James Franko, Kansas Policy Institute | 9-8-26

0:00This is Ashley Akinetti from the Almost Hymnest Podcast. You ever notice you and your spouse keep saying, we need to get away, but you never actually plan anything. That was us until we did something fun and spontaneous. We went to resortpass.com. There are hundreds of hotel resorts, pools and spots and private beaches that you can enjoy. You can spend the day at a luxury resort, pool, spa, massage, without booking an overnight stay. And listen, I may have only been 15 minutes from home, but it felt like it was a whole different world. And I'm thinking, this is exactly what I needed. So just go to resortpass.com, choose your resort, choose your day, luxury, resort, day passes, start at just $1,500. Once you post your daycation, people are gonna ask where you are. Go to resortpass.com, slash almost famous, and use the promo code almost famous to get $20 off when you spend $100. That's code almost famous at resortpass.com slash almost famous.

1:00["The Labor Day's Over Time to Get Back to Work," and we're gonna celebrate America and it's 250th anniversary coming up at eight o'clock, only the 95-7 FM. Well, I mentioned this name last week. Dr. Valdenia Wynn, she is a member of the KCK School Board, and she is raising concerns over travel spending within the KCK public school system, where she talks about how you have some of these events that members of the school district have gone to, these professional development events, where you got people spending $7 to $900 a night on hotel rooms, it's absurd. The Sentinel has covered it here. James Franco is joining us from the Kansas Policy Institute on KCMO. James, great to have you on. I'm glad this is being talked about. Where do you want to see the conversation go? Pete, it's always a pleasure to be with you.

2:02I live in Wichita, Kansas. I don't agree with Valdenia Wynn on very much when we interact in the legislature, but spending $7,900 a night on a hotel is noteworthy in the fair city of Wichita, Kansas, and it's just a little absurd that what maybe seems like a good idea with some kind of a professional development opportunity for teachers, faculty, whatever, turns into what amounts to a junket, and it's the taxpayer dime that's put in the bill. How much of this is going on in your estimation in school districts across, not just Kansas, but the country for that matter, at a time when we want, we want to see our kids taught, but man, the proficiency rates are not there. You know, all these issues we've gotten the classrooms, but we have these professional development conferences that go on where it really looks like it's just kind of a getaway slush fund for people at the higher end of the bureaucracy is what it seems to me like it is.

3:04I think that's generally correct, which is why we have, you know, close to a half a million public school students in Kansas, and you just can't really expect these huge bureaucracies, the 280 odd school districts, the State Department of Education, to be watching out for the, the FISC in the same way that, you know, a truly local school that may be existing in some corners of the state, or private schools, or home schools, or micro schools, or whatever, all these different kinds of things that are bubbling up that are really going to have to be responsive to the kiddos who attend their schools. And instead of talking about the lower income kids who are two or three grade levels behind their higher income peers in KCK or even in Blue Valley or Shoney Mission Let Alone, you know, out in St. Francis on the Colorado border, is too many kids are being left behind, and it's because we're spending a lot of money on these kinds of things, not actually spending it on the kiddos who need that money,

4:07who need the opportunities, and we have studies from, you know, the official government being counters in Topeka, saying that local school districts aren't spending the at risk money, excuse me, for the neediest kids in one way or another, they're not spending it on at risk services, and we're spending it on this kind of rubbish. It's, it's, it'd be funny if it wasn't so tragic for the kids who are struggling and suffering. You're right about that. James Franco, Kansas Policy Institute is here on KCMO. Over at cansapolicy.org, you guys have rolled out examining the issues and options for property tax relief in Kansas. Obviously it's a topic on the campaign train as well, campaign trail as well for the governor's race. What's the biggest takeaway, the most simplistic takeaway, you would want somebody to grasp coming out of the study? People are being taxed out of their homes. In the last five years, home valuations have increased 40%, but the average property tax rate, excuse me,

5:08property tax increase has been 31%, and this is happening at a time when inflation is skyrocketing and real incomes because of inflation are making it harder to pay, and government gets to essentially give themselves a pay raise by way of tax collections when you and I don't get that same opportunity. We have to create value for our employers or in our businesses or whatever it may be, and if we're not doing that, we don't get to take home more money. But oftentimes governments at the state, local, or at the federal level, just get to say, hey, things are getting hard, we need more money, and they vote themselves a pay raise. Maybe not a pay raise for the actual politician or what have you, but a pay raise for government, and it makes it harder for us working steps to be able to put the bill or to be able to take the kids out for dinner at the end of the week or something like that. And what's the best thing that, whether it's a local government can rein in spending you know in a place like Johnson County, there's no evidence to suggest that's going to happen.

6:10Is there state intervention that needs to potentially happen on this front as you see it, or is there some other answer here? I mean, there's two different sides of the same coin, right? You have to control spending, which is you correct when it point out local government is low to do to say nothing to state government, but it's just spending, you know, just skyrocketing. But then they also have to control their revenue, their taxes, that they're also spending as well. And there's very little to suggest that's going to happen in the last several legislative sessions. You've got the Senate typically supporting this kind of state intervention with assessed valuation increases. This doesn't monkey with the market rate for the market valuations, but just the taxable assessment increases. And it's actually forcing local governments to just simply be honest about how much they're increasing taxes. They don't get the hide behind valuation rates and then say,

7:12oh, but we're keeping your mill rate the same. But what's good for the goose is good for the gander. So it's nice when you have some folks out on the campaign trail talking about a taxpayer bill of rights at the state level that prevents tax increases or spending increases at the state level without some kind of legislative supermajorities. Because if we're going to hold locals accountable for their spending and there go their property taxes, then we need to do the same thing at the state level. Because we're just spending gobs and gobs of money and the federal government, which is roughly half of the state budget in one way or another, the money that they send through the states. The fed they're broke too. And somebody's going to have to get this in order else. It's going to be my generation, your generation or kids generation who are going to be left told in the back. Well said. James Franco, Kansas policy institute. Read this study at candispolicy.org. Appreciate you, James. Take it easy. Have a good day. Well done. It's football season on polymarket trade, your football predictions against other fans before and during the game.

8:13You can even combine multiple trades with polymarket combos, promo code, W, W, W, new customers deposit $10. You get $50 instantly to start trading. 18 plus C polymarket terms of service for more information about restrictions and eligibility. The polymarket app is an independent affiliate of polymarket US and not CFTC regulated trading. Always involves risk complete loss. Canter, the $50 offer is issued as not withdrawal, it will trade credit for use on the platform offer exclusively available to first time depositors, not available in all jurisdictions. This is Ashley Akinetti from the almost famous podcast. You ever notice you and your spouse keep saying, we need to get away, but you never actually plan anything. That was us until we did something fun and spontaneous. We went to resort pass.com. There are hundreds of hotel resorts, pools and spots and private beaches that you can enjoy. You can spend the day at a luxury resort, pool, spa, massage, without booking an overnight stay. And listen, I may have only been like 15 minutes from home, but it felt like it was a whole different world. And I'm thinking this is exactly what I needed.

9:13So just go to resort pass.com, choose your resort, choose your day, luxury resort day passes start at just $1,000. Once you post your daycation, people are going to ask where you are. Go to resort pass.com slash almost famous and use the promo code almost famous to get $20 off when you spend $100. That's code almost famous at resort pass.com slash almost famous. This is Ashley Akinetti from the almost famous podcast. You ever notice you and your spouse keep saying, we need to get away, but you never actually plan anything. That was us until we did something fun and spontaneous. We went to resort pass.com. There are hundreds of hotel resorts, pools and spots and private beaches that you can enjoy. You can spend the day at a luxury resort, pool, spa, massage, without booking an overnight stay. And listen, I may have only been like 15 minutes from home, but it felt like it was a whole different world. And I'm thinking this is exactly what I needed. So just go to resort pass.com, choose your resort, choose your day,

10:18luxury resort day passes start at just $25. Once you post your daycation, people are going to ask where you are. Go to resort pass.com slash almost famous and use the promo code almost famous to get $20 off when you spend $100. That's code almost famous at resort pass.com slash almost famous.