Letters: LLC loophole needs to be fixed

Herbert column

Kansas Democrat and some Republican legislators have criticized Gov. Sam Brownback's tax exemption for 300,000 businesses that has created such a horrible fiscal mess. Yet they voted against a last-minute bill that would have changed that exemption, and right-wing apologist Danedri Herbert in her May 11 913 column, “They could have fixed that LLC loophole, but didn't,” took them to task for it, calling their actions “shameful.”

Only in the bizarre reality of the right-wing brain, where facts are ignored in favor of warped dogma, do her charges make sense.

That bill was drafted in secret by six Republicans and immediately sent out for a vote. There was no copy for the other 120 House members to read before voting. No amendments were allowed. No discussion was allowed.

If passed, implementation would be delayed and would have no effect on the 2016 and 2017 fiscal year budgets. Plus, the Senate president and majority leader said flat-out that the bill would not be considered in the Senate. And Brownback has consistently said he'd veto such a thing.

So this absurd bill would ignore the fiscal mess for two years, and it had no chance of becoming law. Logically enough, it was defeated 45-74.

It was cobbled together at the last minute so that skittish right-wing Republicans could tell voters next fall: “See, I voted to fix the mess, but those awful Democrats and irresponsible Republicans prevented it.”

It was crass, duplicitous, hypocritical politics at its worst. Naturally, Herbert loved it.

And she jumped at the chance to excoriate Johnson County legislators, particularly my exceptional representative Melissa Rooker, because they voted against this blatant political ploy.

Talis Bergmanis

Fairway

Leadership missing

Completely frustrated with the failed and destructive policies of Gov. Sam Brownback, I took to contacting some of the Democratic leaders in the state and became even more frustrated by their replies.

My question was: If both Democrats and Republicans are being negatively affected by Brownback’s poor leadership, why doesn’t the Democratic leadership in Topeka propose a recall petition to remove the governor? The answer was because it would be too costly.

My reply: Brownback has more than two years to further destroy the Kansas economy and further pick the citizen’s pockets and limit their futures. Just how much will that cost Kansans until the governor leaves office?

Another excuse not to act was: Look what happened in Wisconsin. What they neglected to recognize was that Gov. Scott Walker was not a failed governor — and it was a single “right-to-work” issue. Kansas has a host of issues with its failing governor.

The answer to the state’s problem, according to the Democratic leadership, is to register as a Democrat. According to them, that will solve all the state’s problems.

Balderdash! Let’s have a November 2016 Kansas governor replacement election. Don’t allow the GOP to pick the next governor.

The Democratic Party’s leadership silence is disappointing.

William R. Park Sr.

Shawnee

Kansas, secede?

Sherry Kuehl’s May 4 column, “If at first you don't secede, then try, try again,” about Johnson County seceding from Kansas is an attempt to be humorous about the dire situation facing the state of Kansas. She claims that the Legislature’s fixation on gender bathrooms lies at the heart of our problems, when it is but one more symptom of the GOP’s desire to turn Kansas into a religious, far right-wing mecca.

Ms. Kuehl thinks the Johnson County GOP, led by Gov. Sam Brownback supporter and mega donor Peggy Dunn, freed from Topeka, could create a “New Kansas,” where tolerance and adequate school funding would abound. In other words, let's pretend that there are still moderate Republicans being elected in Kansas.

Did she miss the commercials featuring Johnson County GOP officials and Ms. Dunn touting the greatness of Brownback’s plans? Alleging that this current Johnson County GOP would bring us back to the moderate governance Kansas had in the past, is like claiming Donald Trump will bring civility to America.

Instead of this mythical “New Kansas,” let’s keep old Kansas, and learn from our neighbors in Douglas and Wyandotte counties.

Let’s stop voting for these immoderate Republicans.

Patricia Ryan

Prairie Village

Republican swirl

In spite of some real potential consequences, I can’t help but delight in watching the Republican party implode. We’re witnessing the demise of the party of Lester Maddox, Orville Faubus, George Wallace, David Duke, the tea partiers, the gun nuts, the politicians that are so easily bought, the evangelicals, the gerrymanderers, the delusional voter fraud idiots.

The list goes on and on. Did I mention the racists, the xenophobes, the homophobes? How about those who are not interested in society but themselves?

And don’t forget those who won’t support education because they know that they can count on the poorly educated and informed to vote for the Republican Party. And if they are really lucky, public education will be privatized.

It’s worked so well with health care delivery. This is what happens to democracy when the people determine that they will vote on how much money, material wealth and power they can extract for themselves.

Democracy cannot survive this. Perhaps, it’s already too late.

Dennis Stratton

Prairie Village

This story was originally published May 17, 2016 at 8:44 PM with the headline "Letters: LLC loophole needs to be fixed."