Guest Blog: Oppressive Government at its Finest

I want to preface this blog by saying that I am not and never have been a smoker. In fact, one of my children has chronic lung disease and second hand smoke can kill him. With that being said, I still believe that a smoking ban in Topeka is wrong. I will not debate the health issues that go along with smoking and second hand smoke. Smoking kills people and wastes millions of dollars in health care costs related to smoking and second hand smoke. What I will debate is the interference and oppressive behavior of our government on every level. Read the rest of this entry »

Guest Blog: Clean Air, the only standard that is acceptable

I support this ordinance because it aims to protect the workers who are exposed to unsafe levels of second hand smoke for extended periods.  I know some may say that they choose to work in these environments. But, as a true capitalist I will contend that the most productive worker should be in the job that best suits their abilities and if we alienate the portion of the labor pool that cares about their health, then we introduce inefficiencies to a free market economy and the city is not developing an environment that is conducive to maximizing efficiency and fostering growth. Read the rest of this entry »

Guest Blogger::The choice is yours, Topeka. Let’s Vote Yes to fix our streets!

The proposed sales tax increase in Topeka of one half of a percent that will be on the April 7th ballot has raised many concerns from hard-working Topekans who don’t feel that this is a good time to ask them to spend more money than they are already spending (as if a good time to ask for more money existed.)

We are living in a recession.  Every penny counts.  Even every half penny counts.  If this sales tax increase was not designed to increase outside business interest in the Topeka area, to create new jobs, a new quality of life and an overall upgrade to our fair city’s image, then I’d be arguing against it myself.  But the simple fact remains that there are many arguments for and against, but at the end of that difficult road remains a choice. Read the rest of this entry »

Guest Blogger::Higher Sales Taxes are the Wrong Road for Topeka

The issue on the ballot next month isn’t a question of whether we should have better streets — who doesn’t want better streets? Certainly the business community would be among the first to say that properly maintained
streets are essential to their businesses and to attracting new ones.

The issue is whether or not a special sales tax should be levied on everyone to pay for a basic and essential service of city government.

The members of the Topeka Independent Business Association (TIBA), mostly small business owners from every kind of industry imaginable, were surveyed and overwhelming said NO to a sales tax. Are they saying they don’t want
better roads? No. Are they saying they don’t support Heartland Visioning? No. They’re just saying that a sales tax is the Wrong Road to fixing our streets. Read the rest of this entry »

Community Standards Alive and Well

My name is Kim Borchers, AKA the lady who made a “complaint” to the public library regarding “harmful to minors” material. I’m a graduate of the University of Kansas with a degree in Biology, wife of a local physician, community volunteer and most important the proud mom of 3 amazing kids. I spent the majority of my professional career in the Pharmaceutical industry in middle management and had a short stint in Topeka talk radio from 2004-2005. My husband and I moved to Topeka in the Fall 1997; I quickly fell in love with the town and the people and not long after started our family. I love our public library and for that reason would never have imagined that I would be at odds with some in the library community today. Unfortunately, life presents us with situations that we can choose to ignore because it may lead to some discomfort or we can choose to step out of our comfort zones because the cost of inaction is too great.

I have been involved in the issue of protecting minors from sexually graphic material since 2001. That involvement began when it was brought to my attention by a local legislator that the TSCPL policy permitted minors to check out Playboy magazine for viewing. Now, that was rather puzzling considering a minor could not buy the same periodical. Why wasn’t the governing board of trustees concerned with a potential lawsuit for providing such material. It was at that time that I was enlightened to the fact that in the 1980’s, libraries were giving special protection known as “affirmative defense”. For all us non-lawyers, that means the library is not held liable. I’m sure the legislature had a good reason for making the change, but I’m also certain that they never imagined that public libraries would act so irresponsibly with this special protection. Despite our local pleas to change the policy, it was not until the legislature became involved and dropped the gavel that the policy was changed. It was made quite clear that should the Playboy policy not change, “affirmative defense” would be removed. It was at that time that I began to question the concept of local control at our library.
Read the rest of this entry »

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