To the editor:

My recent letter pertaining to taxes and school finances provoked the expected results. A sacred cow was prodded and the sacred cow doth bellow with one person suggesting that I leave the state. If everyone who is concerned about high taxes left the state the ability to finance the bloated bureaucracies would be in serious jeopardy.

Umbrage was taken because I said high taxes could be a detriment in attracting and maintaining industry and business. Tell that to the owners of the Roost, a restaurant and truck stop for 35 years in Topeka. They are closing and high taxes are cited as the reason.

I served on school boards for years in Kansas, the first at a time when nearly all school financing was raised locally and taxpayers made sure their money was spent efficiently. Later, as president of a unified district it was obvious that public education was becoming a bureaucracy heavy with administrative costs. According to the state Department of Education it costs $8,894 per child each year and it keeps growing.

Property owners have their taxes raised each year due to the oppressive re-valuation process and that, coupled with all new construction, adds millions to school financing.

Pending legislation increasing tax on alcoholic beverages, according to Sen. Mark Buhler, will add an additional $1 million to the Lawrence public schools yet they say it’s still not enough.

A virus infects all bureaucracies with a tax-and-spend mentality, and public education is no exception.

Jim Morris,

Lawrence