More pipeline politics

To the editor:

It was very interesting two weeks ago to read former Rep. Don Dahl’s letter explaining his support for SB 303, the 2006 legislative session bill that exempted Keystone-TransCanada property taxes in Marion County for 10 years. In fact, from reading the letter, it appears that Mr. Dahl must have been quite close to the legislative “sausage making” that resulted in this most blatant example of corporate welfare.

As a correction to Mr. Dahl’s letter, he stated that the 10-year loss of property tax could have generated “$1.9 million to Marion County.” The original expected property taxes to the counties in the pipeline corridor were estimated in 2006 to amount to $300,000 to $400,000 per year per county, as reported June 26, 2009, in the Abilene Reflector-Chronicle, but with the current reported value of the pipeline at $740 million, property taxes to Marion County alone would be $1.9 million per year or $19 million for the 10-year exemption period, as reported Nov. 7, 2009, in the Salina Journal.

I attended the legislative coffee in 2006 when Rep. Dahl and Sen. Jim Barnett came to Marion and gave us an update on that year’s legislative session. I cannot recall any mention of an economic development project that would involve Marion County forfeiting property tax from a large pipeline project. I don’t believe Mr. Dahl ever wrote a letter or communicated to the Marion County Commission about bargaining away their taxing authority in 2006.

The fact remains that he was in the position of representing the interest of the citizens who elected him and he failed to provide vital information at the least or purposely evaded the issue knowing it would not be viewed as a positive for Marion County.

In a way, this situation is a real “Tea Party” issue in that a larger, more powerful government unit, the Kansas State Legislature, traded away the taxing authority of smaller local government, i.e. counties, school districts, and hospital districts. The beneficiary of the scheme is a large foreign oil pipeline corporation that had revenues of more than $4.5 billion in 2008 and posted third quarter 2009 profits of $345 million. The future for the oil business is raising prices and more record profits this summer.

The Kansas Commerce Department gave Keystone-TransCanada $55.49 million in tax credits in a contract this summer and that should be enough incentive for this project.

I do not agree with every position that our new representative, Bob Brookens, takes but I appreciate the honesty and transparency he has demonstrated in the performance of his job representing us in Topeka. It is a refreshing change from the previous officeholder.

I hope Rep. Brookens can withstand the political pressure of special interests and support rescinding the property tax exemption for Keystone-TransCanada.

Harry E. Bennett
Marion