How good was budget for Wichita?

wardjim1.jpgAn Eagle headline Friday said “House budget good for Wichita.” But the budget, which passed the House without a single Democratic vote, was good for Wichita only to a point, argued Assistant Minority Leader Jim Ward (in photo), D-Wichita, to The Eagle editorial board. Yes, it contains money for aviation training and research and the Equus Beds recharging project, but “we don’t really take care of people who need our help,” Ward said, noting that the budget left out spending for Meals on Wheels, early childhood education and other social services. Republicans have suggested additional spending needs will be addressed during the wrap-up session that starts April 30.

5 Comments

  1. JWink
    Posted March 22, 2008 at 5:42 am | Permalink

    Frankly the Equus Beds recharging effort is questionable because it merely pumps partially treated, occasional flood water from the Little Arkansas River near Halstead, down 250 feet into the Equus Beds aquifer, itself an extension of the Ogallala aquifer, to flow slowly eastward, to be gulped out of the ground by a new ethanol manufacturing plant near Newton, Kansas.

    Of course, the vaunted new Sedgwick County taxpayer funded “aviation training and research” facility located at a remote location on Jabara airport property 15 miles northeast of downtown Wichita has all kinds of negatives. Why are taxpayers paying for something our airplane manufacturing corporations should pay for?

    Why is this “aviation training center” not located near downtown Wichita, for example in the touted “Water Walk” project to be assessable from throughout the metro Wichita area. Why has this project decimated the former Wichita Area Technical College (WATC)?

    These projects are just more tax and spend of public taxes for misguided hopes and dreams by our holdover county commissioners and some city councilmen.

  2. Bill McKean
    Posted March 22, 2008 at 9:36 am | Permalink

    Asst. Minority leader Jim Ward is another stereotypical example of the wimpy, hypocritical Kansas attorney-politician who pubicly panders to his political base, but does not have the courage to fix the problem. The bipartisan hypocrisy, cynicism, nepotism and corruption is all about money and influence. Type A attorneys, judges, doctors pimp out their spouses to become involved in poltics or local or state government to consolidate even more power.

    Jim Ward complains about the lack of state funding for worthy programs to “take of people who need our help.” However he should know better than any other Sedgwick County legislator that hundreds of millins of tax payer dollars are wasted every year by an out of control, gangster-like state SRS and their subcontracting SRS agencies such as DECCA and Youthville. The SRS and their subcontractors have to justify their existence and increasing payrolls and expanding staffs by illegally stealing childen form the families. Jim’s wife, Karen, is the supervisor of the Child in Need of Care unit (CINC) for the juvenile division of the Sedgwick County Courts which is controlled by 3 unethical GOP judges (Jim Burgess, Tim Henderson and Dan Brooks).

    Because corruption, elitism, fascism & nepotism is strangling the state’s financial resources to provide social services to its neediest citizens, I would think that the Wichita Eagle, the liberal Democrats and the fiscal conservative Republicans would have a common interest in promoting transparency and acocuntability in government programs. It’llnever happen with out a big fight because the leadership of all three organizations and their spouses are too entrenched with the fascist elitist nepotistic judicial & state government power structure.

    Don’t expect Jim Ward to make waves for his wife, Karen, by sacraficing any of his political capital to expose the corruption in the Sedgwick Juvenile courts. It would not be in Jim’s financial self-interest. When 200 angry citizens attended at a public forum sponsored by Sunflower Action Coalition to complain about the human rights abuses by the SRS and the Sedgwick County juvenile courts, wimpy Jim Ward sat quietly in the back of the room and did not answer questons when the modrators asked why no legislators attended. My guess is that Jim Ward is merely following the example of other pompous hypocritcal leaders in Wichita like Rep. Brenda Landwehr, Sen. Susan Wagle and Sen. Don Bett who all appear willing to kiss the behinds of the Eagle’s incompetent editorial board so that the Eagle will quote them in their next story to promote the illusion that Betts, Landwehr and Wagle actually intend to do something to fix the problems with the Kansas judiciary & medical professions. At least the do-nothing Senators Donovan, Journey, McGinn, Rep. Watkins and others deserve credit for having the guts to attend public forums in an offical capacity to respond to the questions and concerns of the constituents.

    Bill McKean
    kiakahahaha@yahoo.com
    293-6079

  3. LonnythePlumber
    Posted March 22, 2008 at 11:07 am | Permalink

    It is disgusting to read such untrue and inflammatory libel. Such extreme unfairness restricts a citizens desire to serve others.

  4. J R
    Posted March 22, 2008 at 7:54 pm | Permalink

    This is a good man and I am proud that he is my representative. He’s correct that the state does not do enough for its people. Resident feudalist whiners notwithstanding.

  5. Poster Boy
    Posted March 23, 2008 at 6:27 am | Permalink

    Bill McKean likes to take his frustration out on anyone who is doing better than him in making good on a commitment to positive change.

    He even wants to drag down Jim’s wife while he is critical of Rep. Ward.

    Shame, shame, shame.