Opinion

GUEST COLUMN, Glenn Brunkow, Kansas Farm Bureau

Last week I attended Kansas Farm Bureau’s Day at the Statehouse along with a couple hundred of my fellow Kansas Farm Bureau members. If you have never attended a Day at the Statehouse, I highly recommend doing so — it is truly an example of grassroots advocacy in action and proof of why Farm Bureau is so effective advocating for farmers and ranchers.

The program was exceptionally good and informative, laying out the issues of the current legislative session. Kansas Farm Bureau’s action plan for the session was also laid out for all the participants. It was the culmination of our policy development from the past year that came from those same members who showed up to lobby at the Capitol.

The work Kansas Farm Bureau members did over that 24-hour period should make all of us proud. We had members from every corner of the state representing all segments of agriculture.

RYCKMAN RECAP, Ron Ryckman, 38th District Senator

When I arrived at the Statehouse early Monday morning on Week 3 of the Legislature, it was 3 degrees outside. Then I went on to have three meetings, three lunches, three receptions, and caucus on three bills. Sensing a pattern, I can hardly wait for Week 12.

We did manage to approve a Conference Committee Report, a Concurrent Resolution, and four bills, along with two votes against amendment germaneness challenges, but still, a total of just eight roll-calls in four sessions is considered pretty modest. I actually kind of hoped we would have had an additional one in lieu of a “standing” count on a proposed amendment to allow DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) immigrants to continue their eligibility for instate tuition at our colleges, but it went down 18-19. That was on a bill brought by the Attorney General, SB 254 — eventually passed 30-9, banning public assistance generally for anyone here illegally.

GUEST COLUMN, Shannon Francis, 125th District Representative

We celebrated Pancake Day this week at the Capitol. It was the best one ever! Joining us were the Junior Ambassadors from the Liberal Recreation Department Dance Classes. They were a big hit with everyone at the Capitol. I want to thank the Ambassadors’ parents for bringing them, the City of Liberal, the International Pancake Day Board, and Liberal’s Tourism Department for sponsoring and attending the pancake feed. This is a popular event that everyone looks forward to.

In conjunction with Local Government Day and Pancakes at the Capitol, Keeley Young, with the City of Liberal was in Topeka advocating for our community with numerous state agencies. Thanks for all you do, Keeley.

It was nice to visit with Zoey Svaty this week. She is an impressive young lady who is smart and well spoken. Her Dad, Eli, was in town for meetings with the Western Kansas Regional Economic Development Assoc. (WKREDA). Congratulations, Eli, on some of your recently announced economic development projects.

L&T Publisher Earl Watt

Thomas Jefferson once said, “The government you elect is the government you deserve.”

I would very much like to ask Jefferson about electing representatives who make promises to do one thing and then do another, but his point is well taken. Only by knowing the intentions of those we elect can we ever be able to predict if they will safeguard the will of the people.

Recently we discovered that the answer is not always.

But for better or worse, our system provided enough of an opportunity to demand change, and thanks to the cooperation of the former commissioners abdicating their positions, the way was cleared for new leadership who decided not to defend the massive 17 mill tax increase.

About a week ago there was a meeting with the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals that helped pave the way to not only support the new Seward County Commission in its efforts to return to Revenue Neutral, but also to work with the citizens who disagreed with the use of the process to determine the correct rate.