IN TODAY’S FOOD SECTION, on page 6, Rhonda Gordon’s food recipes provide a dose of healthy eating, cutting fat and other nutritional tips. But sprinkled throughout her column are Gordon’s opinions on how The Gazette has covered the proposed extension district merger with the Frontier District.
She claims, “The Editor of our local paper for which I write this column has chosen to not represent the facts about the Extension office joining the Frontier Extension District.”
This prompted me to call Gordon to see what we have gotten wrong.
She said we have made a point of emphasizing how this merger would give Extension unlimited taxing authority. So I asked if this was wrong. She said, “No,” it does provide unlimited taxing authority but questioned why we needed to use an inflammatory word such as “unlimited.” While Extension may not like the Gazette editor’s word choice in calling it unlimited taxing authority, but that is what it is until some maximum tax caps are put in place.
In her column she states how the extension district would have a check and balance system on the taxes because local people would be serving on an oversight board. The first board members would be appointed by the Lyon County commissioners, then they would be elected in the upcoming years.
She asked if we published the mill levy history chart of districts in Kansas showing how the taxes have gone down in some of the mergers. We published some of the Extension information but not that specific chart. Today we are republishing this information to the right. All the information Extension has provided is also online at www.emporiagazette.com/news/extension. We have also told Extension that they could have unlimited space to submit their columns to inform readers on their activities and position.
She asked if I informed readers that there are other entities that have unlimited tax authority, to show that their situation is not unique. There are 52 taxing entities in Lyon County and some, like cities and townships, have unlimited authority.
We want Lyon County Extension agents to feel like they are getting their information out about this issue. In our coverage of this topic we will continue to publish their meeting information and feature stories on news pages and our opinions on editorial pages. People may not like our opinions or word choices, but that does not mean we are misrepresenting the facts.
Our opinion is as it stands: We support the Extension agents and their organization in all they do to support the community. However, we are not in favor of adding a new taxing entity and especially one with no maximum tax caps.
Just as Rhonda Gordon states in the food column, it is healthy to keep the fat trimmed from our diets, so it is healthy for our community to keep taxes to a minimum.
Steve_Corbin (anonymous) says...
Chris,
Don't let anyone wear you down. Your opinion is correct.
There will be several months for both sides to be represented and heard. And then the voters will decide. And that is the way it should be.
As a matter of fact, I hope Rhonda and the rest of the extension office people will be the 1st to sign the petition to bring this to a vote.
That is , after all, the American way
January 18, 2012 at 9:40 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
b3bill (anonymous) says...
Good article, Mr. Walker.
Rhonda Gordon's article could have used a lot more "shortening". I took her rant as being quite sassy and inappropriate for that section of the newspaper. It would have been the professional approach for her to have written a Letter to the Editor to express her personal views, and/or initiated private discussion with Mr. Walker about her concerns, and left the Home Cooking section to cover actual cooking.
Perhaps Ms. Gordon should consider getting out of the kitchen if she can't stand the heat. A lot of us taxpayers do not approve of unlimited taxing authority by the proposed Frontier merger. She better get used to hearing that. If she's still in the kitchen, it will be interesting to see if she'll throw another fuss in her future articles.
January 18, 2012 at 11:25 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
dml (anonymous) says...
Doesn't sound like Mrs. Gordon pointed to any facts that were incorrect in the Gazette. It is just her opinion that the word "unlimited" is inflammatory
.
January 19, 2012 at 12:52 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
methusla (anonymous) says...
What Ms. Gordon, may not realize is, it was the County Commission that reported, if the Lyon County Extension Service, joined the Frontier Extension Service, it --the Lyon County Extension Service-- would be joining ( becoming part of ) an Extension District that would have " UNLIMITED " Taxing Authority over 3 counties, Franklin, Osage and Lyon and that the bulk of the decision making would be headquarted in Franklin County.
Which would effectively remove the important taxation decision making of the District away from Lyon County and the right of its voters to vote on the question of taxing limits .
And that is not what the American system of " Government by the people " is about . And that is the biggest problem with America today . The idea of " Government by the people " has been effectively taken away from the people, in many cases and " We The People " have become nothing more than " Cash Cows " or " Serfs " of an " Oligarchy " form of government.
Therefore if Ms. Gordon needs to complain to anyone. She should complain to the County Commissioners .
I would also like ask Ms. Gordon, if a combining of Extensions is such a good thing , then why is it, that only approx. 33 counties out of 105 counties have done so ?
I say, keep the tax funds and taxing decision in the hands of the people of Lyon County, where it belongs.
If our County Commissioners or City Commissioners do not want to make the tough decisions on taxing, spending, budgeting, etc., then they need to resign and stop " PASSING THE BUCK ' and take responsiblility for their actions, Good or Bad .
And joining anything that will have " Unlimited Taxing Authority " is, in my opinion a very bad idea .
JMO
January 19, 2012 at 6:01 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
booker5m (anonymous) says...
She is not helping their case at all! If anything makes me dislike this nosense even more!
January 19, 2012 at 7:50 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
mslater (Matt Slater) says...
I agree with the above posters. To me, this sounds like she doesn't like the phrase "unlimited taxing authority" because using said phrase might not help her organization get exactly that.
The reason people are so against this is because of the potential for abuse. Given what we've encountered with all levels of government (I'm looking at you Entrance Rocks), this abuse is probably exactly what we can expect.
Matt
January 19, 2012 at 9 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
wirewatt (Ken Bazil) says...
Rhonda Gordan wants to talk about the other taxing districts, yes they have the authority, but they are our neighbors and friends and usually live within several miles of use in the country. We also vote them in every few years and can make a change very quickly. If what I read was right the Extension Service out of K-State puts $150,00 a year into the program. If they can get enough counties to merge then all they have to say is we can't afford to keep this program going and you can raise taxes to fund this program.
I have another complaint here is the fact the rock that we pay for to be put on the roads in the county is the first place they cut to meet budget, I would guess we are three to five million dollars worth of rock behind. I don't think they need the taxing right and the $23,000 to fund this program, we have other needs.
January 19, 2012 at 9:10 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
sail (anonymous) says...
Keep the faith Chris,stay on course.
January 19, 2012 at 9:34 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )