Your Turn

To submit a lengthier opinion piece about a topic of public interest, please email your submission to letters@ljworld.com and indicate that you would like it to be considered for a “Your Turn” column. Submissions must bear the name, address and telephone number of the writer.

Opinion: Stop funding flawed voter verification

Next month the 2018 Kansas Legislature begins its annual session. It will face a host of major issues, starting with school finance and including constructing a new prison, funding KPERS and addressing the endemic secrecy within state government, comprehensively documented by the Kansas City ...

Your Turn: Don’t get fooled again; let’s have more talk before taxation

April Fools!In 2008, Lawrence’s sales tax rate was 7.3 percent. That year Lawrence voters approved three special sales taxes for an increase of .55 percent that we’ve been paying since April 1, 2009. Also during that time, the state has increased its rate 1.2 percent, and three special ...

Your Turn: Ensure a sustainable future with public transit

Friends of Lawrence Transit, a group of Lawrence citizens, supports the renewal of a sales tax of .2 percent for public transportation. A special question election will be held with the general Lawrence election on Nov. 7. A “Yes” vote on Question Number One will provide funding for ...

Your Turn: Vote to end hunger in our school district

You might expect that as the director of Douglas County’s food bank, I am writing to ask you to give food, money or time to my organization, Just Food. But as much as I would appreciate any of those commitments, today I’m asking you to consider fighting hunger in our community in a ...

Opinion: Wild tax ride reverberating in Kansas

Kansans, we have been riding an income tax roller coaster. In 2012 the “Kansas experiment” brought lowered income tax rates and a full tax exemption for business income. Last June those policies were rescinded. Income taxes went down, then up.Some have been calling the June tax changes ...

Your Turn: Unaffordable housing can be solved with pennies

We have the opportunity to vote yes Nov. 7, and thereby largely solve the severe, systemic shortage of affordable housing in our community. A yes vote to Item 3 would give a 0.05 percent (one penny for every $20 spent) through a reallocation sales tax for the affordable housing trust fund from ...