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A. co trustees and by viewers like you thank you welcome to Ruckus Our weekly food for thought fight over the news of the day and the trends of the times I'm Mike Shanin the Ruckettes join me shortly and our topics this week it ain't over till it's over at KCI the battle over Kansas taxes far from over and is the era of civic leadership over plus roast and toast but we begin with our newsmaker segment and talk about some educational opportunities in Kansas city the KC scholars program is designed to help young people and adults throughout the metro area to complete their educational goals with financial and other support here to discuss KC scholars as program manager Valerie Salazar Valerie thanks for coming in welcome to ruckus tell us about KC scholars what is it how it began so KC scholars we're two years old and twenty sixteen we were publicly announced here and in Kansas city we are living legacy of Mr Ewing Marion Kaufman and his commitment to post secondary education here in Kansas city he did a lot of things didn't he he did absolutely and one of its heart where he was passionate about was education I remember the news coverage of some years ago when he was with a high school class I think you told me earlier was Westport high school correct and he said to them if you work hard and graduate I'll pay for your college education they did and he did and programs such as the one you have were the result yeah absolutely we received a significant contribution from the Kauffman foundation and our own five o one C. three ah public charity here in Kansas city and we are working towards and supporting students to complete the college educated what I think is fascinating is not only are you helping high school students you also help adults we Do and that's a very unique piece of our program actually unique for the nation as to support adults that started college at one time in their life and then life happened and now I want to go back to complete either that credit bearing potential associate's degrees or bachelor's degree your deadline I think is coming up fairly soon it is yes so March first so we're in crunch time there's still plenty of time to start the application and apply the deadline for our twenty nineteen application is March first and we will award almost twelve hundred awards in may and what are the amounts do they vary they do and we have a program for ninth graders um for eleventh graders as well as adults um and for our eleventh grade our traditional scholarship it's a value of up to fifty thousand dollars to ten thousand dollars renewable for up to five years and when somebody receives one of these scholarships they have to attend a university or college in the metro area correct a big philosophy of KC scholars is making sure that we boost this region an economy here in Kansas city so kind of that whole study local live local eat local we want our students to study local and come back into the work force that we have a network of seventeen colleges and universities ok walk us through what people need to do either if their in high school or they're adults who want some help going to college finishing college what steps do they have to take now yeah absolutely so start on our website KC scholar dot org They can learn about the eligibility requirements and see if they qualify and are eligible then they can start the application there if they have any questions they can reach out to us at KC scholars be more than happy to assist them but most importantly it would be making sure that they start now a their deadlines quickly approaching there's quite a few tasks that they need to complete in order to submit their application who decides if somebody gets a scholarship or not had great question it's a process so are we ever as it scored applications are scored and so there's a selection process among that we look at the whole application so it's important for not just grades not just grades no we have a minimum of two point five GPA for our ninth and eleventh graders going into this so we look at the whole application there's essays recommendations there's an applicant form in which they're talking to us about what they're involved in the community and other items and not so there's a whole application that score so if somebody gets online today and and starts to do the work it is possible that person might still won a scholarship absolutely yep there's plenty of time and plenty of money it sounds like and yeah and yeah funny and yeah and we know that lots of folks like to wait until the last minute to apply so yep there's still plenty of time to apply; so once the scholarship is awarded and somebody goes to college or back to college do you monitor what they do yeah absolutely we continue to support them we work for the colleges and universities as well as some student support service providers that work with us on to make sure that those students and adults not only get to college but that they complete their degree other than having a better educated community what would you say are the results of KC scholars yeah what we what our hope in and plan is that by twenty twenty seven will have almost ten thousand KC scholars back in our workforce pipeline here in Kansas city It's part of the workforce development project yeah absolutely we we consider ourselves an inclusive workforce pipeline for Kansas city that we make sure that our students are hopefully going to be coming back and and ready for those employers that are here in Kansas while we encourage lots of people to go to your website to apply and we'll hope for the best for them thank you very much for coming in pleasure to meet you thanks for the information yeah thank you that is KC scholars program manager Valerie Salazar now let's meet the panel and start a ruckus Arthur Benson is a long time and prominent Kansas city attorney Gwen grant is the president and CEO of the urban league in Kansas city Annie Presley is an author publisher and GOP fundraiser Crosby Kemper the third is the executive director of the Kansas city library system and host of KCPT's meet the past and Centropolis we are taping this program on Valentine's day so I really think that all of us should put our hearts into it okay as long as it's not the kiss of death met with no response Just as I expected baseball legend yogi Berra said it ain't over till it's over yogi was not but could have been describing the effort to reach agreement and start building the new KC I one terminal airport approved by voters in November twenty seventy last week the city's aviation department and developer edge more infrastructure announced agreement to build the facility for one point five billion dollars a half million more than the plan offered the voters now all the airlines and the city council must achieve a final accord that could be complicated by the mayor's race with several council members who have been in the airport debate seeking to survive the April primary so are concerns about the project over or should we trust yogi and say it ain't over till it's over Gwen I think we trust yogi on this one certainly you we don't want to think we're there yet you know you're on a trip with your kids are we there yet are we there yet we're not there yet you know I think that they're still or a lot of questions to be answered and you know the price tag we don't know what the final price tag is going to be on the project we don't know exactly what it entails relative to design because the price tag keeps moving in was one point six four now it's one point five and edge more said they needed to do it at one point six four now they can do it for one point five billion dollars like originally was one billion wasn't it went from nine sixty so it's just it's like that that card games that the three card Monte or something it just keeps moving the target keeps moving is hard to find it and I think it's really important for that the citizens and for the electorate to be very vigilant about asking for asking questions and seeking transparency and when we gonna know exactly how much it's going to cost when we going to know exactly what is the impact going to be on travelers because many of us you know travel we want to know aare our ticket prices going to go up I know there's been some indication that the individual ticket price may not escalate any more than three to five dollars up but we need to know exactly or eight or nine going to the star's editorial use the five dollar word that five dollars is the increase in employment cost which actually is an eighty percent increase over our current employment cost our current cost of putting put someone on a plane is among the lowest of the mid mid size Hubs and will go to one of the highest in the mid size Hubs so Stars these are phone phony numbers the you compares to the Sacramento and the Indianapolis airport they did billion dollar terminal each of them did a billion dollar terminaland in the immediate aftermath of the opening of those new terminals their ticket prices went up fifteen percent and that is what we will see Art how about the mayor's race is that going to have an impact on how this airport matter turns out I kinda suspect not I I it it may but there's too much up in the air about the airport committee is that a pun yes too many details yet to be negotiated I I think there are other sort more important issues the airport is essentially going to be paid with the a load on those who use it it's there's a general consensus that we need a new airport not terribly but we do and I think that's just gonna be done it it's I suspect in the next thirty five forty five days other issues are going to be more prominent like affordable housing a high rate of sales tax in Kansas City I think they will overshadow the airport so this apparent agreement with the airport is that boost the campaign of Jolie Justus who's running for mayor she was the head of the airport committe well there's six council members running Jolie chairs the airport committee there are two other candidates on the committee and and Arthur I actually disagree with you I think this is going to be a major campaign component for all these folks I mean Jolie has a lot to win and a lot to lose being the chairman it is very very complicated she has stayed on top of it we really aren't in charge of it don't lose sight of how because to me is the the the airport committee both ah the everyone running has really demonstrated poor leadership skills and and how they <eps> managed this whole thing and management skills from the very beginning as I stated the last time I was here the clandestine meetings that Jolie Justus participated in ah relative to trying to bring this about so if I'm looking to elect someone I'm wanting them to be very transparent and I want to I'm wanting them to show really sound judgment in how they managed this process and I think they've all done she and the mayor are both lawyers and they sat there that and made a one billion dollar no bid contract deal which is illegal under FAA rules it's illegal and they were told it was illegal and they still went ahead and and did it so I think that ought to be should be a huge issue it should be an issue but we do want our airport to hurry up andget done, oh we need to hurry up are you confident Crosby no public dollars will be spent in all of this you know there's there's this lie that went on about borrowing money from the airport the airport commission actually said that while they have money borrowed from the airport so I wouldn't I wouldn't trust the city of on on that issue that's final word for now a conservative website the Sentinel which is now part of the Kansas policy institute reports that the sunflower state now has the eighth highest state and local average sales tax rate in the nation eight point six seven percent that's higher the Missouri and Kansas this sales tax update comes as the state legislature gears up for major debates over income tax policy some GOP leaders want income tax cuts Democrat governor Laura Kelly does not the Kansas City Star's eidtorial board thinks the decision is clear voters chose Laura Kelly last year so voters don't want tax cuts but the editorial failed to say that Kansans also elected and reelected Republican legislators who do want tax cuts so how in the world do we figure out what the public really wants Annie I actually looked for some polls to find out what Kansans are thinking about right now and they really are nonexistent but let's let's just look back you saying Kansans aren't thinking There's just no polling to look at They're too cold to think Laura Kelly ran on three issues one education funding Medicare enhancement and that KPERS payments and these three components already make up seventy seven percent of their fifteen point five billion dollar budget for two point eight million Kansans so they're spending seventy seven percent of the budget already on this in the meanwhile these Republicans in the legislature are wrestling with what kind of budget to send the governor and the tax cut that they've suggested is the equivalent of about a hundred ninety one million that affects some wage earners and some corporations so the struggle that we see I think it's going to boil down to accountability and one of the trends right now on education funding is that there is more money going to administration than there is student instruction and I would suggest that this is the accountability that Kansans are actually looking for so heavy lift Let me put that same question to Arthur how do we figure out what voters really want when they seem to send mixed messages well it's a good thing that we usually cannot we're not a direct or pure democracy I think the Star was wrong you just can't yeah impose a mandate on somebody because she was elected governor or they were elected to the legislature ah voters do seem to prefer having divided government so ah what with the Republican legislature and a Democrat it as the governor there of the the politics will will work it out I and I expect that the Kansas voters if you can infer anything from what they did that they they want compromise they want all of these issues solved even if there's not enough money to do it then you may have to spend less but try to accomplish as many as possible or Crosby one of the reasons Republicans say they want modifications in the tax law is to align Kansas policy with the federal changes in income tax right well I I I that by itself is a is a good idea but it the problem for that for everybody in in Kansas is to answer your original question the voters want lower taxes and higher spending and you can't you can't do that so Republicans gonna have to figure out if they want a tax cut which is you know cutting taxes is not a bad idea is what they're going to cut in the in the budget and as Anne pointed out it's almost all health care and education now you know what we've built this it wasn't true forty years ago right now it's all health care and education and that you know that it will have to fight the the Kan the Kansas view which is healthcare is a right and we never spend enough money on education Kelly's budget presumes that they could amortise the KPERS program and Republicans in the legislature are opposing that and so if that is the case than some of the money she was expecting the spend on Medicaid expansion of these other things won't be available right and during the Brownback years we we we we pretty much savaged the transportation budget the KPERS in trying to bring KPERS up to full full of funding and you just can't you can't do everything that it that that's a lesson that we're having a hard time learning in this country you look at the national deficit which is now it's with a Republican deficit of a trillion dollars twenty two trillion now is that the the total budget the total debt and that doesn't count all the off the books stuff ah Gwen we often hear about sales taxes on food purchases in Kansas Kansas one of the states that the charges a sales tax for food and a lot of people oppose that and governor Kelly said she would try to do away with it and thus far I don't think there's been any action by governor Kelly on that well I mean give her a minute, would it be a worthwhile project well she just got there, well she's been in a month but that's not something she's been proposing I don't think well as I said before give her some time but I think it's important that you know when you can reduce the sales tax or eliminate a sales tax on food that's certainly going to ah be good for low income families because sales taxes can you know foods can take some food items off a menu is there any enthusiasm left for a battle over school finance in Kansas I don't have any left for it I'm tired I don't know since I'm not a Kansan and I would think not we ought to be concentrated on on how we make education in Kansas better and not on how we help how much money we're spending this the Supreme Court created a false assumption that spending more money would bring better education and that's simply false well the governor thinks is going to be in agreement with the group from the schools and say if you give us this increase for inflation we'll drop the lawsuit ah but by the same token they could file another lawsuit subsequently right well they're saying the Supreme Court has not really given an outline of what how much is is correct it's just never enough excuse me in a recent column the Star's Dave Helling says the once powerful Citizens Association founded in the Pendergast era is disappearing and has been since the dawn of the twenty first century Helling doesn't see a resurgence of the elite group whose members he describes as mostly men white and wealthy instead he's hoping for a new group comprised of younger voters who will focus on today's issues not the vice and corruption of past decades but on livability investment subsidies education and public safety well as someone who has been rather critical of Kansas city civic leadership or lack thereof would something of this sort be a welcome addition to the local political landscape Crosby what have absolutely you know the the last time the citizens association was you know Dave Helling wrote this is column the last time the citizens association was bright shining object was when Dan Cofran was running it and then Dan decided run for mayor and was a star editorial written by our former colleague Yael a really vicious editorial that knocked Dan out of the mayor's race and basically you know out off the Citizen's Association so we all look back to you know why some of these things happen but yeah we we need we need more civic engagement I will I want to say something nice for the first time in my life about the Civic Council I've had some conversations with him lightly and Bill Gautreaux this let's identify it it's made up of the top what one hundred CEOs in the Kansas city area, yeah roughly speaking and it kind of disappeared from civic life awhile ago they have KC Rising which is a good jobs oriented quality jobs oriented up but you know they haven't been active in the political arena etcetera Bill Gautreaux's in the chair Mark Hill who's the new executive director I think there's a you know there sort of a new sheriff in town and and and I I think they're interested in getting back into a leadership role and and working on things like opportunities zones and and and other things but Crobsy do endorsements now mean anything with the rise of the internet and social media a Good meme now seems to trump an endorsement, I think that's right but I think they're actually they're very powerful forces are at work and Freedom I think it's still reasonably powerful women's political caucus I think it is important I I think there are important groups in in town right up with but I don't think we have the group that is just oriented towards good public policy that once upon a time we had I think that a huge problem, you know in the past Civic council won't talk to the news media or rarely will talk to the right media do you think that night change I think that might my my guess is I don't don't know this for sure but that that Mark Hill might want to go in that direction you know he he he he did that for a similar group in the in Nashville and and so I I hope so he's like the executive director exactly are you a member of it no were you a member of it or no Annie, no how could what Helling proposed gain traction and I I I I just don't think there is that much interest in participating in or being guided by the endorsements of a good government organization the chambers endorsement means alot for money it does well they mean a lot for number reasons yet I mean endorsements mean a lot for money but it's not always money is of this about what are the relationships the connections the influence the visibility that a particular endorsement can bring because with endorsements from organizations like the citizens association from organizations like Freedom Incorporated if they weren't so important folks wouldn't be vying to get them they do mean something if you're running for something I think that what we would like to see is that more of them what they tend to do when they endorse they're also sending somewhat of a policy message but which what you would like to see perhaps she is a group that would come together and focus solely on policy information the real problem is who controls those organizations these days and if you look at the money follow the money is always a good rule in politics and almost all the money in the mayor's race in the council races is coming from a handful of groups that are about economic development policy lawyers developers construction companies and the like it seventy percent of the money comes from a from those folks and that is a huge distortion of the process and they control the chambers endorsement the downtown council's endorsement so we we need something to counterbalance that but in a free political process there's nothing terribly wrong with that I mean so basically the more you can bring into that you know so that there is an opposites of that there's an an opposing view is a healthy thing we need the peasants with pitchforks involved which is fortunately are regressive tax policy they can't afford pitchforks yeah but it's unhealthy if one group has for much more power and control and there's no balancing of that they Annie are we missing any groups what about CFRGs citizens for responsible government brought about the airport debate there are women in politics KC ADC plays there but it tends to be all the same people populated throughout these different organizations so it's a shame citizens association has kind of fallen by the wayside everybody else seems to be going on once but I don't think the data shows that they moved votes in any significant way I think you need to look at some numbers you need to kind a look at the polling numbers we have to end this and of course there's always Ruckus to turn to now we head to the soapbox for Roasts and Toasts where Ruckettes thirty seconds each to abhor deplore or ignore and we start with Gwem well this Valentine's day so I think about a little love today no roasting today on Valentine's day I want to give a toasts to Dr mark Bedell in the Kansas city public school systems and Dr Bedell particularly for his leadership ah since he's been here moving Kansas city public schools forward but I also want to commend him on how he handled himself in the press conference yesterday in the aftermath of the tragic shooting of a young teenager at central academy for excellence he called the community out this is not just the KCPS problem is a community problem as a law enforcement problem it's a gun control problem moving along Crosby so I want to toasts the Kauffman foundation for bringing the opportunity zone concept to Kansas city and national a potential national investors investment in Kansas city from legislation sponsored by Tim Scott and Cory Booker in the Senate yes I did say something nice about Senator Booker and ah to ah Wendy Gillis and Larr Jacob at the Kauffman foundation who've been pursuing this excellent endeaver Arthur I'd like to toasts the Chief Justice John Roberts I think he is um playing an indispensable role in maintaining the independence and integrity of the federal judiciary against an onslaught of challenges that that at that threaten the independence of our federal judiciary and he's standing firm Annie I'm toasting my friend Bobby Kendricks today he is the executive director of the Negro leagues baseball museum a long time client they are due to celebrate their hundredth anniversary of the Negro leagues that were founded here in Kansas city a new logo and a new look I'm very excited finally here's a toast to the Chinese New Year which began on February the fifth this is the year of the pig the Chinese New Year website says the pig is associated with wealth and as a signal of good fortune so you'll wonder how are pigs reactng to this honor Whee Whee whee, thanks to Maxwell the Geico paffor appearing on the program that is Ruckus for this week will be back next Thursday at seven now for the Ruckettes and the crew Mike Shanin saying thanks for watching and goodnight