help people learn about charitable giving through their wills or estate plans. ?Leave a Legacy,? sponsored locally by the Central Kansas Planned Giving Round?table and the Hillsboro Com?munity Foundation, encourages donors to make a difference in their communities by supporting charitable causes with a bequest or planned gift.

You, too, can make a difference. You don?t have to be exceptionally wealthy to leave a lasting impact. Gifts of all sizes make a difference. The recent ?transfer of wealth? study showed all of us that by simply designating 5 percent of our estate to charity we can make a dramatic impact on the future of our community.

How do you go about making a difference? Call your favorite charity or the Hillsboro Com?munity Foundation and ask about giving opportunities. If you work with a financial planner, a lawyer or an accountant, talk to them about your charitable wishes. They can tell you about the tax benefits of planned gifts.

?Leave a Legacy? teaches us that we can all make a difference in the lives that follow.

Jared Jost, chair

Hillsboro Com. Foundation

Sandra Fruit, chair

Leave a Legacy Committee

NRP creates division and dishonesty

The Neighborhood Revitaliza?tion Program is a misnamed program. It should be called the neighbor against neighbor program. When the government favors one citizen over another in taxation and privilege. It creates a climate of suspicion and distrust among the people.

For a citizen to build a new house or make improvements to an existing structure, and receive 90 percent property tax rebate starting the first year, while the long time, maybe lifetime neighbor, pays his loyal 100 percent tax, pits neighbor against neighbor.

Consider the businessman who has been a loyal resident and paid 100 percent tax for 20, 30, maybe 40 years, now sees a competitor start up and receive government favored unfair advantage through tax rebates for building new or remodeling existing buildings.

Also, there is a false belief that our Marion County commissioners will be content with less taxes going into the revenue from the person in the NRP till the 100 percent per year increments finally reach 100 percent. They are not content with less. Rather, the shortfall created by the NRP rebate is simply made up by artificially raising property values and/or raising the mill levy of the citizen forcibly paying the 100 percent tax.

There is another side to the character of the person in the NRP. I spoke with a tax preparer and proposed this case. The person in the NRP has to pay the 100 percent tax notice first. Then 30 to 40 days later receives the 90, 80, or 70 percent rebate depending on the year increment. The person shows the receipt for the 100 percent tax notice but does not reveal the rebate received. Now the person will receive a larger tax refund through dishonesty.

People of Marion County, do you see the immorality, division and dishonesty the NRP creates through government special favoritism of one citizen while excessively taxing another?

I call upon people of Marion County. Vote away and have nothing to do with government leaders who will buy votes by promising giveaway programs to those whose character can be bought.

Go to your town councils and tell them to opt out of the NRP and to the county commission tell them to get rid of the NRP.