February is a busy month at the Ellis County Extension Office. This month we are offering a variety of helpful learning opportunities for local residents. Check out these upcoming programs and take note of registration deadlines for the best pricing options.

Regional Extension Estate Planning Workshop– Tuesday, February 21, 5:30-9:00pm, KSU Ag Research Center Auditorium, Hays. Pre-Registration by February 13: $20/person, $15 for additional family members, meal included. Late registration after February 13 or at the door: $30/person (meal not guaranteed for walk-ins.)

The workshop will outline a road map for getting started, the do’s and don’ts of estate planning, farm and small business transition planning, and numerous resources to aid you along the way.

Program presenters will be Stacey Seibel, Hays attorney; Mark Wood, Kansas Farm Management Economist; and Anna Schremmer, Phillips-Rooks District Extension Agent.

See the agenda, register, and pay online and at www.northwest.ksu.edu under Events. For questions or more information, call the Ellis County Extension Office at 785-628-9430.

Know the 10 Signs of Alzheimer’s Disease- Wednesday, February 15, 12:00 noon, Extension Office Meeting Room, 601 Main Street, Hays. Bring a lunch to enjoy during this free program, if desired.

In the US, 1 in 3 senior citizens dies with some form of dementia. Alzheimer’s disease is the 6th leading cause of death and accounts for 60-80% of all dementia cases.

While there currently is no cure for Alzheimer’s, it is valuable to be aware of the common warning signs of the disease and seek early medical evaluation and diagnosis if there is concern for yourself or a loved one.
This presentation by Jamie Rathbun, Midway District agent, will review the 10 signs of Alzheimer’s disease and the benefits of early detection.

Please register in advance for this program at 785-628-9430 or [email protected] to ensure adequate materials. A minimum attendance is needed to hold this program.

Quantity Food Safety for Volunteer Groups- Wednesday, February 15, 6:00-7:00 pm, Ellis Library in Ellis. Register in advance at the Ellis Recreation Commission, 785-726-3718.

Food is a great way to bring people together, and selling food is often a key way for nonprofit groups to raise funds for their activities. However, cooking large quantities of food for events such as fundraiser dinners, concession stands or community meals is different than cooking for a family.

For example, do you know if you need a license for your food event? Can you be inspected? Does your group use a food thermometer to check food temperatures and do you know how to calibrate it?

At this program, volunteers will learn the important food safety steps to take when preparing food for a large crowd from planning and shopping to preparing, serving and handling leftovers. All who attend will receive a checklist for quantity food safety at volunteer events. Linda Beech, Ellis County Extension Agent and certified food safety instructor, will be the speaker. A minimum attendance is needed to hold this program.

Farmers Market Vendor Training- Friday, February 17, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., KSU Ag Research Center Auditorium, Hays. The $20 cost includes lunch; meal cannot be guaranteed for walk-ins.

K-State Research and Extension will team up with the KS Department of Agriculture and KS Department of Health and Environment to offer this training workshop for farmers market vendors and managers.

Topics include successful farmers market vending, beekeeping basics, regulations for selling meat, eggs and poultry direct to consumers, food safety inspection requirements and more. Vendors can also bring their sales scale to be tested and certified FREE by the Kansas Department of Agriculture.

Register and pay online at www.FromtheLandofKansas.com/FMConference or contact the Ellis County Extension Office for more information.

Board Leadership Series- February 21, 23, 28, March 2, 6:00-8:00 p.m. at the Extension Office meeting room, 601 Main, Hays. Pre-registration is required by February 10. The cost is $40 for all four sessions. Each registration buys one seat at each session which can be rotated by participants, if desired.

This workshop series will provide an opportunity to learn the basics of being a good board member. Whether you are a member of a church board, a township board, a United Way agency board, or a rural water board, this training is appropriate for you.

Topics include roles and responsibilities of board members, holding effective meetings, conflict resolution, fiscal responsibilities, fundraising, and strategic planning. Workshop participants will meet at sites throughout the state to take part in web-based instruction and locally facilitated discussion. Registration includes refreshments and a Board Basics workbook.

There’s lots to learn in February with K-State Research and Extension. Contact the Ellis County Extension Office, 785-628-9430, for questions or details on any of these upcoming programs. I hope you’ll plan to join us!

Linda K. Beech is Ellis County Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.

Republicans were once married to balanced budgets and conservative money management, but now they have run off with something new: the seduction of tax cuts and budget deficits.  They try to cover up the truth about their new relationship by cooking the books.  Kansas’ own Dwight Eisenhower would be appalled.

Eisenhower presided over the last period when the U.S. ran budget surpluses for several years in a row.  To fund this, the top tax rate for some high-earning Americans exceeded 90%.  When President Kennedy backed legislation to drop that rate to around 70%, Eisenhower spoke against it, arguing that it would explode the deficit.  

A few decades later, President Reagan commissioned the W.R. Grace Commission Report, the first of a long series of warnings, reminding Americans to prepare for the impending (now current) retirement of the Baby Boomer generation, which would create (is creating) a demographic bulge straining Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid–particularly long-term care–and the nation’s overall health care system.

Then, Republicans ditched predictable old deficit-reduction policies for the sexy appeal of tax cuts and deficits: the real priority of Reagan, the second President Bush, and many Congressional Republicans from the 1980s onward.

Since Sam Brownback was elected Governor in 2010, they have brought their new love to Kansas.  Once, moderate Republicans like Robert Bennett, Mike Hayden, and Bill Graves proudly presided over conservatively managed, balanced budgets.  Today, Kansas’ budget is balanced in name only:  trust funds have been drained, future payments leveraged, and highway bonds misused to create the illusion of a balanced budget that may technically pass legal muster, but will spell disaster down the road. Honestly, the thrill is gone.

Now President Trump proposes massive public works projects (including the border wall), plus cuts to top tax rates.  Trump’s signature phrase perfectly describes the accompanying deficit increase: it is going to be huge.

Some economists like Arthur Laffer argue that tax cuts stimulate enough economic growth to pay for themselves: lower rates on a broadening base produce more revenue than higher rates on a small base.  Alas, this only works when taxes are particularly high beforehand, as with the Kennedy-era cut.  When they are not, disaster ensues, as we have learned in Kansas.

Critics counter by stating, “We have a spending problem, not a taxing problem.”  Granted, dollar-for-dollar, government spending keeps rising, but this is misleading. Most federal dollars are already committed to entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, or to interest on the national debt.  At the state level resides another pernicious problem: the costs of providing government services increase each year.  

Teachers and other government employees are not receiving more generous benefits.  Rather, the cost of providing the same benefits goes up substantially each year, mainly due to those increasing health care and retirement costs.  This has not been a problem until recently– budget estimates factoring in these rising costs are readily available from the Legislature’s own nonpartisan staff (but legislators may ignore them).

The anti-Brownback Republicans elected in 2016 are sounding some rather Eisenhower-like talk about a return to responsible budgeting.  But, can they give up their party’s love affair with deficit spending?

Michael A. Smith is a Professor of Political Science at Emporia State University.

On Saturday, a federal judge had temporarily blocked the week-old executive order banning travel from several Muslim-majority nations into the United States. Should President Trump’s travel ban be reinstated?

[polldaddy poll=9660101]

Click to play the audio or read below.

Only recently have I discovered that there are not very many of us still around who lived through the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression years. A very small percentage of living Americans ever saw that menacing black cloud bank in the west and watch it roll in on us, literally blotting out farmsteads and towns alike.

Daytime temperatures rose to triple digits for several days at a time; winds howled; a neighbor of ours reported, jokingly I think, that he never saw rain fall until he was 11 years old.

I was there, a very young representative of the farming community of Southwest Kansas, who remembers the indescribable feeling of “blackout dust” at 11:00 o’clock in the morning. Then the family would try to clean things up while waiting for what likely would be a similar situation tomorrow.

As one who remembers, I’m going to write a few stories about my family’s activities during those ominous years and the things we did to cope with them. Everything you read here is true, 
although there may be an embellishment from time to time, caused by age or just plain forgetfulness.

Life wasn’t all bad. Family, neighbors and friends combined to provide periods of merriment. I’ll talk about those, too. I will tell a few stories about school activities in the early days of my life, as well as athletic accomplishments of my times, and I will touch on some of the memorable things that  defined a farm kid’s remembrances of World War 2. Actually, most of the stories do not even mention the dust or the heat, but they were there  just the same.

Many of you who read these stories could have written them yourself if you are about my age and lived in the defined area in which the storms occurred. That area is usually described as a strip, 300 to 500 miles wide, stretching from southern South Dakota through west Texas and parts of eastern New Mexico. If you were a kid living during the ’30s, you should by all means make some notes about the things you remember.  Your family will be grateful someday.

My stories will come to you weekly. They will appear here on Hays Post and Face Book. Your reactions and remarks will always be welcomed.

Kay Melia is a longtime broadcaster, author and garden in northwest Kansas.

Yes, give Trump a chance, and give me a chance to explain.

True, the election is over so we can all go about our business and not do politics.

But, that’s not close to what is happening and why I continue to write. It’s no longer a fight for the presidency but a fight to maintain a Trump presidency. That’s how bad liberal Democrats have become and their buddies, called mainstream media. Even people we know wish Trump gets impeached.

Give America’s new president a chance for crying out loud. You sure wouldn’t know we are supposed to be a democracy the way individuals, and you name it, are going after Trump to destroy him.

The sad thing is, even though Trump is doing a lot of good things and in a very short amount of time, we sure don’t get that impression listening to liberal media. No matter what Trump does, media’s mission is to take him out. This is not politics as usual. Liberals hated Bush, this is worse.

Grassroots Americans wanted change. Trump is providing it and, unlike many politicians, is walking the walk, not just talk. God knows we needed change!

Recently, there was the “March for Life” and days before, the “Women’s March.” It was like night versus day; a prime example of our Divided America. It was liberalism versus conservatism in full display. We saw the face of one party versus the face of another.

With the help of media promoting liberalism, the obscenities, vulgarity, pro abortion rights of the Women’s March was right in our face for all to see. Even the word perversion comes to mind and I am far from being a “holier than thou” person. The march had many messages, but that Trump is anti women is absurd!

Then there was March for Life to protect the unborn! Who among us can say there are other things in politics more important than the life of unborn babies, or for that matter, anybody’s life? Voting the wrong way last November was, for many, putting politics before religion.

Obama was anti Christian in far too many ways and that’s easy to prove, but that’s for some other letter. Let’s just say, for the first time in our history, under Obama, the U.S. was added to the “Hall of Shame Report” for countries prosecuting Christians. A Washington D.C.based human rights organization called International Christian Concern is responsible for the report. That’s huge! A nation called America and a Christian nation from its founding, is now on a list of being anti Christian.

Trump publicly stated he supported the March for Life, which probably no other president has done and our vice president Pence, a devout Christian was a major speaker. Even people who claim to be good Christians find that to be worthy of Trump bashing. There’s a lot wrong with that picture.

You can bet the women at this march were praying for and reaching out to those who chose abortion and are suffering for their decision. Not so in the other gathering. Pro life women weren’t welcome.

Trump recently appointed a Christian conservative to the Supreme Court who will work to reduce abortions and uphold our most sacred document, the Constitution. For God’s sake people “what’s wrong with that?” Of course Democrats are having a meltdown over Neil Gorsuch for fear he will get in the way of a woman’s right to kill her baby.

Trump is asking congress to nix tax money going to Planned Parenthood. PP is primarily an abortion mill that doesn’t even provide mammograms or prenatal care. Our pres also stopped tax dollars going to foreign countries with abortion agencies. Do we need to bash the man for that too?

The point I have been trying to make in this letter is that the Donald is bringing some religious sanity back into this country. He’s getting pushback from all sides, probably of a magnitude never before seen in this country.

Wanting Trump to fail is mind boggling. That would mean more crime, fewer people working, more on welfare, more radical Islamic terrorism, poor health care, more abortions, etc. What do we tell God if that’s our wish – when our time comes?

The sad tearful story of a teen by the name of Naika Venant hanging herself live on social media with thousands watching and even laughing, clearly shows we need more of God in our lives – and since politics and government permeates our daily lives – we need God there too.

Les Knoll lives in Victoria and Gilbert, Ariz.

This may be the week when you grab your wallet—or maybe consider buying a smaller one—as the House but mostly the Senate start assembling their tax-increase bills to boost the state’s cashflow.

The House Tax Committee will start assembling its bill this week, but the Senate has one all glued together, ready for committee hearings this week and maybe debate in the full Senate by week’s end.

Nobody’s scrapping much about the provision which will tax the non-wage income of owners of those cute little LLCs that nobody knew anything about until they were declared income tax exempt in 2012. Key is that apparently most folks who actually pay Kansas income tax would like those LLCs and similar firms (farms, the self-employed and such) to chip in some tax money to the state.

But it’s the other taxes that are spine-tingling for some.

The Senate bill plans to increase tax rates on the state’s now-two income tax brackets, which were trimmed of a third, higher-rate bracket back in 2012 when the LLCs were taken off the leash.

Pulling money out of those LLCs, well, that’s one thing. But raising general state income tax rates on folks who have been paying state income tax the last four years while their LLC neighbors bought Buicks and took cruises?…that’s a whole different issue.

That’s where the Senate floor debate fun will start.

The Senate’s bill proposes to raise the rates on joint filers with less than $30,000 in income by a total of about $54 million. More than $30,000 taxable? Look for the rate increase of the same 0.3 percent to pull about $150 million out of their pockets. But, that is only if the estimates of the effect of those tax increases is accurate.

So, however you want to define it, the (relatively) poor pay more and the low end of the moderate-income tribe pays a little more, too.

But what’s noticeable is that the Senate’s GOP leadership isn’t willing to add a third bracket at higher rates for the crowd that sends its shirts to the laundry instead of washing and ironing them at home. Maybe those with incomes of $70,000 or $100,000 or more.

The measure doesn’t “tax the rich,” significantly, does it?

That might be for a very good reason. Some higher, third bracket would cost wealthier Kansans money that they might choose to contribute to political campaigns. Or, taxing at a higher rate above-average incomes might be expressed in economic-development argot as making Kansas a “high-tax” state for the wealthy who probably won’t lease beach-front retirement villas in Trego County because of that tax burden.

That’s the scrap. Remember, it was individuals who got major income tax reductions back in 2012, and the LLC business? That was primarily an economic development wrinkle, designed to bring businesses into the state and to free up enough money for those generally small businesses to buy a new lathe or hire an extra worker with money that would otherwise be spent on taxes by the business owners.

So, what’s this week look like, providing that the Senate actually gets its bill out of committee and onto the floor for debate? The bill won’t raise enough money to solve the revenue shortage—that’s almost certain to require spending cuts that so far aren’t clear in either amount or whether they will happen.

That’s still a strategy for lawmakers who don’t want to read about raising taxes on their opponents’ campaign flyers in two or four years. Not enough information, not willing to vote for tax increases if they don’t know how much money the Legislature intends to spend. Not enough information to see whether the budget will balance, which is the real job here.

Not sure anything gets settled this week, but we’ll at least see the start of this dance.

Syndicated by Hawver News Company LLC of Topeka; Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report—to learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit the website at www.hawvernews.com.

U.S. agriculture needs the Trump administration to strongly support the crops and livestock this nation’s farmers produce. Our government must commit to becoming the best we can be in international trade. If we conducted trade the same way we produced food, we wouldn’t have trouble moving agricultural products to people who need them overseas.

The United States has the climate, cropland and know-how to supply agricultural products to feed the nations of the hungry world. Our country has the world’s best infrastructure. We have some of the most productive farmers and ranchers on this planet.

It’s time for the leadership of this country to view American agriculture as one of the premier growth opportunities. For far too long the east and west coasts, and its vast populations receive top billing above those who live in the Heartland. Those who supply much of the world with the healthiest, most affordable food.

Agriculture has taken a back seat to other sectors of this nation’s economy for too long. With less than 2 percent of the U.S. population farming and ranching, we are often overlooked.

Remember, our entire rural economy depends on agricultural exports and farm income. Local Kansas banks, implement dealers, grocery stores, even health services, depend on our ability to market wheat, corn, soybeans, cattle and hogs abroad.

In 2015, U.S. ag exports totaled approximately $133 billion. This amounts to 25 percent of all U.S. production of grains, feeds, livestock and horticultural products.

Incidentally, nearly half of the wheat from Kansas and other Midwestern states is exported each year.
Capiche?

We must become more aggressive in conducting trade agreements. Our secretary of agriculture must make international trade a top priority and work it. Without strong trade agreements that give us free access to the world marketplace, we cannot prosper in agriculture or any other business that depends so much on exports.
If the world’s farm trade barriers were removed, this country could increase agricultural commodity sales. What we don’t need is additional trade barriers.

Sanctions do not work – they only hurt our nation’s ability to trade. Each time we impose new sanctions, we surrender yet another market to competitors who are too willing to sell in our absence.

If the world’s farm trade barriers were removed, this country could increase agricultural commodity sales. U.S. farmers could also supply the raw materials for an estimated $40 billion per year in exports of high-valued processed foods from new plants located primarily in rural areas.

President Trump has expressed a preference for bilateral trade agreements. Negotiate them.

Whether such negotiations are bilateral or multilateral should not matter. What is important is that this president works out trade deals – now.

U.S. agriculture cannot afford to be placed behind other sectors of our economy when this country trades. Our position on the trade pecking order is breaking the back of American agriculture. Farm and ranch exports must be moved to the top of our U.S. trade priorities.

The future of U.S. agriculture is tied to our competitiveness in world trade. Our country must become more aggressive and assume its leadership role in trade negotiations.

It’s past time for our nation’s country to lead this trade train. Political posturing and lack of cooperation on both sides of the aisle hasn’t worked. Our elected leaders were sent to Washington on behalf of this nation’s people. It’s time for them to work on behalf of U.S. farmers and ranchers throughout this great nation. Now is the time for them to implement free-trade agreements.

John Schlageck, a Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas.

The (Hays USD 489) Board of Education decided to hire a “facility improvement planner” at their last meeting. The result is there will be another out of town consultant to assist the school district with its capital outlay plans moving forward. This of course is in addition to the previous architect and space needs committee which spent over a year assessing what was alleged to be the “needs” of the school district when it came to capital spending on facilities. The BOE’s decision sends the wrong message to the voters and taxpayers at the wrong time.

Oh yeah, this capital outlay planner is also in addition to the newly hired architectural firm and project manager the BOE hired to assist with the never-ending quest to have the taxpayers approve a school bond. To paraphrase a well-known politically incorrect joke: How many outside consultants does it take to figure out where to spend our local taxpayer dollars?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it the job of the board members, the superintendent and the staff to sit down together and prioritize capital outlays going forward? In other words, why on God’s green earth does the BOE need yet someone else to advise them as to where they need to spend money on facilities?

This decision is eerily reminiscent of the BOE decision on the FAST building. BOE Member (Sarah) Rankin was absolutely correct when she wondered if voters would question “why they would need to hire the advisor, especially after already selecting an architectural firm and CMAR.”

Just as the BOE had a chance to do the right thing with the FAST building, it still has the chance to do the right thing now and just say no to the “facility improvement planner”. The members of the BOE simply need to suck it up, buckle down, spend some time and do the job themselves. That’s what the voters and taxpayers expected when they elected them to the BOE.

Tom Wasinger, Hays

Let’s spend some time talking budget, taxes, education and more. First up, the budget. In the weeks since the November Consensus Revenue Estimate (CRE), there has been much discussion about the revenue situation in Kansas. The economic challenges that the state faces are tied to a growth rate in tax receipts of 0.3% since FY 2014. While there have been some adjustments on the revenue side since passage of the 2012 tax plan, it is important to note the progress that has been made on reducing the size of government or reducing the cost of rising expenditures that the state has little to no control over.

This past week, we focused on some of the big picture numbers. Total State General Fund expenditures have increased by 0.3 percent ($17 million) from FY 2012 to FY 2016. During the same time period, entitlement expenditures (Human Services Caseloads) increased nearly $144 million. All other expenditures actually decreased by almost $127 million. When you break the expenditures down by function of Government, a good portion of state government has seen declines in spending including a 6% reduction in General Government.

Human Services saw an increase of 7.1% during the FY 2012 to FY 2016 time frame. Services are provided to the most vulnerable Kansans, including the frail, elderly, and disabled. Going forward, entitlements programs (KanCare, Medicaid Non-KanCare, Temporary Assistance to Families, and Reintegration/Foster Care) will continue to increase, although KanCare has kept the rate of growth at a more manageable growth.

In addition, there are other expenditures that continue to require funding. There are obligations to debt service and statutory obligations to the KPERS system. The solutions going forward will contain an effort to provide structural balance, while continuing to look for efficiencies in government.

In the tax committee, this week we further explored sales tax exemptions, by hearing testimony on eight exemptions which were previously identified by the Committee for further study. We also heard public testimony from several conferees on pieces of the Governor’s tax proposal (cigarette and alcohol taxes). The Committee also heard about gas tax proposals that have been mentioned. There was a hearing on HB 2178, which contains an increase to the upper tax bracket from 4.6 to 5.25 percent, repeals the automatic tax rate reduction (glide path), and provides an itemized deduction for medical expenses on the Kansas income tax form. I believe we are still a few days away from coming out with a proposal on where we head on a renewed tax structure.

The has not been a lot of action in regards to education, but there have been several briefings on topics and available resources related to school finance. Regardless of what you are reading or hearing about, there is not clear path on the future funding of education and the structure of K-12. The committee has also discussed a possible benefits program consolidation and possible procurement of certain supplies.

Here is something that doesn’t affect the 110th directly but you should know, the Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC) recently announced plans for replacement of Lansing Correctional Facility, which is Kansas’ largest state prison and built in the 1860s, with a newer and more modern facility. The KDOC currently allocates half of their entire capital improvement budget to maintain the Lansing facility. Secretary Joe Norwood announced plans to release a Request for Proposal soon which will allow for construction companies to propose building and financing plans for consideration. The project is anticipated to take about three years to complete and is anticipated to be budget neutral.

It was good to see folks from NexTech and Fort Hays State University come to Topeka this week. The Hays Chamber of Commerce will be holding a Legislative Forum this Saturday, February 11th in the Administrative Center – Commission Room 718 Main St. in Hays. During the session, my office is Room: 352-S. My phone number is: (785) 296- 7463 and email is: [email protected] and my cell number is (785) 302-8416. You can also follow along with what is going on through social media: kenforkansas on Facebook, @kenrahjes on twitter or my website: kenforkansas.com.

It is my honor to serve as your representative.

Ken Rahjes, (R-Agra), is the 110th District State Representative.

Kansas Day
Kansas celebrated its 156th birthday on Sunday, January 29. The Kansas House of Representatives celebrated Kansas Day this past Monday on January 30 and recognized Robert Bergen, artist and creator of the 22 foot bronze Kansa warrior statue on top of the statehouse dome and the filming crew for the documentary film, “Home on the Range.” In addition to the activities on the House floor, there were opportunities to view the “Home on the Range” at the Capitol. Kansas entered the Union as the 34th state on January 29, 1861.

Appropriations
On Monday, January 23, the Appropriations Committee held a hearing on House Bill 2002. This bill exempts Legislative Post Audit (LPA) from paying the Monumental Building Surcharge to the Department of Administration. LPA was exempt from paying the fee during FY’16 and FY’ 17, due to a proviso in the 2015 budget bill. The Committee passed out the bill favorably on Tuesday. The Committee also heard recommendations regarding the FY’17 budgets from the Transportation/Public Safety Budget, Agriculture and Natural Resources Budget, and K-12 Education Budget Committees. The Appropriations Committee viewed these recommendations, however, the committee stated it would deal with most of the recommendations when the rescission bill is finally worked in the full committee. On Wednesday, the Committee heard from the General Government Budget and Social Services Budget Committees. Then on Thursday, the Committee held a hearing on House Bill 2052, the rescission bill, and House Bill 2161, which liquidates the long-term investment fund. This week, the Appropriations Committee heard from the Higher Education Budget Committee, the Kansas Lottery and Racing and Gaming Commission, held a hearing on House Bill 2109 and House Bill 2072. On Friday, we began hearing FY’ 18 and ’19 budget recommendations from the General Government Budget Committee.

Taxes
On Monday, the Committee continued its hearing on House Bill 2023, which would require non-wage business income to be included as income for Kansas income tax purposes. After the hearing, Acting Revenue Secretary Sam Williams provided the Committee with a revised fiscal note, increasing the revenue estimates to $230.9 million in FY ’18 and $181 million in FY ’19. On Tuesday, the Committee discussed Sales Tax Exemptions. Committee members heard from Tom Browne, Jr., Department of Revenue. He covered the three categories of exemptions: Legal, Conceptual, and Public Policy. The Committee selected several exemptions for further study. Additionally, the Department was tasked with looking at taxing exemptions at a lower rate, possibly for a limited number of years and the impact that might have on the streamlined tax agreement and administration costs involved. Last Wednesday, the Committee received a briefing on tax rates from Chris Courtwright, Kansas Legislative Research Department, and the Department of Revenue. This week’s agenda included testimony on a selected number of sales tax exemptions, and then on Tuesday, the Committee heard public testimony on the Governor’s tax proposal.
Home on the Range Film at the Capitol

Documentary
On January 30, the documentary film “Home on the Range,” was shown at the Capitol as a special premiere for guests, staff, and legislators in honor of Kansas Day. The film tells the story of the song, the cabin and the lawsuit that determined the song’s origins. The film features the talents of Rance Howard, born in Dexter, KS; Buck Taylor; Mitch Holthus, who grew up in Smith county near the famous cabin, and Thomas Leahy, who portrayed Dr. Brewster M. Higley in the film. Celebrating Kansas Day while at the premiere were Ken Spurgeon, the director of the film; Shawn Bell, a co-producer; Neil Bontrager, a co-producer and editor; Orin Friesen, co-writer and music producer for the film; and Grammy winning artist, Michael Martin Murphey.

Floor Action: House Bills Advance
Four bills in the Kansas House of Representatives moved into final action last week. The first bill, House Bill 2026, which makes changes to the Board of Nursing’s reinstatement of revoked licenses provisions, and passed final action on Thursday January 26 with a vote of 106-14. The second bill, House Bill 2025, advancing to final action on Thursday, January 26, as well. House Bill 2025 allows the Kansas Board of Nursing to hire more than one Assistant Attorney General. Another bill was House Bill 2027 which advanced into final action on Thursday January, 26. This bill allows physicians to situationally bill patients for anatomic pathology services. The final bill was House Bill 2028, and it advanced on Thursday as well. House Bill 2027 alters the Mental Health Technicians Licensure Act by removing the Board of Nursing’s conduction of mental health technician exams and provisions of fee payments.

Contact Information
As always, if you have any concerns, feel free to contact me (785) 296-7672, visit www.troywaymaster.com or email me at [email protected]. Also, if you happen to visit the statehouse, please let my office know.

It is a distinct honor to serve as your representative for the 109th Kansas House District and the state of Kansas. Please do not hesitate to contact me with your thoughts, concerns, and questions. I always appreciate hearing from the residents of the 109th House District and others from the state of Kansas, as well.

Troy L. Waymaster, (R-Bunker Hill) is the 109th Dist. State Representative and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

Those who’ve recently had to shovel snowy sidewalks probably aren’t thinking of these concrete trails in terms of fun. However, any kid who grew up near such a path knows it took little more than imagination to turn that simple structure into hours of fun. Old timers who let their minds wander down memory lane quickly recall happy memories involving metal shoe skates with keys.

The other day, my mom’s old sidewalk caught my attention. Time’s taking its toll on that decades-old fixture, yet a short walk along its divided squares triggered dozens of memories and the imagined sounds of metal wheels rolling across its gritty surface. I suspect more than a few old skate scars still decorate its mottled exterior.

I spent happy hours skating down similar lanes throughout my early years. I can still sense the feel of plopping onto a sun-warmed, pockmarked sidewalk while I clamped a pair of metal skates to my shoe soles. The length adjusted so a kid could wear them for two or three summers before needing a bigger pair. They came with a skate key designed to be worn on a string around the neck. That kept it handy to tighten skates after a particularly rough stretch shook them loose.

As a skater’s confidence grew, speed increased so trips around the block grew took less time. If several kids joined the fun, it looked a lot like later Roller Derby action on TV. Brave kids tucked elbows and squatted low to zip past slow moving friends. A neighborhood bully occasionally showed up and intentionally tripped skaters and sent them sprawling. Not every kid could respond. It took a cool and skilled character to fist fight on roller skates.

Unlike my experience with blocks of city sidewalks, our daughters grew up in a country home with a very short slab. To compensate, they adorned themselves in floofy tutus or their dad’s huge tee-shirts, turned on their record player, strapped on plastic shoes skates, and spun around our concrete basement. It lost much of the effect of whizzing down a city sidewalk, but they enjoyed hours of whirling around this makeshift rink. These practice sweeps prepared them for more fun at a real roller rink in a nearby town.

Mention skate rink and older people fondly remember weekend visits to the nearest one. It doesn’t take much prompting to get stories flowing. They recollect events like the Hokey Pokey, Limbo competitions, obstacle courses, and backward skating. One friend was a gymnast as a kid and loved doing backflips to astonish less agile participants.

The games were fun for everyone, but junior high and high school kids looked forward to the infrequent couple skates. For a few minutes, potential sweethearts could hold hands and circle a dimly lit rink. It would be interesting to learn how many romances began during doubles skating and then turned into long time marriages.

The old stories are so engaging it might be worth starting a skating resurgence both down the sidewalk and at the roll rink. Dig out those old shoe skates and keys; clear a path or an empty city building. Count on making great memories.

Native Kansan Karen Madorin is a local writer and retired teacher who loves sharing stories about places, people, critters, plants, food, and history of the High Plains.

On Jan. 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, President Donald Trump issued an executive order temporarily halting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, suspending the refugee program and permanently imposing a religious test for refugees going forward.

Jen Smyers of Church World Service spoke for many people of faith working on behalf of refugees when she called Jan. 27 “a shameful day” in the history of the United States.

Numerous national security experts and diplomats — including more than 1,000 State Department officials — have also spoken out, warning that the order is wrongheaded and dangerous. The optics of an American policy that appears to target Muslims seriously tarnishes the reputation of the U.S. in Muslim-majority countries and throughout the world.

The initial chaos and confusion surrounding the rollout is a harbinger of the damage to come from alienating Muslims worldwide, empowering radicals, and abandoning refugees to suffer in camps. Far from making us safer, the executive order is widely viewed as a direct threat to our national security and an assault on American values.

Of all the controversial provisions of the order, none is more problematic and damaging than the religious test that gives priority to refugees fleeing religious persecution if, and only if, they are a religious minority in their country of origin. The intent is clear: Open the door to Christians from Muslim-majority countries while doing everything possible to keep Muslims out.

Although the order does not explicitly mention Muslims — and administration officials insist it is not a “Muslim ban” — we know the motive behind the order from Trump’s own campaign promise to mandate the “complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”

Facing fierce backlash last summer, Trump retooled the “Muslim ban” to make it more palatable, but he did not retreat from his intention to keep Muslims out. Asked by NBC News in July if he was backing away from his Muslim ban, Trump answered:

“I don’t actually think it’s a rollback. In fact, you could say it’s an expansion… People were so upset when I used the word Muslim. Oh, you can’t use the word Muslim. Remember this. And I’m OK with that, because I’m talking territory instead of Muslim.”

Now, six months later, Trump’s Muslim ban under another guise is the official policy of the United States government.

From a human rights perspective, the most disturbing parts of the executive order bar refugees for four months, cut the number allowed in by 60,000, impose a religious test, and freeze indefinitely the refugee resettlement of Syrians. Taken together, these policies add up to an inhumane, immoral and woefully inadequate response to the greatest humanitarian crisis since World War II.

Contradictions and ironies abound. Trump recently told Christian Broadcast News that he wanted to help Syrian Christians, whom he claimed (without citing evidence) were deliberately kept out while Syrian Muslim refugees were let in under the last administration. But his executive order bars all refugees from Syria indefinitely — meaning that Christians facing genocide in Syria will have no haven in America.

Last year the U.S. accepted a small number of Syrians (10,000 as of August 2016) out of the nearly 5 million Syrian refugees. After Trump’s order, the number will be zero. Once the four-month ban on refugees from other countries is lifted, the number of projected refugees will be cut almost in half and those seeking entry will face a religious test.

Beyond humanitarian concerns, I am convinced that Trump’s order is also unconstitutional. The Establishment clause of the First Amendment prohibits government from targeting Muslims for exclusion and favoring Christians for admission; in short, prioritizing some religious groups over others. Lawsuits have already been filed challenging Trump on First Amendment and other constitutional grounds.

If strengthening national security is the goal, keeping out refugees — Muslim or otherwise — is not the solution. Refugees are currently vetted for over two years before being allowed entry, and no person accepted into the U.S. as a refugee has been implicated in a fatal terrorist attack since systematic procedures were established for accepting refugees in 1980, according to an analysis of terrorism immigration risks by the Cato Institute.

Orwellian doublespeak cannot obscure the hostility toward Muslims and Islam that animates President Trump’s executive order on immigration. A Muslim ban is a Muslim ban by any other name.

On the day we remember the Nazi genocide of the Jews, the United States closed the door to those fleeing genocide today.

A shameful day indeed.

Charles C. Haynes is vice president of the Newseum Institute and founding director of the Religious Freedom Center.