Kansans’ thoughts and prayers are with the family of William Avery, the former Republican governor who died Wednesday at age 98. Avery was the last Kansas governor to feel the weight of the death penalty on his shoulders, having dealt with the appeals of the “In Cold Blood” killers and two others among the last to be hanged in the state, in 1965. Yet he advocated in 1985 that Kansas reinstate the death penalty, viewing it as reasonable protection for law-abiding citizens. Avery, who billed himself as “Kansas’ No. 1 salesman” and served 10 years in Congress before running for governor, actually took pride in tax increases — though the 1965 package of income and sales taxes, intended to fund education and provide property-tax relief, denied him re-election in 1966. “The teachers told me they appreciated that. But when it got to election time, I saw no evidence they told anybody,” Avery said decades later. Given that Gov. Mark Parkinson and legislators could face a fiscal 2011 budget shortfall of $500 million, it was sobering to realize Thursday that the shortfall Avery aimed to bridge back then was a mere $50 million.
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7 Comments
I doubt he found the hangings of the Clutter murderers a burden ; more liberal spin to further the anti-death penalty the socialists want
Avery lost re-election to Bob Docking because he didn’t address the central unfair formula of property tax.
Owning property is not a reflection of the owners’ ability to pay taxes.
I have a farm in Johnson County and it becomes valuable due to suburban sprawl? The taxes shouldn’t change ’til I cash in on the investment.
But that isn’t the way property taxes are imposed.
Docking won election and three re-elections due to his Homestead Property Tax Relief policy. But faced with a dyed-in-the-wool Repubic Party legislature, no further progress was made in his efforts to make tax policies in Kansas equitable.
Rest in peace Governor Avery.
Imagine that, a republican that didn’t mind taxes to pay for the public good!
In today’s vernacular he’d be a RINO.
The tea-baggers should protest this tax and spend RINO’s funeral.
I don’t care.