Dear Editor,
Richard “Rick” Wilborn, the 35th senate district incumbent, must go; he’s part of the Kansas’ problem.
Rick Wilborn’s recent political ad in my local newspaper check-marked 3 things he wants to do:
1) Repeal the LLC tax loophole. In April of 2016, Wilborn voted to preserve the LLC tax loophole.
2) Reduce the sales tax on food. He says he wants to reduce the sales tax on food, but he was more than willing to vote to preserve it in March of 2016.
3) Put a lid on property taxes. In June, he voted for a budget bill which put a cap on property tax increases for local government. Cities (such as Wichita, Topeka, and Kansas City) and counties (such as Sedgwick, Shawnee, Douglas, and Johnson) across the state have denounced this part of the bill. A quote from the Lawrence Journal World:
“The idea of a property tax lid was not raised until the 105th day of the legislative session, and no hearings were held on the proposal before it was included as part of the Senate tax plan.
‘It is an excellent example of how poorly legislation can be written if you don’t take any time to discuss it,’ Weinaug said” (Douglas County Administrator Craig Weinaug).
The lid on property taxes, which was added without debate to the June 2016 final budget bill, has caused great burden upon counties and municipalities.
Wilborn is a Brownback Republican, those who brought our state to the edge of insolvency and left its infrastructure in peril for the years ahead. I am a lifelong conservative Republican who likes roads, hospitals, schools, police and fire departments, courts and laws, libraries and museums, social programs, charity and goodwill. .. in short, all the things Kansas has maintained and improved upon prior to Brown back’s last 6 years. I am willing to pay my fair share of taxes to support these things.
I will be voting and campaigning for the Democratic challenger, Levi Morris. I urge you to consider where Kansas was before Brownback’s great experiment which was supported and enacted with the help of Rick Wilborn and then look at the bleakness ahead of us if we retain their policies. We need a politically balanced legislature that puts our state on a solid financial road, not a rubber stamp legislature that blindly follows the governor’s errant policies. Vote Levi Morris for the 35th Senate district seat.
Jacqueline Oborny
still a Republican in Lyons