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Photo by Richard Gwin

John Studdard, 75, puts up his American flag outside his home as he does every day. Recently, Studdard was named the local representative for the Silver Haired Legislature in Topeka. “Senior citizens’ needs are just as important to me as the needs of young people,” he said.

Photo by Thad Allender

Patsy Woods, Lawrence, casts her vote at the Cornerstone Southern Baptist Church, 802 W. 22nd St., in this April 2007 file photo. Boomer and senior voters cast the majority of votes in the last few Douglas County elections.

Illustration by Karl Gehring

The thought of aging baby boomers scares Lawrence public schools Superintendent Randy Weseman.

And it’s not just because the 58-year-old is one of them.

Since Weseman’s college days at Kansas University in the mid-1970s, he has heard warnings that the baby boomer bubble could spell trouble for schools at the turn of the millennium.

“This group has less kids in school, and that translates a lot of times to less support for school finance, bond issues and those kinds of things,” Weseman said.

It has implications for everything from building schools to bridges.

Weseman doesn’t know for certain whether older people tend to be less supportive of spending more money on schools, but he has gathered anecdotal evidence. He points to the school district’s last discussion about increasing property taxes. He heard from people — not much older than him — who talked about being on a fixed income and not wanting to see an increase in tax bills. He was told repeatedly that the school district needed to “live within its means.”

Because close to 75 percent of the school district’s operating tax revenue comes from the state and is based on student enrollment, having more students is the sure way to raise more funds.

But at some point, more students mean more schools. And building more schools requires voter-approved school bonds. As parents with children in schools make up fewer and fewer voters, those bonds could become more difficult to pass, Weseman fears.

Weseman holds out hope his generation will continue to support the public school system that benefited them.

“I’d like to think there is a sense of altruism out there with the baby boomer generation. That remains to be seen. But, if history is any teacher, people tend to be more conservative,” he said.

Jason Edmonds, chairman of the Lawrence-Douglas County Economic Development Board, fears that a top-heavy demographic of retirees could mean a greater strain on community services. While retirees pay property taxes, the tax bills for businesses are twice as much as homeowners’, and they create jobs. Bringing more businesses to town will help ease the tax share for everyone, he said.

“We have a window of opportunity to right the ship before we end up with a whole lot more passengers,” Edmonds said. “It could, theoretically, become lopsided.”

A rising force

The baby boomers already make up the largest voting force in the country. When they push past 65, they’ll enter into the demographic that votes more often and in higher numbers than any other age group.

So, baby boomers will be a political power to behold. What political analysts and local leaders have yet to determine is exactly what changes the group will make.

David Ekerdt, director of KU’s Gerontology Center, lectures on this subject. He said studies show that seniors tend to vote more along lines that are formed in adulthood than those based on age. Education, religion, sex and party affiliation are more divisive.

“They vote more often, but they don’t all vote together,” Ekerdt said of seniors.

Those who have kept an eye on the baby boomers’ voting habits, he said, haven’t seen them adopt a “generational identity.”

Regardless of how they vote, one thing is certain, says AARP Kansas Director Maren Turner: boomers won’t be ignored.

“Boomers are a force to be reckoned with,” she said.

Research that AARP has conducted shows that boomers will be just as politically active as previous generations, but will only take interest in issues they think are important.

According to Turner, who at 46 is a boomer herself, they engage in politics out of self-interest and less for the greater good of the community.

Boomers are more likely than their parents to support legal abortion, stem cell research and gay marriage. However, Turner said, they are less likely than their parents to vote strictly by party affiliation, preferring to base votes on issues and individual candidates. The trend could mean a more volatile and fragmented electorate, Turner said.

And according to a 2006 survey of Kansas AARP members between the ages of 50 and 59, more than 80 percent said having adequate health care insurance was important, as was staying healthy and having coverage for prescription drugs.

They also thought financial planning was important. Those concerns are similar to previous generations.

“We’ll see boomers out front and in larger numbers on those issues that impact them directly,” Turner said.

More than 20 years ago, Paul Schumaker, a KU professor of political science, did a study on Lawrence. He found that the older demographic tended to be more influential and conservative than the younger generations. But, he said, those between the ages of 30 and 65 were the most powerful.

Since then, Schumaker said studies have emerged showing older voters have more of a public regard, which would make them more likely to support things like school bonds even though they don’t have school-aged children.

One of the factors that could influence local tax measures, Schumaker said, is the financial status of baby boomers and the health of their retirement plans.

“When people feel their own futures are at risk, there tends to be less of a public regard,” Schumaker said.

Entering politics

Baby boomers won’t just be seen at the polls. As they retire and have more free time, KU political science professor Burdett Loomis said they also could become more politically active.

“Some take up golf, some people travel and some get involved in political life,” Loomis said. “I see them moving back, and they didn’t come back to Lawrence to vegetate.”

John Studdard became politically active after he retired. He has served on the local AARP chapter and sat on a city- and county- appointed senior advocacy council.

The 75-year-old’s most recent involvement is with the Kansas Silver Haired Legislature, a statewide group that lobbies on senior issues.

“I think personally, we live in a youth-orientated society,” Studdard said. “Senior citizens’ needs are just as important to me as the needs of young people.”

For Loomis, the boomers’ real strength lies in the pocketbook, not the voting booth.

“I think boomers do have power, but it’s much more through market forces and what we buy,” Loomis said. “We are much more powerful through our economic clout than through our political clout.”