To the editor:

While the economic crisis continues, I have seen no elected official mention an increase in the Kansas corporate income tax as a mechanism of balancing the state budget. Neither has this occurred at the federal level.

In the 1950s, corporate income tax yielded one-third of federal tax revenue. What changed? Who is working for whom? By 2007, corporations paid only about 7 percent of total federal revenue.

In 1979, Kansas state corporate income tax was about 11.9 percent of total revenue. By 1989, 7.9 percent and, by 2007, only 5.6 percent of total taxes were contributed by corporate income tax. Perhaps business needs to pay its fair share for education.

Pre-emptive wars with tax cuts, mismanagement of Federal Reserve system controls, deregulation of policies at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the loss of more than 7 million jobs to China and a whopping 24 million jobs lost during the Bush-Cheney administration — all of these factors, with a dose of Enron on the side, should have alerted us to the need for better gatekeepers. That was what we learned from Enron, was it not?

While we are being told of possible neighborhood school closures, “Save Our Schools” rallies families and the community moves to support the Lawrence Community Shelter in this time of need. The community responds, where is leadership?

Contact everyone you know across the state and help to make a strong request to the Kansas Legislature to include increased corporate income tax as part of the budget solution.

Sven Erik Alstrom,

Lawrence