Flint Hills Center for Public Policy, a Wichita-based think-tank, is making an impassioned plea this week that Kansas laws protecting citizens from government secrecy need substantial revision and stricter enforcement.
We could not agree more. From continued secret sessions by elected officials here (three in last week’s County Commission meeting alone) to shocking lack of supervision over spending at Kansas State University, we see signs every day that greater sunshine is needed on official business in our state.
Like Flint Hills, we are underwhelmed by the lack of seriousness prosecutors seem to accord complaints of open-meetings and open-records violations.
Still, we are proud when our local units of government take steps to increase, rather than decrease, public knowledge of their actions.
Flint Hills’ specific complaint is that two months after it sought to obtain appraisal data from every county in the state — a request that counties must comply with after three days — 38 still had not provided the data.
We applaud Marion County for routinely making such information available online.
While we have concerns about providing information only via the Web, a medium to which many residents do not have access, we appreciate efforts such as Marion County’s online appraisal database. It may be a bit difficult to find and to use, but it’s worth checking out if you have Internet access:
http://www.marioncoks.net/Parcel/DisclaimerLev2.asp
If, like Commissioner Randy Dallke, you have concerns about whether smaller homes in southern Marion County are assessed properly, you can see for yourself.
If you find problems, you can complain to Appraiser Cindy Magill.
If you learn from her, as you probably will, that apparent discrepancies are attributable to state law, you can turn to State Rep. J. Robert Brookens and ask that he look into changing the law.
You also can alert newspapers like this one and ask us to help pose some of the questions for you.
That’s the way government is supposed to work. It would work better if such information weren’t squirreled away on a hard-to-find Web site that many don’t or can’t look at. But it’s a step in the right direction.