I happen to think Dick Morris is slimy, but I believe he nailed it with this editorial from TheHill.com on Nov. 6.
Johnson County seniors--read this! Leave AARP and go join www.americanseniors.org, like he and Eileen McGann suggest!
Dennis Moore sold us out AGAIN, just like he did with his vote for Cap & Trade, the energy bill he did not read.
OBAMACARE ENDORSEMENTS: WHAT THE BRIBE WAS
By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN
Published on TheHill.com on November 6, 2009
As the suicidal Democratic congressmen proceed to rubber-stamp the Obama healthcare reform despite the drubbing their party took in the '09 elections, the president trotted out the endorsements of the AMA and the AARP to stimulate support. But these -- and the other endorsements -- his package has received are all bought and paid for.
Here are the deals:
* The American Medical Association (AMA) was facing a 21 percent cut in physicians' reimbursements under the current law. Obama promised to kill the cut if they backed his bill. The cuts are the fruit of a law requiring annual 5-6 percent reductions in doctor reimbursements for treating Medicare patients. Bravely, each year Congress has rolled the cuts over, suspending them but not repealing them. So each year, the accumulated cuts threaten doctors. By now, they have risen to 21 percent. With this blackmail leverage, Obama compelled the AMA to support his bill...or else!
* The AARP got a financial windfall in return for its support of the healthcare bill. Over the past decade, the AARP has morphed from an advocacy group to an insurance company (through its subsidiary company). It is one of the main suppliers of Medi-gap insurance, a high-cost, privately purchased coverage that picks up where Medicare leaves off.
But President Bush-43 passed the Medicare Advantage program, which offered a subsidized, lower-cost alternative to Medi-gap. Under Medicare Advantage, the elderly get all the extra coverage they need plus coordinated, well-managed care, usually by the same physician. So more than 10 million seniors went with Medicare Advantage, cutting into AARP Medi-gap revenues.
Presto! Obama solved their problem. He eliminates subsidies for Medicare Advantage. The elderly will have to pay more for coverage under Medigap, but the AARP -- which supposedly represents them -- will make more money. (If this galls you, join the American Seniors Association, the alternative group; contact sbarton@americanseniors.org. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .)
* The drug industry backed ObamaCare and, in return, got a 10-year limit of $80 billion on cuts in prescription drug costs. (A drop in the bucket of their almost $3 trillion projected cost over the next decade.) They also got administration assurances that it will continue to bar lower-cost Canadian drugs from coming into the U.S. All it had to do was put its formidable advertising budget at the disposal of the administration.
* Insurance companies got access to 40 million potential new customers. But when the Senate Finance Committee lowered the fine that would be imposed on those who don't buy insurance from $3,500 to $1,500, the insurance companies jumped ship and now oppose the bill, albeit for the worst of motives.
The only industry that refused to knuckle under was the medical device makers. They stood for principle and wouldn't go along with Obama's blackmail. So the Senate Finance Committee retaliated by imposing a tax on medical devices such as automated wheelchairs, pacemakers, arterial stents, prosthetic limbs, artificial knees and hips and other necessary accoutrements of healthcare.
So these endorsements are not freely given, but bought and paid for by an administration that is intent on passing its program at any cost.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Here's what Dennis Moore wrote me about health care today (obvious boilerplate from Pelosi)
Dear Tracy:
Thank you for sharing with me your thoughts regarding and your opposition to pending health insurance reform proposals, including a competitive alternative to private health care insurance. I appreciate hearing from you.
First, let me say that I am opposed to socialized medicine, or a "single payer" system, like that of Canada, New Zealand, and many European countries. I am supportive, however, of keeping private insurance while adding to the mix a competitive public option. A public option should be available to those who cannot afford private insurance, who are unemployed, students dropped from their parents' coverage, the uninsured, or those who are not happy with their current private insurance. It would simply be another insurance option. If you are satisfied with your current insurance, like I am, there would be no reason to purchase the public option.
I agree that a public health care insurance option based on current Medicare fee-for-service reimbursement rates would not provide a level playing field for private insurance companies. For this reason, I support reforming the fee-for-service reimbursement system by which physicians, hospitals and other health care providers are paid. The fee-for-service system incentivizes physicians to give patients more tests and treatments for which the Medicare reimbursement rate is higher. Instead, we should be incentivizing good outcomes, managed care, and prevention.
Our current health care system contains a lot of inefficiencies. I support health care reform legislation that seeks to correct these problems through regulation, modernization, and restructuring the payment systems to providers. Making these changes will save billions of dollars (to both patients and the insurance providers, whether public or private), reduce medical errors, and increase the health and well-being of Americans. For example, full implementation of Health Information Technology would give patients a complete electronic file of their medical history, to which they could give their physicians access. This would reduce duplicative testing by multiple physicians because the health record indicates which tests the patient has already had, saving time, money, and hardship in the process. Not having access to a complete medical record often results in the duplication of expensive tests. The Institute of Medicine estimates that one-third of health care spending is wasted on treatments and tests that accomplish nothing.
Reform should also include incentives for hospital care management, to reduce readmittance and hospital acquired infections. It should also specifically reform the Medicare Advantage payment system, and home health payment rates, and increase rebates from pharmaceutical manufacturers to make drugs more affordable. Health care reform should also include rigorous incentives to recruit primary care physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals into the workforce, as they are in short-supply now and additional professionals will be desperately needed in order to provide care to an additional 47 million Americans.
As you may know, three House committees (Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Education and Labor) are working together in unprecedented collaboration to craft health care reform legislation. H.R. 3200, the America's Affordable Health Choices Act, offers both public and private insurance as an option, providing coverage to all Americans regardless of pre-existing conditions, providing coverage for (1) primary care and prevention; (2) prescription drugs; (3) emergency care; and (4) mental health services.
America's Affordable Health Choices Act would provide significant benefits in the Third Congressional District of Kansas: up to 18,800 small businesses could receive tax credits to provide coverage to their employees; 9,700 seniors would avoid the donut hole in Medicare Part D; 1,210 families could escape bankruptcy each year due to unaffordable health care costs; health care providers would receive payment for $55 million in uncompensated care each year; and 53,000 uninsured individuals would gain access to high-quality, affordable health insurance. H.R. 3200 would provide:
o Help for small businesses. Under the legislation, small businesses with 25 employees or less and average wages of less than $40,000 qualify for tax credits of up to 50% of the costs of providing health insurance. In addition, the Blue Dog Coalition, of which I am a member, successfully doubled the small business exemption from the requirement to provide insurance to $500,000, with a phase-in of the penalty for failing to do so to $750,000. There are up to 18,800 small businesses in the district that could qualify for these credits.
o Help for seniors with drug costs in the Part D donut hole. Each year, 9,700 seniors in the district hit the donut hole and are forced to pay their full drug costs, despite having Part D drug coverage. The legislation would provide them with immediate relief, cutting brand name drug costs in the donut hole by 50%, and ultimately eliminate the donut hole.
o Health care and financial security. There were 1,210 health care-related bankruptcies in the district in 2008, caused primarily by the health care costs not covered by insurance. The bill provides health insurance for almost every American citizen and caps annual out-of-pocket costs at $10,000 per year, ensuring that no citizen will have to face financial ruin because of high health care costs.
o Financial relief to hospitals and health care providers for uncompensated care. In 2008, health care providers in the district provided $55 million worth of uncompensated care, care that was provided to individuals who lacked insurance coverage and were unable to pay their bills. Under the legislation, these costs of uncompensated care would be virtually eliminated.
o Coverage of the uninsured. There are 75,000 uninsured individuals in the district, 10% of the district. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that nationwide, 97% of all Americans will have insurance coverage when the bill takes effect. If this benchmark is reached in the district, 53,000 people who currently do not have health insurance will receive coverage.
o No deficit spending. The cost of health care reform under the legislation is fully paid for: half through making the Medicare and Medicaid program more efficient (through the payment reforms and waste reduction previously mentioned) and half through a surtax on the income of the wealthiest individuals. This surtax would affect only 6,200 households in the district. The surtax would not affect 98.2% of taxpayers in the district.
I am quite certain that H.R. 3200 is not a perfect bill, but it provides a solid foundation for Congress to consider this year. What I do know is that inaction is not acceptable. The current health care system is bleeding us dry - families, businesses and the government alike. We have 47 million uninsured or underinsured American citizens who have no choice but to seek the most expensive health care there is - emergency care - and $1100 of each insured Kansas family's insurance premium covers that cost. In Kansas in 2007, approximately 278,000 adults and 58,000 children were uninsured (total of 336,000) and that was before the economic downturn. The situation has just gotten worse. We have college kids with chronic diseases who are dropped from their parents' plan, who can then not get insurance because of their pre-existing condition. We have 26 year old women being diagnosed with breast cancer, who just graduated and are looking for employment who find themselves caught with no insurance. In Johnson County, we have a 57 year old man, self-employed, married with 2 small children when he was diagnosed with bladder cancer. He was unable to continue treatment due to being uninsured and unable to afford cost of treatment and medications. The family now has thousands of dollars in medical debt. These are our neighbors, our coworkers, and our friends. What if next week, God forbid, you lose your job or insurance coverage?
Reform will provide coverage and choice in the free market. If you like what you have - your insurance plan, your doctor, your hospital - you can keep it. Would you be upset if your premiums went down? Because that is the likely outcome of insuring everyone - it widens the risk pool to include the young and healthy and reduces those expensive emergency room visits by the uninsured because they can now see a doctor before the health problem becomes an emergency. If you don't like your insurance, reform will allow you to comparison shop among plans so you can decide what plan is best for you and your family. Reform will make more tools available to doctors so that they can provide the best care. Many insurance companies now require that patients try the cheapest treatment option first, even if it's not shown to be the best option. Reform will put an end to insurance companies rationing care, and put the decisions back into the hands of physicians and patients.
As a final note, I would like to mention that there are a number of outlandish claims being made in the media and through the internet claiming that this bill mandates euthanasia for senior citizens, will cover illegal immigrants, will mandate abortion coverage, and will force you into the public option. None of these claims are true. Please visit my website to view a complete list of "Myths vs. Facts" about the legislation: http://www.moore.house.gov/issue.asp?issue_ID=50
Please know that as the health care reform legislation moves forward, I will work with my colleagues in Congress to ensure that the health care reform legislation will improve the quality and length of life for Americans, while making citizens and the nation more financially secure.
Thank you again for contacting me. I hope you will continue to keep in touch and please feel free to let me know whenever I may be of assistance.
Very truly yours,
DENNIS MOORE
Member of Congress
P.S. Please sign up for my e-mail newsletter to receive periodic updates on federal legislation at my Web site: http://moore.house.gov/
Thank you for sharing with me your thoughts regarding and your opposition to pending health insurance reform proposals, including a competitive alternative to private health care insurance. I appreciate hearing from you.
First, let me say that I am opposed to socialized medicine, or a "single payer" system, like that of Canada, New Zealand, and many European countries. I am supportive, however, of keeping private insurance while adding to the mix a competitive public option. A public option should be available to those who cannot afford private insurance, who are unemployed, students dropped from their parents' coverage, the uninsured, or those who are not happy with their current private insurance. It would simply be another insurance option. If you are satisfied with your current insurance, like I am, there would be no reason to purchase the public option.
I agree that a public health care insurance option based on current Medicare fee-for-service reimbursement rates would not provide a level playing field for private insurance companies. For this reason, I support reforming the fee-for-service reimbursement system by which physicians, hospitals and other health care providers are paid. The fee-for-service system incentivizes physicians to give patients more tests and treatments for which the Medicare reimbursement rate is higher. Instead, we should be incentivizing good outcomes, managed care, and prevention.
Our current health care system contains a lot of inefficiencies. I support health care reform legislation that seeks to correct these problems through regulation, modernization, and restructuring the payment systems to providers. Making these changes will save billions of dollars (to both patients and the insurance providers, whether public or private), reduce medical errors, and increase the health and well-being of Americans. For example, full implementation of Health Information Technology would give patients a complete electronic file of their medical history, to which they could give their physicians access. This would reduce duplicative testing by multiple physicians because the health record indicates which tests the patient has already had, saving time, money, and hardship in the process. Not having access to a complete medical record often results in the duplication of expensive tests. The Institute of Medicine estimates that one-third of health care spending is wasted on treatments and tests that accomplish nothing.
Reform should also include incentives for hospital care management, to reduce readmittance and hospital acquired infections. It should also specifically reform the Medicare Advantage payment system, and home health payment rates, and increase rebates from pharmaceutical manufacturers to make drugs more affordable. Health care reform should also include rigorous incentives to recruit primary care physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals into the workforce, as they are in short-supply now and additional professionals will be desperately needed in order to provide care to an additional 47 million Americans.
As you may know, three House committees (Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Education and Labor) are working together in unprecedented collaboration to craft health care reform legislation. H.R. 3200, the America's Affordable Health Choices Act, offers both public and private insurance as an option, providing coverage to all Americans regardless of pre-existing conditions, providing coverage for (1) primary care and prevention; (2) prescription drugs; (3) emergency care; and (4) mental health services.
America's Affordable Health Choices Act would provide significant benefits in the Third Congressional District of Kansas: up to 18,800 small businesses could receive tax credits to provide coverage to their employees; 9,700 seniors would avoid the donut hole in Medicare Part D; 1,210 families could escape bankruptcy each year due to unaffordable health care costs; health care providers would receive payment for $55 million in uncompensated care each year; and 53,000 uninsured individuals would gain access to high-quality, affordable health insurance. H.R. 3200 would provide:
o Help for small businesses. Under the legislation, small businesses with 25 employees or less and average wages of less than $40,000 qualify for tax credits of up to 50% of the costs of providing health insurance. In addition, the Blue Dog Coalition, of which I am a member, successfully doubled the small business exemption from the requirement to provide insurance to $500,000, with a phase-in of the penalty for failing to do so to $750,000. There are up to 18,800 small businesses in the district that could qualify for these credits.
o Help for seniors with drug costs in the Part D donut hole. Each year, 9,700 seniors in the district hit the donut hole and are forced to pay their full drug costs, despite having Part D drug coverage. The legislation would provide them with immediate relief, cutting brand name drug costs in the donut hole by 50%, and ultimately eliminate the donut hole.
o Health care and financial security. There were 1,210 health care-related bankruptcies in the district in 2008, caused primarily by the health care costs not covered by insurance. The bill provides health insurance for almost every American citizen and caps annual out-of-pocket costs at $10,000 per year, ensuring that no citizen will have to face financial ruin because of high health care costs.
o Financial relief to hospitals and health care providers for uncompensated care. In 2008, health care providers in the district provided $55 million worth of uncompensated care, care that was provided to individuals who lacked insurance coverage and were unable to pay their bills. Under the legislation, these costs of uncompensated care would be virtually eliminated.
o Coverage of the uninsured. There are 75,000 uninsured individuals in the district, 10% of the district. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that nationwide, 97% of all Americans will have insurance coverage when the bill takes effect. If this benchmark is reached in the district, 53,000 people who currently do not have health insurance will receive coverage.
o No deficit spending. The cost of health care reform under the legislation is fully paid for: half through making the Medicare and Medicaid program more efficient (through the payment reforms and waste reduction previously mentioned) and half through a surtax on the income of the wealthiest individuals. This surtax would affect only 6,200 households in the district. The surtax would not affect 98.2% of taxpayers in the district.
I am quite certain that H.R. 3200 is not a perfect bill, but it provides a solid foundation for Congress to consider this year. What I do know is that inaction is not acceptable. The current health care system is bleeding us dry - families, businesses and the government alike. We have 47 million uninsured or underinsured American citizens who have no choice but to seek the most expensive health care there is - emergency care - and $1100 of each insured Kansas family's insurance premium covers that cost. In Kansas in 2007, approximately 278,000 adults and 58,000 children were uninsured (total of 336,000) and that was before the economic downturn. The situation has just gotten worse. We have college kids with chronic diseases who are dropped from their parents' plan, who can then not get insurance because of their pre-existing condition. We have 26 year old women being diagnosed with breast cancer, who just graduated and are looking for employment who find themselves caught with no insurance. In Johnson County, we have a 57 year old man, self-employed, married with 2 small children when he was diagnosed with bladder cancer. He was unable to continue treatment due to being uninsured and unable to afford cost of treatment and medications. The family now has thousands of dollars in medical debt. These are our neighbors, our coworkers, and our friends. What if next week, God forbid, you lose your job or insurance coverage?
Reform will provide coverage and choice in the free market. If you like what you have - your insurance plan, your doctor, your hospital - you can keep it. Would you be upset if your premiums went down? Because that is the likely outcome of insuring everyone - it widens the risk pool to include the young and healthy and reduces those expensive emergency room visits by the uninsured because they can now see a doctor before the health problem becomes an emergency. If you don't like your insurance, reform will allow you to comparison shop among plans so you can decide what plan is best for you and your family. Reform will make more tools available to doctors so that they can provide the best care. Many insurance companies now require that patients try the cheapest treatment option first, even if it's not shown to be the best option. Reform will put an end to insurance companies rationing care, and put the decisions back into the hands of physicians and patients.
As a final note, I would like to mention that there are a number of outlandish claims being made in the media and through the internet claiming that this bill mandates euthanasia for senior citizens, will cover illegal immigrants, will mandate abortion coverage, and will force you into the public option. None of these claims are true. Please visit my website to view a complete list of "Myths vs. Facts" about the legislation: http://www.moore.house.gov/issue.asp?issue_ID=50
Please know that as the health care reform legislation moves forward, I will work with my colleagues in Congress to ensure that the health care reform legislation will improve the quality and length of life for Americans, while making citizens and the nation more financially secure.
Thank you again for contacting me. I hope you will continue to keep in touch and please feel free to let me know whenever I may be of assistance.
Very truly yours,
DENNIS MOORE
Member of Congress
P.S. Please sign up for my e-mail newsletter to receive periodic updates on federal legislation at my Web site: http://moore.house.gov/
Dennis--I don't trust you any more.
In response to Dennis Moore's robo email, I wrote:
Dennis--
I just don't trust you on spending and reform any more.
You voted for that preposterous cap and trade bill, without reading it. (the last 500 pages were inserted at 3am that Friday you voted.)
You didn't read it.
You are not representing me well. You are just a mouthpiece for Nancy Pelosi. She will say ANY spending spree will create jobs. Oh, brother. Stop with that lie.
And I suspect you are done, anyway and won't run for re-election. So really, Dennis, now instead of raising money as you once described it: locked in a phone booth for 15 hours a week--now you HAVE the time to read these stupid proposed bills. Now you have the luxury of thinking before you vote. And what I want is for you to think and vote about what serves ME, not your big fatcat contributors.
I am SO disappointed in you, Dennis!
regarding health care:
Here are 2 obvious flaws in your plans:
A non-profit competitor with vastly lower costs will OBVIOUSLY drive the for-profits out of business within 5 years. That's just simple math and competition.
And where are you going to put the people who don't buy health insurance? In Sheriff Frank Denning's Jail????? Give me a break.
These arguments of yours are complete spin and blather. I don't believe anything you say. And so far, the plans will NOT give me, a single business owner, ANY comfort, security or savings.
Former Republican for Moore,
Tracy Thomas
(Note: The way to send a message to Congressman Moore is: www.moore.house.gov/contact/
You must live in his 3rd District.)
Dennis--
I just don't trust you on spending and reform any more.
You voted for that preposterous cap and trade bill, without reading it. (the last 500 pages were inserted at 3am that Friday you voted.)
You didn't read it.
You are not representing me well. You are just a mouthpiece for Nancy Pelosi. She will say ANY spending spree will create jobs. Oh, brother. Stop with that lie.
And I suspect you are done, anyway and won't run for re-election. So really, Dennis, now instead of raising money as you once described it: locked in a phone booth for 15 hours a week--now you HAVE the time to read these stupid proposed bills. Now you have the luxury of thinking before you vote. And what I want is for you to think and vote about what serves ME, not your big fatcat contributors.
I am SO disappointed in you, Dennis!
regarding health care:
Here are 2 obvious flaws in your plans:
A non-profit competitor with vastly lower costs will OBVIOUSLY drive the for-profits out of business within 5 years. That's just simple math and competition.
And where are you going to put the people who don't buy health insurance? In Sheriff Frank Denning's Jail????? Give me a break.
These arguments of yours are complete spin and blather. I don't believe anything you say. And so far, the plans will NOT give me, a single business owner, ANY comfort, security or savings.
Former Republican for Moore,
Tracy Thomas
(Note: The way to send a message to Congressman Moore is: www.moore.house.gov/contact/
You must live in his 3rd District.)
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Deffenbaugh laughing as Shawnee Council plays "hard ball"
I bet Deffenbaugh is laughing out loud, because IF the city doesn't
give them the exclusive, then bye bye Tidy Town for $106k per year (no
doubt $120k next year.)
And bye bye to all those free portapotty donations, for every charity
event, the Shawnee BBQ, the churches, the WonderScope, the parks dept
events.
And bye bye to Shawnee being FIRST for limb cleanup in ice storms.
And bye bye to all those non-productive ads they would place in every
stupid "program" that every non profit produces throughout the years.
If you asked, they ALWAYS bought an ad in your program.
Do people seriously think the OTHER trash haulers will pony up like
Deffenbaugh did? Of course not.
And bye bye to Tommy Coffman just biting his tongue and sending men
out for every lame complaint, ie too many bags in the trees on the way
to the landfill. Those days will be over, my friends! All incentives
will be gone.
And of course, you gotta love the City worming its way into our
budgets with their 2% skim for what amounts to a two-keystroke
"billing" --adding the trash bill to the property tax bill. At 2% x
$200 per year ($16.67 per household) x 21,000 households, that is
$84,000 in found money! An extra "tax"! It will cover about half of
our City Manager's salary.
So hey--if Deffenbaugh doesn't get the exclusive, that's no sweat off
their brow, because they are STILL gonna start billing the City for
Tidy Town cleanup the last week of April. No more freebies! The
gravy train is over.
Because the other haulers don't DO heavy pickups!! And all the stuff
ends up in the Deffenbaugh Landfill anyway, so if the other haulers DO
start collecting heavy items once a year or once a month, then
Deffenbaugh will just charge them to bring it through the gates.
Here's to RD--Ron Deffenbaugh. A poor boy from Shawnee, disrespected
by those who did not know the man. RD stayed living in modest Red Oak
Subdivision west of 435, north of Midland, long after he was a
multi-millionaire, and even after he was seriously disabled when some
ignorant untrained lab tech dropped him on his head at Shawnee Mission
Medical Center.
RD was a man who did the right things by us in Shawnee for 60 years.
Always first with cleanup, (including the creep on Nieman who set 18
washing machines out at the curb...RD (thru Tommy Coffman) just took
'em all. He didn't leave this mess on the streets and bitch to the
City. And he didn't charge him like they should and could have, for
these were the broken remnants of one man's illegal commercial repair
operation out of his basement.)
RD was the man who for 25 years, wrote campaign checks to every single
candidate who EVER asked! Period. And I mean NO EXCEPTIONS! Now
some checks were bigger than others, but every candidate, incumbent or
newbie, got SOMETHING to help cover their printing and postage bills.
All this while the other businesses in Shawnee, e.g. the Zardas, the
Pflumms, the Riekes, Bayer, etc, did not support most candidates. And
certainly not anyone challenging an incumbent who had not been taken
to the woodshed and told "how to vote if they knew what was good for
them".
And he did this not just in Shawnee, where City Council people had
some influence over regulating his business, but for every one of the
119 cities in the Metro!!! That is REMARKABLE. RD maintained his
Good Government practice because he knew that serving on a City
Council is a horrible, thankless job, and that real individual
homeowners are too stretched and too uneducated to realize they should
be writing $10 or $25 checks to support good candidates.
--
Tracy Thomas
give them the exclusive, then bye bye Tidy Town for $106k per year (no
doubt $120k next year.)
And bye bye to all those free portapotty donations, for every charity
event, the Shawnee BBQ, the churches, the WonderScope, the parks dept
events.
And bye bye to Shawnee being FIRST for limb cleanup in ice storms.
And bye bye to all those non-productive ads they would place in every
stupid "program" that every non profit produces throughout the years.
If you asked, they ALWAYS bought an ad in your program.
Do people seriously think the OTHER trash haulers will pony up like
Deffenbaugh did? Of course not.
And bye bye to Tommy Coffman just biting his tongue and sending men
out for every lame complaint, ie too many bags in the trees on the way
to the landfill. Those days will be over, my friends! All incentives
will be gone.
And of course, you gotta love the City worming its way into our
budgets with their 2% skim for what amounts to a two-keystroke
"billing" --adding the trash bill to the property tax bill. At 2% x
$200 per year ($16.67 per household) x 21,000 households, that is
$84,000 in found money! An extra "tax"! It will cover about half of
our City Manager's salary.
So hey--if Deffenbaugh doesn't get the exclusive, that's no sweat off
their brow, because they are STILL gonna start billing the City for
Tidy Town cleanup the last week of April. No more freebies! The
gravy train is over.
Because the other haulers don't DO heavy pickups!! And all the stuff
ends up in the Deffenbaugh Landfill anyway, so if the other haulers DO
start collecting heavy items once a year or once a month, then
Deffenbaugh will just charge them to bring it through the gates.
Here's to RD--Ron Deffenbaugh. A poor boy from Shawnee, disrespected
by those who did not know the man. RD stayed living in modest Red Oak
Subdivision west of 435, north of Midland, long after he was a
multi-millionaire, and even after he was seriously disabled when some
ignorant untrained lab tech dropped him on his head at Shawnee Mission
Medical Center.
RD was a man who did the right things by us in Shawnee for 60 years.
Always first with cleanup, (including the creep on Nieman who set 18
washing machines out at the curb...RD (thru Tommy Coffman) just took
'em all. He didn't leave this mess on the streets and bitch to the
City. And he didn't charge him like they should and could have, for
these were the broken remnants of one man's illegal commercial repair
operation out of his basement.)
RD was the man who for 25 years, wrote campaign checks to every single
candidate who EVER asked! Period. And I mean NO EXCEPTIONS! Now
some checks were bigger than others, but every candidate, incumbent or
newbie, got SOMETHING to help cover their printing and postage bills.
All this while the other businesses in Shawnee, e.g. the Zardas, the
Pflumms, the Riekes, Bayer, etc, did not support most candidates. And
certainly not anyone challenging an incumbent who had not been taken
to the woodshed and told "how to vote if they knew what was good for
them".
And he did this not just in Shawnee, where City Council people had
some influence over regulating his business, but for every one of the
119 cities in the Metro!!! That is REMARKABLE. RD maintained his
Good Government practice because he knew that serving on a City
Council is a horrible, thankless job, and that real individual
homeowners are too stretched and too uneducated to realize they should
be writing $10 or $25 checks to support good candidates.
--
Tracy Thomas
Prediction: Trash Wars coming to Shawnee
Prediction: TRASH WARS COMING TO SHAWNEE
The reason Shawnee residents, on the average, pay higher rates is--they don't have very many homes associations which pay once a year--and cover their own delinquencies. The cost of billing individual homes, and chasing down deadbeats, slow pays, bad checks and runoffs/moeveoffs is about half the cost!!!!
Now the new corporate Deffenbaugh (as opposed to when it was owned by Ron) is not stupid. They are just corporate sharks. At this time of sizemic change in their industry, with the county getting all up in their business, and then with every city doing a Pendergast-style 2% lug for putting the billing on the property tax, they are not going to slash their individual rates in Shawnee, compared to other cities--AND give away $120,000 a year doing Tidy Town heavy pickup for FREE!
Because now that Ronnie Deffenbaugh no longer owns it, Deffenbaugh Disposal Services is going to operate like a corporation, instead of the Our Gang clubhouse where RD was Spanky and Karen, (for awhile, when they ran off to Oklahoma at age 16) was Darla.
DDS is going to stand still, watch what happens, and maintain rate integrity on these one-sy two-sy hit and miss individual contracts that are a pain in the butt. ANY company loses money on small customers. Their $300,000 new non-smoke-belching ladidah trucks have to read a complicated map, drive over there—and good Lord, make sure they get the right homeowner, and not their duplex neighbor, or the one with the shared driveway.
DDS is smart. They are going to preserve their corporate rate structure with all the OTHER 118 cities in the metro. And they are also going to preserve their options to be "generous good guys" in their hometown of Shawnee, because that is still their residual culture while a few of the original management team are still working there.
Now, I don't have this confirmed from them--haven't spoken of it with them. I just know it instinctually from being a business owner myself, plus 800 phone conversations and meetings over the past 10 years with key executives there, plus about 1200 hours of training I received from the previous City Manager.
Shawnee has been spoiled.
The City government, AND the residents who have an inordinate sense of "entitlement" and a Little Guy syndrome to boot.
Let me give you an example of how Deffenbaugh's corporate culture for 60 years has been one of being "generous good guys". Some lazy schmuck puts out way too much trash, not bagged, not in a rollout or a bin, and the limbs are not bundled. This trash blows all over the street near the church and looks like hell. And nobody knows WHICH of three trash haulers had the contract, and perhaps drove past it. The rules were broken, but it makes the neighborhood look like a slum.
Does the City dispatch inspectors out in the snow, to document this, then write and mail three certified letters, then wait 60 days, then file a lawsuit and eventually fine the skofflaw? Or call 3 trash haulers, and then call them in for a public hearing? Hell, no.
City Manager Carol Gonzales has been spoiled up until now. She solves the complaint call with ONE 30 second phone call to Deffenbaugh. No debate, no whining, just the address and the request. Slam, bam, thank you ma’am. They dispatch an extra truck and two guys who go SOLVE THE PROBLEM. They don't charge extra, they are Nike, they they JUST DO IT.
All this talk about wanting choice of a contractor is grand, conceptually. Land of the free, home of the Chiefs. Except that trash truly should be a utility.
In an era when our streets are crumbling, it is stupid financially to send three overly heavy trucks down the same streets, (or six, if they send two trucks) hunting and pecking, to pick up your garbage and recyclables and yard waste. Pick one carrier and save yourself some tax money, because the City doesn't have the money to maintain your streets! You are obsessing about a 50 cent difference on somebody’s bill—but the cost to replace every residential street will be MILLIONS!!! And we the taxpayers will be stuck with that.
And if Shawnee knows what is good for them, they should dance with the hometown team, Deffenbaugh. At least until Deffenbaugh is sold, and our friends there who do favors for all our Shawnee charities and causes are retired.
The old adage is true: We would catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. (That’s not a copyrighted phrase, by the way, so I didn’t violate this board’s guidelines!)
And then NEXT year, just you wait, my pretties. Annabeth Surbaugh at the County, with her Trash Tzar, Betsy Boutros-(Boutros, by golly) plan to charge us $1 a narrow paper bag, for yard waste. You will be forced to buy the bags in advance, 20 at a time.
Now in Shawnee, the land of entitlement and skullduggery, (“Shawnee: Greed Starts Here!” c. 2009, Tracy Thomas, all rights reserved) one can only imagine how many people will try to cheat that system. They’ll be tossing trash around like it was V-E Day! They’ll be tossing bags in neighbors’ yards—or if they like their neighbors, hauling it to the NEXT street over!
It will be bedlam.
Then, absent ONE trash hauler, who just zips their lip and does the right thing and picks it all up—you’ll be treated to a mess on the streets all the time.
Then, Manager Gonzales, who ya gonna call???
TracyThomas
www.AllThingsJoCo.blogspot.com
Sept. 13, 2009
The reason Shawnee residents, on the average, pay higher rates is--they don't have very many homes associations which pay once a year--and cover their own delinquencies. The cost of billing individual homes, and chasing down deadbeats, slow pays, bad checks and runoffs/moeveoffs is about half the cost!!!!
Now the new corporate Deffenbaugh (as opposed to when it was owned by Ron) is not stupid. They are just corporate sharks. At this time of sizemic change in their industry, with the county getting all up in their business, and then with every city doing a Pendergast-style 2% lug for putting the billing on the property tax, they are not going to slash their individual rates in Shawnee, compared to other cities--AND give away $120,000 a year doing Tidy Town heavy pickup for FREE!
Because now that Ronnie Deffenbaugh no longer owns it, Deffenbaugh Disposal Services is going to operate like a corporation, instead of the Our Gang clubhouse where RD was Spanky and Karen, (for awhile, when they ran off to Oklahoma at age 16) was Darla.
DDS is going to stand still, watch what happens, and maintain rate integrity on these one-sy two-sy hit and miss individual contracts that are a pain in the butt. ANY company loses money on small customers. Their $300,000 new non-smoke-belching ladidah trucks have to read a complicated map, drive over there—and good Lord, make sure they get the right homeowner, and not their duplex neighbor, or the one with the shared driveway.
DDS is smart. They are going to preserve their corporate rate structure with all the OTHER 118 cities in the metro. And they are also going to preserve their options to be "generous good guys" in their hometown of Shawnee, because that is still their residual culture while a few of the original management team are still working there.
Now, I don't have this confirmed from them--haven't spoken of it with them. I just know it instinctually from being a business owner myself, plus 800 phone conversations and meetings over the past 10 years with key executives there, plus about 1200 hours of training I received from the previous City Manager.
Shawnee has been spoiled.
The City government, AND the residents who have an inordinate sense of "entitlement" and a Little Guy syndrome to boot.
Let me give you an example of how Deffenbaugh's corporate culture for 60 years has been one of being "generous good guys". Some lazy schmuck puts out way too much trash, not bagged, not in a rollout or a bin, and the limbs are not bundled. This trash blows all over the street near the church and looks like hell. And nobody knows WHICH of three trash haulers had the contract, and perhaps drove past it. The rules were broken, but it makes the neighborhood look like a slum.
Does the City dispatch inspectors out in the snow, to document this, then write and mail three certified letters, then wait 60 days, then file a lawsuit and eventually fine the skofflaw? Or call 3 trash haulers, and then call them in for a public hearing? Hell, no.
City Manager Carol Gonzales has been spoiled up until now. She solves the complaint call with ONE 30 second phone call to Deffenbaugh. No debate, no whining, just the address and the request. Slam, bam, thank you ma’am. They dispatch an extra truck and two guys who go SOLVE THE PROBLEM. They don't charge extra, they are Nike, they they JUST DO IT.
All this talk about wanting choice of a contractor is grand, conceptually. Land of the free, home of the Chiefs. Except that trash truly should be a utility.
In an era when our streets are crumbling, it is stupid financially to send three overly heavy trucks down the same streets, (or six, if they send two trucks) hunting and pecking, to pick up your garbage and recyclables and yard waste. Pick one carrier and save yourself some tax money, because the City doesn't have the money to maintain your streets! You are obsessing about a 50 cent difference on somebody’s bill—but the cost to replace every residential street will be MILLIONS!!! And we the taxpayers will be stuck with that.
And if Shawnee knows what is good for them, they should dance with the hometown team, Deffenbaugh. At least until Deffenbaugh is sold, and our friends there who do favors for all our Shawnee charities and causes are retired.
The old adage is true: We would catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. (That’s not a copyrighted phrase, by the way, so I didn’t violate this board’s guidelines!)
And then NEXT year, just you wait, my pretties. Annabeth Surbaugh at the County, with her Trash Tzar, Betsy Boutros-(Boutros, by golly) plan to charge us $1 a narrow paper bag, for yard waste. You will be forced to buy the bags in advance, 20 at a time.
Now in Shawnee, the land of entitlement and skullduggery, (“Shawnee: Greed Starts Here!” c. 2009, Tracy Thomas, all rights reserved) one can only imagine how many people will try to cheat that system. They’ll be tossing trash around like it was V-E Day! They’ll be tossing bags in neighbors’ yards—or if they like their neighbors, hauling it to the NEXT street over!
It will be bedlam.
Then, absent ONE trash hauler, who just zips their lip and does the right thing and picks it all up—you’ll be treated to a mess on the streets all the time.
Then, Manager Gonzales, who ya gonna call???
TracyThomas
www.AllThingsJoCo.blogspot.com
Sept. 13, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Shawnee's Mata Hari twins: Like Watergate: What did they know and when did they know it?
The facts are:
1. State Rep. Owen Donohoe did not "blindside" City Manager Carol Gonzales.
2. All that is necessary to balance the budget NOW is to shake the Monticello money out of the sock hidden in Shawnee.
“You blindsided us, Owen!”
That is what Carol Gonzales claimed (rudely and defensively, I believe)when she phoned State Rep. Owen Donohoe last Friday and lectured him, chewing him out and saying she was having Mayor Jeff Meyers "send him a letter". (We are waiting to see a copy of that letter.) What is she--a school marm sending home disciplinary notes?? To a senior elected official?? Sounds pretty defensive to me. Gary Montague would NEVER have done that, nor would Jim Allen ever have signed such a letter when he was mayor.)
Before he testified to the Shawnee City Council, on Monday, Aug. 24, State Rep. Owen Donohoe from western Shawnee met personally with Shawnee Council President Dawn Kuhn, (his Council rep), and gave her a report from the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy which the KC Star called “Buried Treasure”. It listed $1.296 million in IDLE FUNDS in Topeka.
(Idle funds are either encumbered or unencumbered.)
Donohoe told me today, "I gave it to Dawn Kuhn a week before the Council meeting, and told her, "You may need to look into this." And she told Donohoe she gave it to Brian Kidney, Finance Director for the City of Shawnee, AND KUHN DISCUSSED IT WITH KIDNEY."
Donohoe did also say "I wish I had been a bit clearer. Perhaps I could have spelled it out for Dawn Kuhn in greater detail. My only intent was to suggest that PERHAPS there were idle funds that could be freed up to solve the City of Shawnee's immediate needs, and avoid taxing our residential utilities. I am just looking out for my constituents, “ Donohue said.
“It is strange and very unusual that Shawnee just passed their budget last month--without it balancing. They claim they still need to find $850,000 immediately. The purpose of my testimony was what I said: ‘I think I may have found what you are looking for, money sitting IDLE until at least 2013.’"
Donohoe added, "I learned Aug. 25, the day after the Council meeting, that the $1.296 million is CURRENTLY encumbered, for Monticello Road, though it could be released. The City of Shawnee has just refused the Johnson County $7 million CARS funds, and moved the Monticello Road project to the end of a very long list of projects, to 2013, if at all. I try to be frugal with taxpayer money," Donohoe said. “They could let we the taxpayers use that money now, and if they decide to resurrect that project, in 2013 or later, THEN they could set aside their matching funds.”
Tracy’s comments:
It appears to the public that the City Manager deceived the public and the Council, by hiding $1.296 million in an idle fund in Topeka, hoping perhaps that she could protect her secret stash for four years.
Brian Kidney, the Finance Director, embarrassed himself, when he at first could not even remember what that street that money was for, even stating for the record, “I’m sorry, I forget what city I am in.” (Kidney used to work for Gardner, and had mentioned a street project there.) (Even tho the major papers refused to report this, I have that on videotape!)
Brian Kidney set his boss, Carol Gonzales, up for embarrassment as well, because he FAILED TO SHARE DAWN KUHN’S REPORT WITH HER BEFORE THE MEETING. I think his incompetency is remarkable. If he doesn’t know where he works, Kidney should resign as Finance Director.
Council President Dawn Kuhn is either devious or does not do her job. She admitted she failed to also tell Carol Gonzales that a major state legislator was investigating idle funds that would solve Shawnee’s immediate “crisis.”
Or—perhaps she and Gonzales DID speak of it, privately, and made a calculated decision to AVOID discussing the simple solution of “releasing the hold” on that money. Because that IS the solution: instead of hiding $1.296 million for four years, where it is earning a pittance in interest, USE it, FREE IT UP now. Because Monticello Road is on the back burner, and may NEVER be done.
Perhaps Kuhn and Gonzales figured they had their five votes to break the 20 year promise and start taxing residential gas and electric bills. Just like Congress ramming through a Stimulus Bill that did not solve our problems, why not ram through a tax increase now. They had the votes. Why be distracted with alternatives.
I bet they never imagined that Owen Donahue, our western Shawnee public servant, would actually WALK INTO THE MEETING AND DELIVER THE SOLUTION.
And for the record, when Mayor Jeff Meyers browbeat Councilman Frank Goode, at least FIVE times, demanding, “What’s your solution, Frank. What do YOU want to cut?”, that was a disgraceful example of bullying. Jim Allen would NEVER have conducted the meeting in such a manner.
Or as several onlookers testified to the Council Aug. 24, “This is the most dysfunctional elected body I have ever witnessed.”
City Manager Carol Gonzales is in meltdown. She is desperate, and hiding money from the Council and the public. Her Finance Director apparently needs a GPS to find his way to work every day. We just need ONE Council member to wake up and reverse their vote to tax our gas and electric utilities. The first step is: we need a motion do what Brian Kidney admitted we could do when in an unguarded moment following his amnesia episode, he "spilled the Kidney beans!": He let it slip that council could simply "Issue a Kill Order on the Encumbrance of $1.296 million in Topeka for Monticello Road."
I also urge everyone to start reading ShawneeRay.blogspot.com. Better yet, email the blog host, Ray Erlichman to get on his email list, so every time he posts something new about Shawnee's wayward government you will receive a notice. That email is: rerlichman@kc.rr.com
(Ray is doing yeoman's work reporting on Shawnee, while holding down two jobs.)
The Gonzales/Meyers administration is eerily reminiscent of Merriam and KCK, which both crashed after they deceived the public and got greedy with our money. When governments hide money and deceive elected officials and the public, the end is nigh.
1. State Rep. Owen Donohoe did not "blindside" City Manager Carol Gonzales.
2. All that is necessary to balance the budget NOW is to shake the Monticello money out of the sock hidden in Shawnee.
“You blindsided us, Owen!”
That is what Carol Gonzales claimed (rudely and defensively, I believe)when she phoned State Rep. Owen Donohoe last Friday and lectured him, chewing him out and saying she was having Mayor Jeff Meyers "send him a letter". (We are waiting to see a copy of that letter.) What is she--a school marm sending home disciplinary notes?? To a senior elected official?? Sounds pretty defensive to me. Gary Montague would NEVER have done that, nor would Jim Allen ever have signed such a letter when he was mayor.)
Before he testified to the Shawnee City Council, on Monday, Aug. 24, State Rep. Owen Donohoe from western Shawnee met personally with Shawnee Council President Dawn Kuhn, (his Council rep), and gave her a report from the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy which the KC Star called “Buried Treasure”. It listed $1.296 million in IDLE FUNDS in Topeka.
(Idle funds are either encumbered or unencumbered.)
Donohoe told me today, "I gave it to Dawn Kuhn a week before the Council meeting, and told her, "You may need to look into this." And she told Donohoe she gave it to Brian Kidney, Finance Director for the City of Shawnee, AND KUHN DISCUSSED IT WITH KIDNEY."
Donohoe did also say "I wish I had been a bit clearer. Perhaps I could have spelled it out for Dawn Kuhn in greater detail. My only intent was to suggest that PERHAPS there were idle funds that could be freed up to solve the City of Shawnee's immediate needs, and avoid taxing our residential utilities. I am just looking out for my constituents, “ Donohue said.
“It is strange and very unusual that Shawnee just passed their budget last month--without it balancing. They claim they still need to find $850,000 immediately. The purpose of my testimony was what I said: ‘I think I may have found what you are looking for, money sitting IDLE until at least 2013.’"
Donohoe added, "I learned Aug. 25, the day after the Council meeting, that the $1.296 million is CURRENTLY encumbered, for Monticello Road, though it could be released. The City of Shawnee has just refused the Johnson County $7 million CARS funds, and moved the Monticello Road project to the end of a very long list of projects, to 2013, if at all. I try to be frugal with taxpayer money," Donohoe said. “They could let we the taxpayers use that money now, and if they decide to resurrect that project, in 2013 or later, THEN they could set aside their matching funds.”
Tracy’s comments:
It appears to the public that the City Manager deceived the public and the Council, by hiding $1.296 million in an idle fund in Topeka, hoping perhaps that she could protect her secret stash for four years.
Brian Kidney, the Finance Director, embarrassed himself, when he at first could not even remember what that street that money was for, even stating for the record, “I’m sorry, I forget what city I am in.” (Kidney used to work for Gardner, and had mentioned a street project there.) (Even tho the major papers refused to report this, I have that on videotape!)
Brian Kidney set his boss, Carol Gonzales, up for embarrassment as well, because he FAILED TO SHARE DAWN KUHN’S REPORT WITH HER BEFORE THE MEETING. I think his incompetency is remarkable. If he doesn’t know where he works, Kidney should resign as Finance Director.
Council President Dawn Kuhn is either devious or does not do her job. She admitted she failed to also tell Carol Gonzales that a major state legislator was investigating idle funds that would solve Shawnee’s immediate “crisis.”
Or—perhaps she and Gonzales DID speak of it, privately, and made a calculated decision to AVOID discussing the simple solution of “releasing the hold” on that money. Because that IS the solution: instead of hiding $1.296 million for four years, where it is earning a pittance in interest, USE it, FREE IT UP now. Because Monticello Road is on the back burner, and may NEVER be done.
Perhaps Kuhn and Gonzales figured they had their five votes to break the 20 year promise and start taxing residential gas and electric bills. Just like Congress ramming through a Stimulus Bill that did not solve our problems, why not ram through a tax increase now. They had the votes. Why be distracted with alternatives.
I bet they never imagined that Owen Donahue, our western Shawnee public servant, would actually WALK INTO THE MEETING AND DELIVER THE SOLUTION.
And for the record, when Mayor Jeff Meyers browbeat Councilman Frank Goode, at least FIVE times, demanding, “What’s your solution, Frank. What do YOU want to cut?”, that was a disgraceful example of bullying. Jim Allen would NEVER have conducted the meeting in such a manner.
Or as several onlookers testified to the Council Aug. 24, “This is the most dysfunctional elected body I have ever witnessed.”
City Manager Carol Gonzales is in meltdown. She is desperate, and hiding money from the Council and the public. Her Finance Director apparently needs a GPS to find his way to work every day. We just need ONE Council member to wake up and reverse their vote to tax our gas and electric utilities. The first step is: we need a motion do what Brian Kidney admitted we could do when in an unguarded moment following his amnesia episode, he "spilled the Kidney beans!": He let it slip that council could simply "Issue a Kill Order on the Encumbrance of $1.296 million in Topeka for Monticello Road."
I also urge everyone to start reading ShawneeRay.blogspot.com. Better yet, email the blog host, Ray Erlichman to get on his email list, so every time he posts something new about Shawnee's wayward government you will receive a notice. That email is: rerlichman@kc.rr.com
(Ray is doing yeoman's work reporting on Shawnee, while holding down two jobs.)
The Gonzales/Meyers administration is eerily reminiscent of Merriam and KCK, which both crashed after they deceived the public and got greedy with our money. When governments hide money and deceive elected officials and the public, the end is nigh.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Shawnee breaks a promise, wants a Utility Welfare State
Monday, August 24, 2009
Shawnee’s old version of a Tea Party protest happens tonight! Don’t miss it!
THE SHAWNEE CITY COUNCIL MEETING, 7:30 PM
11110 Johnson Drive at Nieman
www.cityofshawnee.org
Issue:
The council will debate and vote on breaking a 20 year promise and agreement with the public NOT to tax essential utilities of gas and electric bills for residents only by 5%.
(It’s called a franchise fee. But it’s a 5% tax, collected by a utility company on the bills, and then rebated to the City as revenue.)
The vote is expected to be 5 to 4 with Mayor Jeff Meyers casting the tie-breaking vote.
The other yes votes are the 4 so-called “safe seats” ie not up for re-election next year, and all held by people who have only a high school education or a GED. (Ward 1/Cheryl Scott; Ward 2/Neil Sawyer; Ward 3/Dawn Kuhn and Ward 4/Mickey Sandifer.)
I predict this Shawnee vote will be so controversial that it will be like the Waterloo watershed issued that divided the city of Merriam, Kansas a decade ago. That’s when that council voted to use eminent domain to seize private property and give it to another private entity, a car dealer. This one action led to the defeat at the ballot box of 4 council members and the mayor and the forced resignation of the city manager and the city attorney.
As a major leader in defeating tax increases, I have personally pledged to run campaigns for free, in 2 ½ years, to defeat ANY Council member who votes tonight to tax my essential residential utilities of gas and electric. That slate would override this ethical lapse, and call for a new City Manager to replace Carol Gonzales, who is obsessed with unrealistic budgets that keep up appearances and competing with her former employer, the city of Lenexa.
The same documentary film producer will be filming this Shawnee public hearing:
Philip Klein, producer of the award-winning documentary, Begging for Billionaires (www.BeggingForBillionaires.com.)
I am former president of the Shawnee City Council, (I served from 1999-2004) and I run political campaigns to defeat tax increases. I work for free.
So far, I have been successful as a campaign manager in defeating Bi-State II, (despite $3 million in campaign funds –defeating Pat Gray/Lamar Hunt/Larry Winn III and Jeff Roe, while outspent 112 to 1) and Big Soccer—defeating Larry Winn III, Annabeth Surbaugh, Mike Meadors and the entire Johnson County Commission.
In the past, I DID support several local tax increases, and I even managed Shawnee’s Parks & Pipes sales tax campaign. But that was BECAUSE the Shawnee Council kept its promises NOT to tax our essential residential utilities.
Some key points:
Whining that “we need the money” is what AIG, Chrysler, GM and M&I Bank and Bank of Blue Valley said to justify their taking bailout money.
Whining that “we need the money” does NOT justify sacrificing your integrity. Let me ask one Council member: when your daughter was arrested for passing a bad check, is that what you told Judge Linda Tritt? “She needed the money?”
The architect of this bailout is City Manager, Carol Gonzales, but she has already begun blaming others. She told me last Friday, “This is the council’s choice, not mine. I gave them alternatives, and they just don’t want to cut expenses.”
If that’s true, then: Stop the Bailout. Make the cuts. Shawnee needed the money even MORE 20 years ago, but we had INTEGRITY. We didn’t tax essentials.
Gonzales told Councilman Mickey Sandifer, who tells everyone he can: "If we don’t raise this tax, we will be as bad as Merriam.” Ironically, if she and this council DO raise this tax, Shawnee will be even more like Merriam—those six sharks will be GONE. This issue is the most memorable benchmark in the past 20 years. It’s as big as the Dog Track vote then, and it is bigger than the Deffenbaugh expansion vote, because then we really did not have a true choice. We had to do that because the Johnson County Commission secretly had the votes and was poised to expand it, without us, for 10 years longer and 50 feet higher.
This is also not a referendum on dissidents including Kevin Straub or Dan Pflumm. This is a vote to preserve our integrity and keep our proud longstanding promise to the voters who elect the Council.
This Council has only 3 college graduates. They have drunk the Koolaid of temporarily rescuing a band of needy people around them and refusing to respond to the future. Carol Gonzales is like Melanie in “Gone With the Wind”. She doesn’t get that Atlanta has burned, the economy is in shambles and not coming back soon…at least seven more years. She is living a wistful past, envious of her richer neighbors and hiding the truth to keep up appearances.
The 5 probable Yes votes who never went to college—have forgotten this is not a fraternity. And they are not appointed to a bank board of directors—because nobody around these parts has ever appointed them. They are elected, not appointed. By residents. Not businesses or the Chamber. To PROTECT THE RESIDENTS FROM BEING SACKED BY THE ENDLESS GREED OF THE CORPORATION/THE CITY OF SHAWNEE.
They are afraid of losing a few “friends”, very nice employees. They fall prey to Carol Gonzales’ fearmongering that “we will lose good people” if we don’t give them raises, or if we ask them to pay more for their substantial health care coverage. Well, they aren’t leaving; there’s nowhere to go. There are no “better” jobs in the other 4 cities of JoCo’s Big 5. And the economy will not rebound for 7 long years, so you will be forced to make cuts anyway. Cut now and leave my thermostat alone.
This year’s budget was just approved. It’s balanced. So why doesn’t the council WAIT and see about the Cap and Trade energy bill, and the promised 40% increase in gas and electric bills? Because next year is an election year! And if you think the national uproar and TEA PARTIES is a frenzy now, just wait till the average heating and cooling bill goes up $300!!
THE RISE OF THE WELFARE STATE
In the Cap & Trade bill, which Dennis Moore passed without even reading the 1500 pages, including 513 that were added at 3am that Friday when he was catching a plane, there is a provision for a welfare check to every poor person, the rest of their life, to make up for their “loss in buying power”. Not the middle class. Just the poor.
Shawnee’s plan tonight contains a similar disgusting UTILITY WELFARE provision. It will force proud struggling families to gather 24 separate bills and proof of residency AND copies of their taxes--and stand in line at city hall to BEG for their utility taxes back. It is a humiliating process, right out of the Soviet welfare state, to come up to the gossip capital of Johnson county, Shawnee, and have to ask for Utility Welfare. It’s the Grapes of Wrath all over again. Shame on you: Jeff Meyers, Cheryl Scott, Neil Sawyer, Dawn Kuhn and Mickey Sandifer.
What are you thinking?
You don’t sacrifice your integrity and break a promise of 20 years standing, just because “you need the money”. Make the cuts and live within OUR means.
Finally, let me correct Mickey Sandifer’s most recent scare tactics and lies. It is not illegal to tax some things and not others. Missouri does not tax food. It is absolutely UNTRUE, Mickey, that Surewest and Time Warner have threatened to quit collecting and rebating franchise fees on cable TV and phone service in protest. You are making up facts to scare people.
Tracy Thomas
www.AllThingsJoCo.blogspot.com
Former Shawnee Council President
Shawnee’s old version of a Tea Party protest happens tonight! Don’t miss it!
THE SHAWNEE CITY COUNCIL MEETING, 7:30 PM
11110 Johnson Drive at Nieman
www.cityofshawnee.org
Issue:
The council will debate and vote on breaking a 20 year promise and agreement with the public NOT to tax essential utilities of gas and electric bills for residents only by 5%.
(It’s called a franchise fee. But it’s a 5% tax, collected by a utility company on the bills, and then rebated to the City as revenue.)
The vote is expected to be 5 to 4 with Mayor Jeff Meyers casting the tie-breaking vote.
The other yes votes are the 4 so-called “safe seats” ie not up for re-election next year, and all held by people who have only a high school education or a GED. (Ward 1/Cheryl Scott; Ward 2/Neil Sawyer; Ward 3/Dawn Kuhn and Ward 4/Mickey Sandifer.)
I predict this Shawnee vote will be so controversial that it will be like the Waterloo watershed issued that divided the city of Merriam, Kansas a decade ago. That’s when that council voted to use eminent domain to seize private property and give it to another private entity, a car dealer. This one action led to the defeat at the ballot box of 4 council members and the mayor and the forced resignation of the city manager and the city attorney.
As a major leader in defeating tax increases, I have personally pledged to run campaigns for free, in 2 ½ years, to defeat ANY Council member who votes tonight to tax my essential residential utilities of gas and electric. That slate would override this ethical lapse, and call for a new City Manager to replace Carol Gonzales, who is obsessed with unrealistic budgets that keep up appearances and competing with her former employer, the city of Lenexa.
The same documentary film producer will be filming this Shawnee public hearing:
Philip Klein, producer of the award-winning documentary, Begging for Billionaires (www.BeggingForBillionaires.com.)
I am former president of the Shawnee City Council, (I served from 1999-2004) and I run political campaigns to defeat tax increases. I work for free.
So far, I have been successful as a campaign manager in defeating Bi-State II, (despite $3 million in campaign funds –defeating Pat Gray/Lamar Hunt/Larry Winn III and Jeff Roe, while outspent 112 to 1) and Big Soccer—defeating Larry Winn III, Annabeth Surbaugh, Mike Meadors and the entire Johnson County Commission.
In the past, I DID support several local tax increases, and I even managed Shawnee’s Parks & Pipes sales tax campaign. But that was BECAUSE the Shawnee Council kept its promises NOT to tax our essential residential utilities.
Some key points:
Whining that “we need the money” is what AIG, Chrysler, GM and M&I Bank and Bank of Blue Valley said to justify their taking bailout money.
Whining that “we need the money” does NOT justify sacrificing your integrity. Let me ask one Council member: when your daughter was arrested for passing a bad check, is that what you told Judge Linda Tritt? “She needed the money?”
The architect of this bailout is City Manager, Carol Gonzales, but she has already begun blaming others. She told me last Friday, “This is the council’s choice, not mine. I gave them alternatives, and they just don’t want to cut expenses.”
If that’s true, then: Stop the Bailout. Make the cuts. Shawnee needed the money even MORE 20 years ago, but we had INTEGRITY. We didn’t tax essentials.
Gonzales told Councilman Mickey Sandifer, who tells everyone he can: "If we don’t raise this tax, we will be as bad as Merriam.” Ironically, if she and this council DO raise this tax, Shawnee will be even more like Merriam—those six sharks will be GONE. This issue is the most memorable benchmark in the past 20 years. It’s as big as the Dog Track vote then, and it is bigger than the Deffenbaugh expansion vote, because then we really did not have a true choice. We had to do that because the Johnson County Commission secretly had the votes and was poised to expand it, without us, for 10 years longer and 50 feet higher.
This is also not a referendum on dissidents including Kevin Straub or Dan Pflumm. This is a vote to preserve our integrity and keep our proud longstanding promise to the voters who elect the Council.
This Council has only 3 college graduates. They have drunk the Koolaid of temporarily rescuing a band of needy people around them and refusing to respond to the future. Carol Gonzales is like Melanie in “Gone With the Wind”. She doesn’t get that Atlanta has burned, the economy is in shambles and not coming back soon…at least seven more years. She is living a wistful past, envious of her richer neighbors and hiding the truth to keep up appearances.
The 5 probable Yes votes who never went to college—have forgotten this is not a fraternity. And they are not appointed to a bank board of directors—because nobody around these parts has ever appointed them. They are elected, not appointed. By residents. Not businesses or the Chamber. To PROTECT THE RESIDENTS FROM BEING SACKED BY THE ENDLESS GREED OF THE CORPORATION/THE CITY OF SHAWNEE.
They are afraid of losing a few “friends”, very nice employees. They fall prey to Carol Gonzales’ fearmongering that “we will lose good people” if we don’t give them raises, or if we ask them to pay more for their substantial health care coverage. Well, they aren’t leaving; there’s nowhere to go. There are no “better” jobs in the other 4 cities of JoCo’s Big 5. And the economy will not rebound for 7 long years, so you will be forced to make cuts anyway. Cut now and leave my thermostat alone.
This year’s budget was just approved. It’s balanced. So why doesn’t the council WAIT and see about the Cap and Trade energy bill, and the promised 40% increase in gas and electric bills? Because next year is an election year! And if you think the national uproar and TEA PARTIES is a frenzy now, just wait till the average heating and cooling bill goes up $300!!
THE RISE OF THE WELFARE STATE
In the Cap & Trade bill, which Dennis Moore passed without even reading the 1500 pages, including 513 that were added at 3am that Friday when he was catching a plane, there is a provision for a welfare check to every poor person, the rest of their life, to make up for their “loss in buying power”. Not the middle class. Just the poor.
Shawnee’s plan tonight contains a similar disgusting UTILITY WELFARE provision. It will force proud struggling families to gather 24 separate bills and proof of residency AND copies of their taxes--and stand in line at city hall to BEG for their utility taxes back. It is a humiliating process, right out of the Soviet welfare state, to come up to the gossip capital of Johnson county, Shawnee, and have to ask for Utility Welfare. It’s the Grapes of Wrath all over again. Shame on you: Jeff Meyers, Cheryl Scott, Neil Sawyer, Dawn Kuhn and Mickey Sandifer.
What are you thinking?
You don’t sacrifice your integrity and break a promise of 20 years standing, just because “you need the money”. Make the cuts and live within OUR means.
Finally, let me correct Mickey Sandifer’s most recent scare tactics and lies. It is not illegal to tax some things and not others. Missouri does not tax food. It is absolutely UNTRUE, Mickey, that Surewest and Time Warner have threatened to quit collecting and rebating franchise fees on cable TV and phone service in protest. You are making up facts to scare people.
Tracy Thomas
www.AllThingsJoCo.blogspot.com
Former Shawnee Council President
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