Largest Employer in Missouri?

I saw this column last evening on Facebook, calling out the largest employer in each state.

The Largest Employer in Each State 

- 24/7 Wall St.

I'll get to Missouri but first, I was struck by what organization it is in Kansas. Perhaps you'll be surprised, too.

16. Kansas
> Largest employer: University of Kansas
> Employee headcount: 13,862

The University of Kansas spans five campuses and 13 schools, including the state’s only pharmacy and medicine schools. The university system employs 13,862 people. Excluding student workers, however, the headcount falls to 10,089, in line with the workforce of another major employer in the state, aviation manufacturer Spirit Aerosystems.

Now, here's the sad part.  

Missouri.

25. Missouri
> Largest employer: Walmart
> Employee headcount: 42,312

Walmart is the largest employer in Missouri by a considerable margin. As of March 4, 42,312 state residents worked in the retailer’s 157 locations throughout the state. The company’s presence in the state may be dwindling, however, as it closed four locations in early 2016 as part of a broader effort to focus on Supercenters and e-commerce.

Low wage paying, tax money absorbing Walmart.

Wal-Mart Relies On Taxpayers To Subsidize 

Low Wages

How disgusting. That's an eye-opener.

But wait. There's more. It gets sadder. And more desperate and pathetic and pitiful.

As the world’s largest retailer, Walmart has an outsized impact on state labor markets. Walmart is the only company to claim the top employer spot in more than one state. In fact, the nation’s largest retailer employs the most people in 19 states.

10 reasons Walmart is the worst company 

in America

Here's a List of Ten Reasons Walmart 

is the Worst

10 reasons Wal-Mart is the worst company 

in America

"The Truth of the Matter Is Walmart Is 

a Horrible Place to Work"

Walmart - Horrible place to work, verbally abusive managers

Remember when the best middle-class jobs in America were for the auto companies and they paid a decent, living wage?

Good luck, fellow Missourians.

Kansas, You're Killing Us Here

So Kansans elected and then re-elected the Right Wing, Republican, uber-conservative, "trickle down economics" demagoguing numbskull that was and still is Sam Brownback as governor and we all know how that's gone.

Deficits, slashed school spending, robbing children of state funding for programs, lowered state debt rating, etc., etc.

It's not gone well, to say the least.

And with all that, it seemed they were learning, finally, at long last. Kansans had and have a large disapproval rating of Mr. Brownback, albeit far too late. So you'd think they'd be learning, right?

Well, turns out you'd be wrong. This broke in the last 24 hours.

Poll: Trump leads Clinton in Kansas

What the freak?

Are you kidding me?

Do you people not know Donald "Don't Bother Me With the Facts" Trump supports the same kind of slash-the-taxes-for-the-wealthy policies as your failed and failing governor? Do you not know that?

Do you learn nothing?

Not only that but The Donald is far more emotional and less educated in politics and government than the Guv'. This guy is and would be a walking nightmare.

But what the heck. It isn't like we don't have our own problems over here in Missouri. Eric Greitens, Catherine Hanaway and the entire Republican roster for our own governor being the source of many.

Las Vegas billionaire contributes $200,000 to Greitens campaign

Link:  The Shameless Catherine Hanaway

Vulnerable GOP Senators In-Line with Dangerous Trump/Pence Agenda

Republicans? "Small Government"?

Kansas Republicans in general but Kansas Republican Governor Sam Brownback, too, more specifically, keep proving, time and again, that Republicans in Kansas and really, across the nation, are no more into "small government" than birds are into concrete. We got further proof just this week:

Kansas conservatives advance bill 

on impeachment of judges

It seems "conservative" Republicans in that state don't like that the judges in their area are independently selected and placed. Enough of that none political nonsense, they think it should be done by political parties and partisan government representatives, instead. This in spite the fact that the current system has served Kansans very well the last several decades, at least.

To top it off, those same Kansas, conservative (and I use the term loosely, very loosely), "small government" Republicans also tried last week to have the governor, of all people, take over the distribution of the education budget. Check this little beauty out:

Kansas senator cancels hearing on control-of-school-finance bill

It's not enough Governor Brownback and all the Republicans in Topeka slashed taxes for the already-wealthy and for corporations, thereby putting the state in a downward spiral of tax revenue so they're in the red and had to slash their education budget:

Gov. Sam Brownback cuts higher education as Kansas tax receipts fall $53 million short

Now they want to hand over the reins of the state education budget to the Guv and make the court judge's appointments political ones, instead. Independent judiciary, be damned.

It seems there's nothing those people in the Kansas statehouse don't want to get their hands on.

Small government, my *ss.

The Republican, Right Wing Nightmare Kansas Has Become

Along with Republican Kansas Governor Sam Brownback wanting to take money from the state's pension fund in order to pay for his and the Republican Party's fiscal screw ups and nightmares, there's this, too:

Gov. Sam Brownback is cutting aid to Kansas schools by $44.5 million

I won't paste the entire article here, describing what these irresponsible putzes are doing or trying to do but here's a snippet:

Brownback’s plan takes $28 million, or 1.5 percent, out of elementary and secondary education, including $5 million from Johnson County schools. The districts taking the biggest hits will be Olathe, Shawnee Mission and Blue Valley. The Republican governor also sliced more than $16 million, or 2 percent, from higher education.

So much for the education and growth of our children for our own and their futures, huh?

It's a pretty important article. I would absolutely recommend any and every adult Kansan read it and see what these chuckleheads are doing or trying to further do to your state and take from your children and even you, yourself.  

Really, Kansas.  You're better than this.  You were always smarter, much smarter than this.

Could we dispense with that whole "trickle down", cut the taxes for the wealthy and corporations idea now, locally and nationally?

Please? Finally?  Forever?

Meanwhile, seems the Republicans just don't have anything going right for them over in our neighbor state:

Director of Governor's Council of Economic Advisors arrested after DUI

Put another way, this news makes much more sense:

Brownback advisor arrested on suspicion of drunk driving

For a "Brownback advisor" to be drunk. 

Yes, I have to say, that explains a lot.

It explains, maybe, the last several years of governance in Kansas.

How Is What Kansas Governor Brownback Wants To Do Even Legal?

Kansas Governor Brownback and his very Republican cohorts are at it again.  Some more.

They haven't screwed up the state enough so they've come up with yet another terrific idea.  Have you seen this?

Brownback defends using public pension funds to fill Kansas budget hole

This is incredible.

There they are, Kansas pensions---people's money, retirement money, at that, just sitting there, like a big pile of rescue for Governor Sam "I Can Screw Up Anything" Brownback  and he wants to tap into it, take money away from and out of it, and all because he and the Republicans in his state slashed taxes for the rich and corporations, screwing up Kansas' budgets.

This is conceivable, sure, just as sure as the first robbery by one person from another ever was. 

What it also is, however is unconscionable.  

He and his Kansas Republican Party screw up, they deplete the state's coffer and budgets and so what does he want to do to fix his empty bank accounts?

He wants to take money from former and current Kansas state employees pensions and all because, well, hell, it IS just sitting there, after all.

I ask again---how in God's name is this even legal?

Why can a sitting state governor arbitrarily tap into an already set up retirement fund of working people when it has and had nothing, ever, whatever to do with a state's budgeting or taxes?

And more, is there no one in Kansas to stand up and call this out for the blatant, ugly, irresponsible, misplaced theft and wrong that it is?

No Kansas Churches or clergy or ethicists or ANYONE in the entire state who cannot and will not call him out on this?

Anyone??

Bueller?

I ask again, how is this legal?  Why is this legal?  Can't it be made illegal and soon as possible so this highly immoral travesty doesn't take place and so it can't possibly happen again, in the future?

Anyone?

At least there's this. At least our own Kansas City Star is standing up against this theft, this nonsense.

Don’t let Gov. Sam Brownback delay payments for Kansas pensions

From Kansas: Letter to the Editor

I saw this letter to the editor to the Editor of the Lawrence Journal-World yesterday, Sunday, out on Facebook.

Letter: Sad state of affairs

To the editor:

I became an avid newspaper reader in 1939 and have maintained that practice into my eighth decade. In all that time, through wars and depression, I have never been as concerned about our political system. From the deadlock in Washington to the would-be oligarchs in Topeka, I believe our democracy is threatened. I will limit this letter to two immediate concerns.

Our education system is under attack. In our state, the teaching profession has been decimated by the failure to fund schools and the removal of teacher rights. As a retired teacher at Lawrence High School, I am concerned about the exodus of good teachers and the quality of education for ALL our youth. Democracy is dependent on an educated and informed electorate.

After retiring, I secured a position as a bailiff in the district court. In 23 years, I worked for a number of judges, some still on the bench and some retired. Every one of them, in my opinion, was well-qualified and fair-minded. Training to correctly interpret and apply the law is a long and difficult process. Our current administration would change a fair method of selecting judges to make it political. It appears to be a clear violation of the separation of the powers of our government.

So what next? Shall we build a wall around Kansas to prevent a mass exit of teachers, judges and our youth? Maybe we could fund it without raising taxes by transferring funds from education, transportation or anything that would benefit those of us who are not wealthy.

You can't say it any better than that.

Mr. Brownback? Kansas Republicans?

Yet More Bad News For Kansans

Bad news seems to keep pouring out of Kansas. This hit yesterday:

Kansas State Finance Council issues record $840 million debt certificate

Gov. Sam Brownback and top legislators voted Friday to issue a record $840 million certificate of indebtedness for the upcoming fiscal year despite adoption of massive Kansas tax increases to boost revenue.

The 2015 legislative session came to a close as the State Finance Council accepted conclusions of the governor’s budget director that state government would have insufficient resources “for certain periods” to meet expenditures in the fiscal year starting July 1.

The previous record for short-term borrowing of “idle” state funds was set during the 2009 fiscal year as national recession crashed state revenue and deep cuts couldn’t stem the budget crisis. Three certificates were issued by the council to borrow $775 million. That foreshadowed a 1-cent, three-year increase in the statewide sales tax in 2010.

One year ago at this time, the council approved a debt certificate of $675 million for the current fiscal year. Brownback had promised the state’s fiscal fortunes would improve, but legislators returned in January to confront a revenue shortfall requiring a series of mid-year budget adjustments.

Those same lawmakers followed that action this month by approving tax increases of more than $400 million to close a projected deficit in the 2016 fiscal year. Brownback signed into law bills raising the cigarette and general sales taxes, shrinking itemized deductions and imposing a tax on managed care organizations. He is required by the legislation to make $50 million in budget cuts.

On Friday, Democratic lawmakers gathered in the Capitol for sine die — typically a ceremonial final day of the annual session — expressed exasperation with expansion of the state’s debt position. This type of debt must be repaid by June 30, 2016.

House Democratic Leader Tom Burroughs, D-Kansas City, said escalation in borrowing illustrated the precarious financial condition of state government.

He said the root causes were decisions in 2012 by Brownback and the GOP-led Legislature to exempt 330,000 businesses from the income tax and to reduce individual income tax rates.

“This is a direct result of Governor Brownback’s failed fiscal experiment,” Burroughs said. “Until members of the Legislature take steps to implement a responsible and sustainable budget, the state will continue to be forced to borrow money to cover expenditures.”

Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, said “incompetence and mismanagement” of the budget led to a trifecta during the 2015 session.

Here's the "money line", so to speak.

“Governor Brownback and the Republican Legislature are responsible for the longest session in history, the largest tax increase in history and, now, the largest certificate of indebtedness in history,” Hensley said.

Then, if that weren't enough, this just hit today, about an hour ago:

Kansas taxes in $22 million less than hoped in June

The state's overall tax collections were $22.5 million less than forecast in June, Kansas officials said Tuesday.

The shortfall follows signing by Gov. Sam Brownback of bills adopted by the Republican-led Legislature raising taxes by more than $400 million annually to allow for a balanced budget in the fiscal year starting July 1.

So the good Governor's "supply side", Right Wing, very Republican "trickle down economics" plan which cuts the tax rates of the wealthy and business shows again it just doesn't work.  Then, not only does it not work, time and again in the US since President Reagan's brilliance brought out all those 30 years ago but it continues to still create worse and worse problems for the sunflower state.

While the state's motto is Per aspera ad astra, I don't think anyone thought it should be "to the stars through difficulty" that Kansans are to create and bring on themselves.

Links:  Gov. Sam Brownback: Tax package not a tax increase

Kansas court freezes school finance ruling

How Much More Can----and Will---Kansans Take?

Everything Republican Governor Sam Brownback and his political party cohorts have touched, fiscally, financially and dealing with taxes, it seems, have turned to debt and red ink.

We've all been following them for these few years now and watched the debt rating be downgraded and debts rise and budgets be slashed, sure. But the latest budget cuts, now to the schools, are being the unkindest and even worst, the most painful and even hopeless, of all.

I saw this last evening:

Wichita schools would lose $22 million on possible state spending cut

And that, I thought, was horrible, for one not-that-large a school district.

But then I saw this:

Schools could lose $197 million under spending 

cut scenario

Truly horrible.

Just short of 200 million dollars, nearly one quarter of a billion dollars, to be cut from the school budgets across the state.

How do you have hope for your children, for the future, for your state, if you don't--hell, can't--invest in the next generations?

Kansas vs Missouri reaction to Supreme Court ruling on (marriage) equality

The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that states must accept other states recognition of marriages, including those of same-sex couples.

You'd that would settle it, right?

Well, naturally not, given some "red" or Republican states legislators and governors.

What's interesting, however, is the difference between the way Kansas and Missouri will apparently be approaching this issue. Check it out:

Kansas is ignoring the Supreme Court too — the governor is GOP former congressional neanderthal Sam Brownback:

“You can’t do that in the state of Kansas,” said Nancy Escalante, supervisor for marriage licenses at the court. “Our application says ‘man and woman.’ The Legislature has not changed it.”

In contrast, here’s how a Democratic governor handled today’s move by the Supreme Court, even though none of the decisions in question even applied to Missouri:

Attorney General Chris Koster today released the following statement:

“The circuit court’s judgment in Barrier v. Vasterling held that Missouri must recognize marriages lawfully entered into in other states. We will not appeal that judgment. Our national government is founded upon principles of federalism – a system that empowers Missouri to set policy for itself, but also obligates us to honor contracts entered into in other states.

A consequence of this morning’s ruling by the United States Supreme Court is that gay marriage will soon be legal in as many as 30 states. At a time when Missouri is competing to attract the nation’s premier businesses and most talented employees, we should not demand that certain individuals surrender their marriage licenses in order to live and work among us.

Missouri’s future will be one of inclusion, not exclusion.”

Kudos to Chris Koster and the entire state of Missouri.

Imagine that. People wanting equality. In America.

What's wrong with Kansas (guest post)

LJ WORLD: Opinion: Something’s wrong in Kansas

MAY 09, 2014

This year’s legislative session has come to a fitting end. Revenues in April fell substantially from those that had been projected; Moody’s bond rating service downgraded Kansas bonds, making it more expensive for the state to borrow in the future; the governor blamed the revenue shortfalls on the Obama administration’s fiscal policies; and the honorable members of the Kansas House and Senate approved the budget in spite of the shortfalls with several members stating that they would deal with any problems “next year.”

I am surprised that they weren’t playing Jimmy Buffet songs while they voted and that none of them made a public statement quoting the famous economic maxim “Don’t worry; be happy.” To quote William Allen White, “What’s the matter with Kansas?”

This past legislative session has made it clear that any proper sense of responsibility, fiscal otherwise, has left the capitol building and taken up residence far from Kansas. When I was growing up and forming my own ideas about politics, a political “conservative” was someone who respected the status quo and who eschewed radical change. Republicans were known for their fiscal responsibility, as in Pat Nixon’s venerable “cloth coat.” Senator Dole was known for his willingness and ability to make compromises “across the aisle” in order to ensure that government did its job of serving the people.

This is not what is going on in Topeka any longer. Instead we have legislators who believe that fiscal prudence means only one thing: cutting taxes no matter what the effect on institutions of government and on the public. Our legislators no longer seem to care about facts. Important legislation, like the school finance bill, included radical changes to teacher job security without any serious attempt at fact-gathering or public hearings. Our court system’s funding structures were radically altered, again without fact-gathering or adequate hearings and, very possibly, in contravention of the Kansas Constitution. And, of course, a budget based on inaccurate assumptions and bad economics was passed that very well may not work in six months requiring debilitating interim cuts in state agency budgets. But it’s OK; don’t worry, be happy.

If I sound rather angry, that’s because I am. The business of government is serious. The lives and welfare of Kansans depend upon the actions of the Legislature. Legislators hold office in trust, to serve the people. Legislators bear a heavy burden of responsibility, or at least they should. I have come to believe that a majority of the present Legislature does not care about their responsibilities to the people of Kansas.

Ideology has replaced politics. Ideology has replaced sound economic and fiscal policy. Ideology has replaced common sense. And the people of Kansas let this continue to happen. When will it end? What, indeed, is the matter with Kansas? I think, perhaps, it is time once again to ask this question and to apply some measure of accountability to our elected officials who seem to think that they may do whatever they want without reasonable thought or public input or factual basis for their actions. If we wait much longer to recognize that our legislators are not conservatives, but, instead, are radicals determined to undermine and destroy the social compact under which we have lived for generations, then it may well be too late to save our state.

— Mike Hoeflich, a distinguished professor in the Kansas University School of Law, writes a regular column for the Journal-World.

Sam Brownback's Kansas

Did you see the latest results of Republican Governor of Kansas Sam Brownback's and his cohorts handiwork?  It's a real beauty:

Census shows more people leaving Kansas

A bit from the article:

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - New census figures show that more people have been moving out of Kansas than have been moving in recently.

From 2010 to 2013, Kansas lost 10,197 people because of outward migration, according to numbers released Thursday by the Census Bureau. The census also showed that Kansas gained 16,752 people from international migration over the last four years, but lost 26,949 to other states, which resulted in the net 10,197 loss.

From 2000 to 2009, Kansas had a net migration loss of 17,574, with most of it occurring from 2001 to 2005, when Kansas had a net loss of more than 27,000 people.

As if that isn't bad enough, it really does get worse:
As if Kansas was among the bottom 10 states in the number of people who moved in from other states compared with the number who moved out during the 12 months ending July 1, 2013. Kansas ended the year with a net loss of 12,557.
Now, sure, the people leaving very rural, nearly empty Kansas isn't completely, totally due to the results of the Republican work of slashing the taxes of the already-wealthy and heaping those taxes, instead, on the middle- and lower-classes but one thing's for sure, it surely isn't helping. It isn't helping the workers and working class people of the state, it hasn't helped businesses increase and/or expand in the state and it surely hasn't helped the budget of the state or of their schools.

Not only that but it's not expected to get any better any time soon, according to the Lawrence paper:

Study: Kansas' population to drop more | CJOnline.com

 

WICHITA — A decades-long decline in population is likely to continue in Kansas, particularly in the west of the state, and four counties could have fewer than 1,000 residents by 2040, according to a study by Wichita State University’s Center for Economic Development and Business Research.

 

All I can say is, Paul Davis can't become governor soon enough.

 

 



The fit is hitting the shan, economically, in Kansas

Breaking, if bad, news in and for Kansas this week:

Moody's calls school finance ruling a 'credit negative' for Kansas

Kansas Representative Paul Davis' Facebook page called it last night:

For the second time in two years, Governor Brownback's reckless tax experiment has caused Kansas' credit rating to be downgraded. This is just more evidence that his "real live experiment" is failing.

And it's more than a little bit difficult to disagree with that assessment. When you raise taxes on most people in your state--the middle- and lower-classes yet raise them on the wealthy, it's just not a wise recipe for growth or strength.

Governor Brownback: How's that "hopey/changey thing goin' for ya'?

All that change Kansas Governor Brownback and his Republican buddies in the statehouse foisted on Kansas and Kansans and all his "hopey/changey" programs, as Sarah Palin so eloquently put it?  How is it going?  First, Not well, not well at all and second, it's still all on the backs of Kansans. This business survey just came out this week:

Index: Kansas to see slower growth in first half of 2014

Business conditions in Kansas improved slightly in December, but the state can expect slower growth for the next six months than in 2013, according to an economic index.

The Kansas Business Conditions Index had a reading of 54.5 in December, up from 51.5 in November. The index runs from 0 to 100, with readings about 50 percent indicating growth. It is calculated using data about new orders, production and sales, employment, and inventories.

And the additional ironic thing about all this is that this was all supposed to help him get elected president.

Like that's going to happen.

The Kansas, Republican debacle is finally over

From the Kansas Democratic Party Facebook page, yesterday:

"In the middle of the night, the Kansas Legislature voted to raise Kansans taxes $777 million. They also voted to slash $56.1 million from higher ed, cuts corrections funding making our state less safe, and refused to carve out the developmentally disabled from KanCare. Raising taxes on middle-class Kansans and cratering education - just another night's work for Gov. Brownback and the Kansas GOP."

What's also stunning about the end of this entire debacle, besides the fact that this should never have happened and that it was extremely, additionally and unnecessarily expensive for Kansans and that the Republicans are reputedly the political party of lower government spending (don't make me laugh), is that these people, these politicians, these political representatives of Kansas not only raised taxes on the middle- and lower-class people their supposed to represent while also, cruelly, let's face it, lowering the taxes of corporations and the already-wealthy but that they did it in the middle of the night and were so really cowardly about the whole thing.

The total cost to Kansans for the inability to do their work in a timely, responsible fashion?

Nine extra days x $45,000 per day = $405,000.

Perilously close to one half million dollars.

Congratulations, you Kansas State representatives. You spent nearly one half million additional dollars Kansas and Kansans didn't have. You must be so proud.

If there's one thing good about all this is that, one, it's that it's finally over and, two, it won't cost Kansans any more than it already has.

Link:  Republicans advancing tax, budget bills in push to end legislative session

Kansas poor and their schools take another beating

Not just Kansas schools take a financial blow but the poorest of Kansas schools, at that:

Federal cuts announced for poorest Kansas schools

From the article:

School districts across the state received word Thursday of significant cuts to federal funding reserved for the highest-poverty schools.

What stuns me, besides the cuts in funding, is how this is even legal.

Forget that it's immoral and nearly unconscionable, how is this legal given that "separate but equal" was ruled patently unconstitutional, so many years ago?

In this case I'm not talking about schools for blacks vs. schools for whites, as the original Brown vs. the Topeka Board of Education court ruling came out, I'm talking about schools for wealthy vs. schools for the poor.  That's what this seems to be also, further setting up, just as the school vouchers would, if we implement them.

You can't have one set of schools well-funded and the others stripped of that same equal level of funding. That's not just immoral, it's obscene and it should absolutely be illegal.

It just keeps getting worse over there in Kansas. First the governor gives tax breaks to the corporations and wealthy, then he and too many Republicans in Topeka propose raising the sales tax to make up for lost revenue which would nothing but hurt the poor and middle class, now this.

No one's going to WANT to be in Kansas, Dorothy.

And in the meantime, Representatives are trying to add in money for golf tournaments for themselves but no new, additional money for schools, yes they are:

Bring home the bacon: Budget funds staff hikes, golf events

I'm trying to decide if it's ignorance, stupidity or greed that's the source here. Regardless, chutzpah is definitely involved.

2013: The year for sports in the Kansas City metro?

First, the Royals seem very real this year:

 

Is it time to take the Royals seriously as contenders?

 

Kansas City Royals: A Good Week, Or A Good Year? 

 

The Chiefs have gutted their team, added more new players and changed plenty of people in the front office:



Chiefs, No. 1 draft pick Eric Fisher pleased with first day of practice

And now this, only yesterday:

Andrew Wiggins among biggest recruiting victories in Kansas basketball history

To go along with it, the  Latest 2013-14 power rankings in basketball came out late yesterday and show our very same KU ranked 4th. What they had to say:

 

The wait is over. Andrew Wiggins has chosen Kansas. The deadline for entering the NBA Draft has come and gone. We've lost Trey Burke, Victor Oladipo and Ben McLemore to the pros, but Marcus Smart of Oklahoma State, Russ Smith of Louisville, and Shabazz Napier of Connecticut are staying.

Sorry, Florida State. If Wiggins had selected the Seminoles, you'd probably see them in our latest edition of the early 2013-14 rankings. But he didn't, so they're not. See how the rest of the field is shaping up.

 

4. Kansas: Despite the loss of five starters, the Jayhawks became a Final Four contender again when Andrew Wiggins, the No. 1 prospect in the Class of 2013, signed his letter of intent to play at Kansas. The 6-foot-8 Wiggins is an unbelievable athlete and a real game changer for KU. Coach Bill Self has put together his best recruiting class ever, including Wayne Selden, center Joel Emblid, and shooters Conner Frankamp and Brennan Greene. Sophomore Perry Ellis and point guard Naadir Tharpe must provide leadership. Self isn't done; he'd like to add Memphis transfer Tarik Black. Kansas will be favored to win the Big 12 for a 10th consecutive season.

 

So let's not jinx it, sports fans.

Let's just keep our fingers crossed.

 

And enjoy.

The Best College Towns--Two of ours in top 10

The American Institute of Economic Research ranked the "75 Best College Towns" and two of ours came in the top 10:

Mizzou, number 10

Lawrence, KS, number 8

Based on this criteria:

• Student Concentration: number of college students per 1,000 population

• Student Diversity: percentage of student body that are non-U.S. residents

• Research Capacity: academic R&D expenditures per capita

• Degree Attainment: percent of the 25-to-34-year-old population with bachelor’s degree or higher

• Cost of Living: based upon average rent for a 2-bedroom apartment

• Arts and Leisure: number of cultural and entertainment venues per 100,000 population

• City Accessibility: percentage of workers over age 16 who commute on foot or by public transportation or bicycle

• Creative Class: percentage of workforce in the arts, education, knowledge industries, science and engineering, management and other fields

• Earning Potential: income per capita

• Entrepreneurial Activity: net annual increase in total number of business establishments per 100,000 population

• Brain Gain/Drain: year-over-year ratio of population with B.A. degree (it is only population with B.A degree, not all the college level) living in the area

• Unemployment rate

It should be noted, too, that Iowa City, Iowa came in 4th and Ames, Iowa came in 2nd.

 

Kudos to those Midwest sensibilities.

 

Link to original post:  AIER Names 75 Best College Towns and Cities for 2012-2013

Kansas and their Guv all over the news lately--just not in good ways

Yessiree, bob, good ol' Kansas and Governor Sam "I Haven't Got a Brain" Brownback are all over the news and internet and Facebook lately.

And it isn't pretty.

First this from Bloomberg News:

Bleeding Kansas Shows Peril of GOP Bid to End Income Tax

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback has a prairie-wide smile, a friendly manner and an abiding hatred of his state’s income tax. He pushed an unprecedented cut for individuals and small businesses through the legislature last year and is now plotting, as he says, to “take it to zero.”

 

And the unfortunate thing is, it's getting him the national attention he wants, so he can, hopefully, in his mind, anyway, run successfully for the presidency in 2016, God forbid:

 

“Kansas is the starter gun for tax competition,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, the Washington-based group that pressures members of Congress to sign a no-tax-increase pledge. “Brownback fired off the shot that said ‘Go.’”

 

But here's the bad things, as we know, for Kansas and Kansans:

 

The race presents significant hurdles. Kansas lawmakers haven’t figured out how to pay for the tax cuts without potentially crippling public schools and other local government functions. Reducing the income tax has left a projected $2.5 billion revenue hole through fiscal 2018, according to the Kansas Legislative Research Department. On Jan. 11, a state court ruled that the legislature was illegally underfunding schools and ordered a payment of $440 million.

“It’s a major fiscal risk,” Chris Mier, managing director of analytical services at Loop Capital Markets in Chicago, said of Brownback’s income-tax push. “Are the alternative revenue sources going to produce the revenue they need?”

 

And that's just the first article on Kansas and the Guv. Here's another, this one from The New York Times:

 

Kansas' Governor and GOP Seek to End Income Tax

Then there's this, yesterday, from the Kansas City Star:

Brownback's tax plan favors rich over middle-income

 

So, God help and forgive him, tax-slashing Sam is getting that national attention he wants, even if it is on the backs of all Kansans except the wealthy and corporations.  The bad thing, though, the sad thing, besides the fact that he's doing this at the expense of the middle- and lower-classes of Kansas is that this, however, is the real truth, from the Pittsburg, KS - Morning Sun newspaper:

 

SULLIVAN: Kansas isn't Texas

 

PITTSBURG — Kansas isn't Texas. Kansas isn't Florida. Kansas is Kansas. If you take away the ability of the state government to maintain and/or enhance it's great university system, and if you take away the money to fix the roads, re-build bridges, and maintain and/or enhance infrastructure, Kansas won't be Kansas anymore. It will be simply a central flatland with few distinguishing characteristics.

When Governor Brownback gave his State of the State address, his legislative cheerleaders erupted in raucous applause when he said "Look out Texas, here comes Kansas!"

 

The comparison could not be more in apt. Both Florida and Texas have lots of seacoast and derive much of their economic vitality either from the gulf coast directly, or tourism indirectly.
Kansas is landlocked. It has no sea coast.  It has little tourism industry compared to the other two states.  What it does have is a pretty good road system, pretty good schools, and excellent university system, all of which are now at risk under the policy initiatives of the current regime in Topeka.  It also has an industrious and well trained workforce, whose middle class existence is being threatened by the tax increases that will be visited upon them in order to give tax cuts to the supposed job creating class that has yet to move here.

It's pretty bad when the most blatant, obvious truths have to be spelled out to egomaniac, self-centered, self-serving politicians who only want themselves to succeed, even if it means hurting the entire state they're supposed to be leading far more wisely and, again, successfully.

 

Kansas, you deserve far, far better than your governor, Sam Brownback.

 

You poor things.

 

Literally and figuratively, if not already, then soon.

Pledge Week on National Public Radio

1) I hate pledge week on National Public Radio but know it's a "necessary evil" and

2) KPR out of Lawrence is a lot less obnoxious in its fundraising than KCUR.

I know you gotta' do what you gotta' do but wow. It's so nice when it's over.

Please, if you do listen, phone in or go online and pledge. The phone numbers and links, both, are at bottom.

And if you don't listen but aren't familiar with it, you might check it out. Between either news or entertainment--or both--you may well enjoy what you hear.

--KCUR, Kansas City phone number: 816.235.5287

Kansas Public Radio, KPR, out of Lawrence and Kansas: 785-864-5268

Not to be forgotten, there is Warrensburg, Missouri's own KTBG, The Bridge, at 90.9 FM: 866.909.2743 (toll free).

Links: http://kcur.org/

http://www.kansaspublicradio.org/

http://www.ktbg.fm/

Quote of the day--on current Kansas politics and politicians (and lessons for the rest of us)

Fantastic writing today from The Wichita Eagle-Beacon:

"Faith is powerful, but it’s no substitute for analysis or facts or shrewd political deal making. Moreover, in politics and policymaking, pure faith can be destructive. For one thing, the true believer 'cannot compromise over the holy without compromising the holy.'

Yet compromise on substance constitutes the essence of politics and policymaking in the American system.

The election of 2010 swept into office a wave of true believers – from Brownback to Secretary of State Kris Kobach to 30-plus Kansas House members. Cabinet members were recruited as much for their beliefs as for their skills.

The faith in small government runs rampant. Not small, effective government, but small government, period. Likewise, the belief that privatization of Medicaid will save money and provide better services, all the while producing profits, trumps careful analysis.

To be sure, belief – true, encompassing belief – is a remarkable leap, and one that we should hold in awe. But it’s incompatible with governing a state as a steward for the entire population." --Burdett Loomis, University of Kansas Political Science Professor.

Complete, brief article here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/05/06/2322974/belief-is-not-enough.html#storylink=cpy