To the editor:

A quick review of business and technology publications shows a movement spreading among municipalities across the country. This movement focuses on locally driven innovative solutions for the design and management of our communities.

One example is Kansas City’s participation in the City Energy Project, a 10-city initiative to improve building energy efficiency. Another is LiveWell Lawrence, a local group focused on improving Douglas County residents’ access to healthy foods/lifestyles and physical activity.

But HB 2227 in the Kansas Legislature, moving local general elections from April to November, may have a chilling effect on such innovation by injecting partisanship in local elections. Though amended to eliminate the partisan provision, the move to November itself will have a partisan effect, and the Senate may reinstate the provision if passed by the House.

One reason municipalities lend themselves to innovative ideas and collaborative partnerships is that community leaders live close to the voters their decisions impact. They experience the same day-to-day issues and are vested in solutions reducing expenditures and increasing everyone’s quality of life. Whether or not solutions conform to a political party’s narrow ideological confines is unimportant and often distracting.

When discussing Greensburg’s innovative sustainable rebuilding to National Public Radio, Mayor Bob Dixon (a Republican), said it best: “We perceive certain things when we hear ‘Republican’ or ‘Democrat’ — preconceived ideas of what Republicans or Democrats think on issues — when in fact, it should come down to what do we as citizens think on these issues.”

Encourage your legislators to vote no on HB2227.