To the editor:

I have to take exception to Mike Hoeflich’s assertion that Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal did not step over the line when he represented plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the state of Kansas. O’Neal may not be “of counsel” for the state but he is a lawyer and he is a public official who is sworn to represent the best interest of the people of Kansas.

To suggest that for him to file a lawsuit against the people of Kansas is not a conflict of interest defies logic. It may not violate the letter of the law, but it plainly flies in the face of governmental ethic. In my view the Legislature has a statutory and moral obligation to properly fund public education by closing the tax loopholes that have been doled out to private special interest in the past. Maybe Speaker O’Neal doesn’t consider it a conflict of interest because he is working for that same private interest both outside and inside the Legislature. Mr. Hoeflich can call it anything he chooses, but I call it wrong.

Tim Hamill,

Lawrence