Kansas is so dominated by the Republic Party (especially the legislator) the only campaign finance and lobbying laws are the product of Republic Party advocates.

Forgive me if I suspect your quest for more disclosure of politcal finance might be skewed toward accepting anything the Republic Party does and villifying anything the Democrats do.

Some disclosure is occurring but there is money that is hidden.

Most “issue” groups are non-profits that often have a tax-deductible 501(c)3 group, a political “issue only” 501(c)4 group, and sometimes a political 527 PAC or Kansas PAC to give money to candidates.

A 501(c)3 usually files an IRS 990, but that report is often a year after any expenditure. A 990 shows the amount of money raised/spent, but does not show the donors. Only limited info about the expenditures is available and some groups just say “we spent the money” as the only detail. Most, but not all, IRS 990s are online at GuideStar.org. If an IRS 990 is not online, it can be ordered from the IRS in Ogden, UT. BUT, it’s sometimes difficult to find out that an IRS 990 even exists because of slight differences in names and addresses sometimes.

I think I’m correct that a 501(c)4 can file either an IRS 990, or an IRS 8872. The IRS 8872s are online at the IRS’ web site.

A PAC is for a group to give money to candidates. A Kansas PAC files with the Kansas Gov’t Ethics Commission and those reports have only been online since early 2006. A 527 PAC files an IRS 8872, or possibly other reports to the FEC. Oddly, an out-of-state PAC can file “verified statements” in Kansas and hide much of their poltical money reported by other PACs. [One Missouri PAC last year should have been on the Kansas "Top 20 List" but was hidden by special rules for out-of-state PACs.]

Official “lobbyists” are on a list at the Secretary of State’s web site, and they have some expenditure reports online at the KS Gov’t Ethics Commission web page.

BUT, starting in 2006, two Kansas “non-profits” that sent mailings in the two weeks before the election, didn’t fit into any of the known IRS non-profit categories described above. The IRS won’t say what status these two groups had, saying “privacy” is more important than the right of citizens to know who is sending political mailings. If the IRS continues to hide these non-profit groups, and if the press refuses to expose this “trick” to hiding political money, soon we might as well not have any laws and there will be more chaos in political spending.

Some groups like AFP also have a “for profit” corporation component that can spend whatever they want on issue races and are only required to file tax reports with the IRS, which are not public. While some may criticize AFP for having this “for profit” corporation, the AFP Kansas group has public meetings, has a phone number and E-mail address. You can find AFP Kansas and exactly what they represent — Kansas fiscal issues.

After nearly five years of studying Kansas political money, I still can’t find it all. More disclosure and better reports would be helpful to figuring out who is doing what politically.

I always wondered why we couldn’t get the attention of the Kansas Attorney Generals, Kline and later Morrison. With recent revelations, I now see what was taking precedence.

I’m keeping a list of pro-arena supporters as they leave Wichita for greener pastures … leaving Wichita and Sedgwick County taxpayers holding the bag for the 1/2 billion dollars of wasted sales tax money.

As many Sedgwick Countians now recognize … the downtown arena was sold to us on a web of lies by various pro-arena supporters.

The arena itself is an accident waiting to happen for a large number of reasons. Some of these are:

** No tenants that can pay;
** Not flexible for other more pressing uses;
** Wrong location;
** Ugly design;
** Dangerous structure, not designed for Kansas weather.
** No highways that would let traffic enter and leave efficiently;
** No parking available for people in wheelchairs;
** No public parking;
** No parking for RV’s and 18 wheelers that support the users;

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY … NO BUY-IN BY THE TAXPAYERS AND PUBLIC. IN OTHER WORDS, THE PUBLIC DOES NOT WANT THIS ALBATROSS ARENA PROJECT.

STRANGELY ENOUGH, ITS IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND ANY SUPPORTERS WHO ARE NOT RECEIVING SOME SORT OF BENEFITS FROM THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE ARENA.

You Liberal Socialists should love this!

In fact, you should love it so much that you should be using taxpayer dollars to lobby for more lobbying for more taxpayer dollars.

The more taxes, the bigger the government, the more efficient government is!

You Socialist Libs don’t dare use your own money.

Let’s lobby for more taxes to pay for more lobbying for more taxes to pay for more socialist programs.

When will it end?

Larry was well educated and informed about the FACTS concerning the theft of water from Cedar Bluff by Hays and Russell.

What Tracy Streeter went to G.C. for was to LOBBY Powell. And he drove ALL over the state, out of session, to LOBBY everyone on the natural resources committees.

If he was “educating”, why couldnt it have been done by telephone or email or US mail?

Nope. Tracy Streeter was LOBBBYING on BEHALF OF Hays and Russell.

Now THAT’s a crime against democracy when state paid officials lobby on behalf of two cities.

And what were the people of Trego, Gove, Ness and Rush counties to do? Hire their own lobbyist? Short of me renting an apartment and copy machine and living in Topeka, there was NO WAY to compete with or counter act that kind of lobbying.

And it worked. I had committee members quote me “facts” about Kansas water law and Cedar Bluff and Hays and Russell that were pure, unadulterated baloney. Or as we called them, LIES.

But hey, the water office director, in a personal “courtesy” visit, told them it was true in his “education” campaign. So they must be “true facts”, right?

Wrong. They were made up out of thin air. But I didnt have the budget, or the time in a one person office to visit the homes of everyone on the committees. And “educate” them.

I had to play by the rules. The state government employees did not.

And you wonder why cities and counties hire lobbyists? To counteract the flat LIES put out by the state itself. On behalf of Hays and Russell.

Nice perk when you can get the state to do your “educating” for you. Hays and Russell didnt pay a DIME for that lobbying.

Who do I contact to have them start lobbying to lower my taxes?

It doesn’t account for all of the personnel expenses for all of the govt paid lobbyists, and that is a bunch.

All you have to do is to (easily) find the sought records on the internet.

Does that cover governments petitioning themselves? Kinda makes your head spend, doesn’t it?

I think all is being asked is how much taxpayer money is spent on lobbying.

That doesn’t infringe on the 1st amendment by any means.

Do you not see the difference b/t taxpayer money and AFP’s privately raised money?

I guess I can’t expect more from the Ealgle!

A union member who would want his dues spent to support a Republican or who would vote Republican is a danger to himself and others and IMO too stupid to vote.

It is only because government controls so much of our resources that people are highly motivated to influence it.

Even something as seemingly innocent as public schools are weapons of government that people and organizations will spend huge sums trying to influence.

>>>>>>and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.<<<<<<<<<<

………….seems like a slam-dunk to me.

“How long are we going to tollerate bribrery from both parties in the name of lobbying”

Answer

Until We as voters make a concentrated effort to let our elected officals know what we think. They still think the silent majority is silent. Maybe it is, or is it just apethetic?

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56178

This is especially important in a “closed shop” state where you might not have any right to work, without joining the union.

To force anyone to support a cause that person does not believe in, is TYRANNY!

I fully understand that cities and counties and school boards have issues to bring forward, to the legislature, as far as their normal opperating issues are concerned.

However, it is just wrong for the taxpayers who are against higher taxest to be taxed at the local level, against their will, so that a lobbyist in Topeka and work for HIGHER taxes!

Free speech is allowing all of us, voluntarily, to “Petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

It is NOT “free speech” but instead, tyranny, to force people to support, with their tax dollars, political issues they are against.

After the recent SCOTUS ruling concerning Union dues and “agency fees” used in a political manor, in the State of Washington, perhaps our local officials should avoid the possibility of such a law being enacted, in Kansas?