To the editor:

This letter is about the election for Kansas governor.

Budget cuts championed by the dominant lobbyists and political bosses who currently control the Kansas Legislature have ended the Sternberg Museum at Fort Hays University. The museum has educated and entertained generations with its world-famous displays, based on the pioneering work that the Kansas fossil hunting Sternberg family began in the 1860s. It will close to the public on Dec. 18.

One of the dominant lobbyists described their propaganda messaging efforts with the statements: Truth is irrelevant. Restructure ... perceptions to achieve your goals. Messaging must be relentless.

The dominant lobbyists and political bosses work to benefit those of us with the most money relative to those of us with less. So, they relentlessly message that the wealthiest among us must pay less income tax even as their wealth increases. They promote a false perception that government spending that simply keeps up with the growth of personal income is out of control and is bad and must be ended.

There is no practical limit to their efforts to move money out of public services and into tax breaks for the wealthiest. Fort Hays University is already by far the most economical university in the state. They cut Fort Hays anyway. The 27% of the nation’s wealth held by the top 1% of families in 1989 was not enough. The 34% that the top 1% held in 2019 was not enough (Trends in the Distribution of Family Wealth, 1989 to 2019, Congressional Budget Office).

Our state economy is perfectly capable of continuing to support the Sternberg Museum as it has done for over 100 years. It is perfectly capable to contribute the same share of our wealth to public schools as it has for decades. It is perfectly capable to pay for local government services like sewer plants, streets and parks as it has for over 100 years. But dominant lobbyists and political bosses have largely made the increase in wealth that our society creates in income growth unavailable for public services. They began with the Brownback income tax cut fiscal train wreck, which was reversed in 2017. They continued their efforts with the 2024 near-flat tax and 2025 income tax trigger bill.

Sternberg is simply a more visible example of the outcomes they pursue for public services in general, as they work to help make those among us with most money, even more wealthy. We see it in the need for new local sales taxes as well as property tax pressures.

Cindy Holscher was raised on a farm in central Missouri, worked in management at Sprint and has been in the legislature since 2017, first in the House and now in the Senate. Ty Masterson was raised on a farm in Butler County, worked in house construction and has been in the legislature since 2005, first in the House and now in the Senate. Holscher voted to end the Brownback income tax fiscal train wreck. Masterson voted to create it and voted to keep it. If Masterson had his way, we would now be in the 14th year of Brownback’s budget wrecking, debt building, tax cut experiment. Masterson is the head of the Senate. He is one of the political bosses who align with dominant lobbyists and work to benefit the wealthiest relative to everyone else.

In a better past, our general elections for governor were a choice between two moderate, people-first candidates. But that past is not our present. This election that choice is only one person. Please vote Cindy Holscher for governor.

John Sturn

Ellinwood