Commentary by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — Five Cueball thoughts for Feb. 8, 2015…

1. Sammy “Alfred E” Brownback 

Those who are worried about their Second Amendment rights, don’t have anything to worry about – at least if you are living in Kansas.

Governor Sam Brownback needs a gun.

Alfred E. Brownback: What, me worry?

The Pied Piper came to visit Kansas this week and Brownback is submitting a proposal to cut spending on public schools and state universities by $45 million. That is not to mention cuts to the highway fund and the state’s pension proposal, and whatever rock he can snatch funding from under.

The next few weeks could get very interesting for those in Topeka these next few weeks.

I was at the Wellington basketball game Friday night and the usually tranquil group of teachers at the high school were all up in arms. Wellington head basketball coach Brian Buchanan was so cranky he got a technical foul during warmups (I actually made that last sentence up).

During the 2014 election campaign, a period of time we will never get back, Brownback promised education funding will be left alone in 2015. That promise lasted about 15 minutes after his victory speech.

Now comes the scramble as Republican Legislators try to hide the evidence after this murder of the Kansas budget.

In the meantime city municipal governments and school boards such as those in Wellington, Conway Springs, Caldwell, Belle Plaine will watch their state appropriations wither away.

In the next few months, the USD 353 board will have to determine what cuts will need to be made. Don’t be surprised if more than one family in Wellington, whose survival depends on a teaching paycheck, will have to look for other kinds of employment. Schools in Argonia, South Haven and Caldwell may not be able to survive.

City projects like the resurfacing of U.S. 81 from Harvey Street to the south city limits, could very well be put on hold for like forever. Infrastructure within the cities will continue to deteriorate.

Wellington City Manager Roy Eckert told the council just last week, “We are on our own.”

And with this deterioration and regression, will come public ire, and eventually holy hell to be raised.

And since Brownback and his cronies have demonstrated to be rather cowardly when the going gets tough, pointing blame on others rather than themselves, look for them to pass a tax hike that will negate the tax cuts of 2012 altogether. Only this time those taxes come at the expense of the middle to low income people through sales and property taxes. Farmers will once again take a screwing.

Hold onto your wallets folks. Things aren’t getting any easier. But, make no mistake, Alfred E. Brownback has nothing to worry about.

2. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it

There are reasons why we do what we do. We wear warm clothes in the winter and lighter clothes in the summer. We stop on red, and go on green. We drive to work instead of taking a commuter train because we don’t have a train system in Wellington. Even your greatest risk takers have normalcy in their lives.

So when Brownback and his cronies passed the grand net income tax cut of 2012, an experiment like no other, essentially it was like switching up the stop lights. Let’s do something different. Let’s make red go and green stop.

There is a reason why 49 other states didn’t go with the Laffer supply-side economic model.

Kansas City Star blogger Yael Abouthalkah wrote this interesting article (see here). Kansas has lost $713 million in income tax receipts in one year alone.

Had Brownback just sat on his Ivory Tower perch and twiddled his thumbs and snapchat videos of his cat all day, the budget would have remained flat. We wouldn’t be inspiring greatness as a state, but we also wouldn’t be enduring nuclear holocaust either.

Sometimes sitting on your rear-end is better than being a pain in everyone else’s rear end.

3. Why do we go in business?

I’m a little wound up as you can see. I just hate disingenuous, self-serving people.

The principle behind Brownback’s tax cuts is simple. If you cut taxes that will cause the entrepreneurs to reinvest in their businesses with the extra cash in their pockets.

But from my own personal experience, that isn’t how it works. My wife and I have both started two successful private businesses in the past five years.

Not once were taxes a consideration for starting these businesses. They were started due to circumstances and serving a niche that wasn’t being fulfilled.

It’s baffling to think that the leaders now running things in Topeka seem to think that if you cut taxes, that is going to start a wave of entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurs will only start businesses if they think they can make money. Yes, taxes factor into that profitability equation. So does rent, location, skilled workers, competition, etc., etc., etc. But if they don’t think they are going to make money, they aren’t starting one up no matter how low the taxes are. Kansas economic growth depends on earnings potential and part of earnings potential depends on their desire to live here.

Kansas does not have beautiful mountains, or roaring oceans, or ideal weather. So we sell ourselves on decent schools, decent roads, pragmatic ideals and a low cost of living.

But boy if we have to change the definition to crappy schools, crappy roads, illogical tax-cut ideals and a high cost of living, I can’t see that helping Kansas in any way.

4. American Sniper. 

OK, I’ll switch the subject before I pull out the last string of hair from my head.

The Wellington Regent Theater is hopping this weekend with its showing of American Sniper. The movie will continue through Monday (see movie information here). I took my wife to see the movie Saturday and could barely find a seat because the place was packed. That’s good news for the Wellington Regent which sometimes is lucky to get 100 people out for a weekend showing.

The movie is about Chris Kyle, the U.S. Navy Seal Sniper who served four tours of duty in Iraq, and became the deadliest sniper in U.S. Military history. It gets a full 4 star treatment from esteemed movie reviewer Cueball of Sumner Newscow.

Here’s the thing. The movie is Rated R. It is graphically violent and not suited for younger children. Yet, Wellington is packing the place. Why? Because people want to watch it.

If Hollywood makes a decent movie, people will return the theaters in droves. But unfortunately, Hollywood sticks us with movies like, “U.S. Teenage Ninja Turtles meets Iron Man during Twilight.”

5. Shoutout of the week. 

I have to give it to the student body who gave Keith Finley, Wellington’s No. 1 fan, a very Happy Birthday Party before the Duke ceremony Friday night. I thought I counted 92 people in the picture below. He received a letter jacket, a shirt and a hat. Now that is what I call a big-time party.

See larger version of picture here.

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