Government: Rewarding Failure

Good morning!! Spring is coming, pansies are beginning to be planted (2 hanging baskets and 4 pots at my house), the grass is greening (I got my fertilizer and pre-emergent spread before the rain!!), AND the dreaded annual REAPPRAISALS are landing in our mailboxes.

I am beginning to get text messages from folks about their ever-increasing valuations, which all of us know leads to HIGHER PROPERTY TAXES!!! Email me what your county appraiser has done to you this year. I will report back next week with your feedback and the stats from counties across the state.

Approximately 50% of Kansas’ $7 billion of revenue from OUR property taxes goes to public education K-12. $3.5 billion of OUR tax dollars, which will increase again this year, is going to a system which has an F rating on student achievement. WOW!! In the real world of competition, if your success continues to plummet, as an employee you are fired, or if you own the firm, you go out of business. But the opposite happens in education – and in ALL government – if you fail, it means, in the BIZARRE UPSIDE-DOWN WORLD of publicly financed endeavors (bureaucracies), YOU GET MORE MONEY!!!

Here is last week’s blip from the Trump administration on the continuation of dismantling the U.S. Department of NO EDUCATION!! “The U.S. Department of Education today announced two new interagency agreements to further break up the federal education bureaucracy, ensure efficient delivery of funded programs and activities, and continue delivering on the President’s promise to return education to the states.”

What a disaster this great experiment of federalization has been for our CHILDREN.

To reclaim our schools, they must be controlled at the local level. Curriculum decisions must be at the LOCAL LEVEL!! What have nearly 300 employees in the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) done for our children? Continued erosion of academic performance and anxiety-filled children is not a success. Close the Kansas Department of Education, push the responsibility/accountability to the local districts. Parents will then know the disasters of WOKE/DEI/Common Core coming from those that they directly elected to their school boards. No more hiding as to who is to blame.

Closing the Kansas State Department of Education would save over $300 million ANNUALLY. Our State Board of Education (required in the Kansas Constitution) can set the parameters as to the number of credits for math, history, science (real SCIENCE), literature (classical definition), English (get the porn out, such as “Gender Queer”), and civics (what a novel idea, teach our kids how our government works and their responsibilities in a representative Republic).

Next subject: Sub for Sub SB 197 passed the House February 26th, 82-38!! Ah, the cabal of the Democrats and Republicans on economic development/Star Bond legislation rolls on. This bill extended the sunset of Star Bonds from July 1, 2027, to July 1, 2031, and extended the disclosure of all documents on the Chiefs’ steal, I mean deal, from July 2029 to July 2030. Good grief!!!!

A state Sport Authority, or perhaps a port authority, which is supposedly to own the Chiefs’ stadium and perhaps the practice field and executive offices in Olathe, continues to be a mystery. Ordinances were passed for tax increment payments for Chiefs’ Star Bonds in both Wyandotte County Unified Government and the City of Olathe, with ownership “to be determined”!!! WHAT??? Have you ever signed a contract with a “to be determined” entity? So, here in Kansas, we have our Kansas Commerce Department, our Legislative Coordinating Council, and two local governing entities signing off on a $2.775 billion deal ($6 billion including interest) with “to be determined”???

No wonder the billionaires of the world see Kansas as an easy target for their snake oil song and dance, capturing billions of dollars in welfare for their projects.

Let’s see a partial list of tax incentive projects:

Panasonic – Through APEX (Attracting Powerful Economic Development) received nearly $1 billion of Kansas general fund tax dollars. Governor Kelly congratulated Senate President Ty Masterson (one of my opponents) for fast-tracking APEX, or the Kelly/Masterson deal. Jobs promised, 4,000. Jobs created, maybe 1,200? And current jobs listed: Material Handler: $20.70 per hour and Skilled Machine Technician: $22.80 per hour.

Boeing – moved to Oklahoma.

Sprint – This was the first tax incentive given by Overland Park. Sprint was bought out by T-Mobile. Now Sprint Campus is being re-incentivized. Example: $154 million Kansas General Fund tax dollars going to Fiserv, a Milwaukee financial services company, which has lost 75% of its stock value in the last 12 months.

CNANO – This Chinese company located in New Century AirCenter was given an Industrial Revenue Bond (IRB) by the Johnson County Board of County Commissioners June 1, 2023 (I was the only commissioner who voted NO). CNANO paid no sales tax on construction materials and is paying a little over 30 cents a sq. ft. for property taxes (approximately 10% of what they should be paying). AND the building continues to SIT EMPTY.

Government continues to REWARD FAILURE time after time after time.

God Bless,
Charlotte O’Hara
Republican for Kansas Governor, 2026