Kansas property owners get tax break under ‘revenue neutral’ law

A growing number of Kansas municipalities are opting to avoid raising property tax rates, and the Kansas Policy Institute credits a 2021 law that prevents municipalities from increasing rates without a thorough public process.

“More than 50% of cities, counties, school districts, and other authorities decided NOT to exceed revenue-neutral in the first year,” writes Dave Trabert. “Now, it’s up to 62% holding revenue-neutral, and it’s not just the small entities. Initially, 38 counties held revenue-neutral. Now it’s up to 48 counties, nearly 300 cities, dozens of school districts, and hundreds of townships.”

Arkansas dumpster fire heads to state supreme court

A small businessman in Arkansas is headed to the state's highest court in his effort to provide sanitation services in competition with a city-owned disposal service. “Steven Hedrick poured his heart and soul into his business—renting dumpsters to customers working on large projects then picking up the trash when they’re done—and he regularly gets calls from customers needing help,” writes the Goldwater Insitute's Adam Shelton. “However, the city of Holiday Island banned anyone from picking up solid waste, except for a specially chosen government-run waste company that isn’t even required to offer the same services Steven provides—services the people of Holiday Island desperately need.”

Shelton says this violates explicit antitrust language in the Razorback State's constitution. “The Arkansas Constitution explicitly prohibits the government from granting monopolies, as they are ‘contrary to the genius of a republic,’” Shelton writes. “In fact, the Arkansas Supreme Court has explained that monopolies crush competition and deny citizens their right to freely practice their chosen profession. This prohibition is so important that the court has also explained that ‘no amount of judicial interpretation should ever be permitted to cause the slightest deviation from the clear language of the constitutional inhibition.’”

Land of Lincoln spends all of the people's money all of the time, educates none of the people most of the time

Illinois spends twice the national average per full-time student on higher education, the Illinois Policy Institute reports, yet it’s losing college students. Some 106,375 fewer students want to attend Illinois public community colleges and state universities than was the case 15 years ago. The institute blames pensions, administrative bloat and a poor funding formula. “Illinois ranked No. 1 in the U.S. for higher education spending per full-time student in fiscal year 2024, spending $25,529 per student,” write Patrick Andriesen and Jack Knorr. “That was double the national average and over $4,400 more per student than the No. 2 state: Wyoming, which had only about 8% of the students Illinois supports.”

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