GUEST COLUMN, Vance Ginn, Kansas Policy Institute

Kansas families need lower fuel costs through more supply, less inflation, and fewer government-made costs.

Fuel prices hit families fast. A gallon of gas is not just a number on a sign. It is the cost of getting to work, taking kids to school, delivering goods, that long-planned summer road trip, and keeping rural Kansas connected.

According to AAA’s Kansas gas price data, regular gasoline averaged $3.961 per gallon in Kansas on May 4, compared with a national average of $4.457. Kansas is below the national average, but that is little comfort to families already squeezed by groceries, housing, insurance, utilities, and interest costs. By way of reference, the price one month ago was $3.363 and $2.834 this time last year. Affordability is not judged in Washington talking points. It is judged at the pump.

GUEST COLUMN, Mary Rose, Seward County Treasurer

In regards to the ‘Order To Stay’ l am personally notifying the Board of Tax Appeals; Mr. Box; Mr. Watt; Stacia Long, County Clerk and Seward County Fire District County Clerk; Forrest Rhodes, Attorney; Anglea Eichman, Seward County Appraisal; Jill Garinger, Seward County Register of Deeds; Gene Ward, Seward County Sheriff; Russell Hansenbank, Seward County Attorney; Seward County Commissioners; Seward County Fire District Board; April Warden, Administrator; Brady Steckel, Fire Chief Interim Seward County Fire District; Kansas Department of Revenue; and Seward County Tax Payers, that the Seward County Treasurer has fulfilled the ‘issued revised tax statements for all affected parcels and issued refund checks or credit’ as specified by the Agreement. It is done.

MY PERSPECTIVE, Gary Damron

Last week we talked about the resolution of the first real conflict between Britain and her American colonies, which ended with the repeal of the Stamp Act in March of 1766. However, the lines had been drawn. Government by consent, as a right of the people became bigger than the monetary issues, and colonists were keeping track, as we'll see later, in the Declaration of Independence.

England's Declaratory Act, passed at the same time as the tax repeal, asserted that Parliament had “full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies ... in all cases whatsoever.” The colonists wrongly concluded that their position had been accepted and that the move was simply to save face. However, Parliament was making a statement. An accompanying Revenue Act imposed a duty on all molasses. The British called it an external, indirect tax and wrongly assumed it would be acceptable - that colonists only opposed internal, direct taxes. It was obviously not just to regulate trade, but to raise revenue without colonial input. The colonial riots that followed had created enough economic pressure to bring about repeal. Besides celebrating their victory, the colonies were establishing a pattern for resistance.

L&T Publisher Earl Watt

People succeed in Seward County all the time.

There are a handful of people I expect to agree with that assessment at any given time.

I believe in Seward County and the City of Liberal. I have dedicated my life and career to the community, and it’s an uphill battle to try to make our slice of the world better for those who choose to call this place home.

Some people have a dim view of our part of the world, and there are some who simply embrace the pessimistic “It will never work” mentality.