The voters of Washington, Clay, Dickinson, Marion, Butler, and Cowley counties have a special interest in the Nov. 4 election. In 2006, the Kansas Legislature passed a law that gave TransCanada LLC a 10-year property tax abatement for the proposed Keystone Cushing Extension Pipeline. The pipeline, constructed in 2010, would have yielded property taxes estimated in excess of $20 million per year, or more than $3 million for each of the six counties mentioned. TransCanada LLC pays property taxes in all of the states north and south of Kansas that the Keystone pipeline passes through.

When the bill to exempt Keystone property taxes came up for a vote in 2006 in the Kansas House of Representatives, Rep. Paul Davis voted against the tax give-away. Davis knew that local property taxes would be needed by the six rural counties to pay for services like road maintenance, law enforcement and fire protection which would be used by the pipeline.

The 2006 property tax abatement bill had its birth in the Kansas Senate and House Energy Committees, and the chair of the Senate Energy Committee was Senator Jay Emler.

In early 2014 Governor Brownback appointed Senator Jay Emler to a seat on the Kansas Corporation Commission, the board charged with overseeing utility rates for Kansas. Seems like a fox with a bow tie has been put in the chicken house.

Paul Davis had your interests in the forefront in 2006 and as Governor of Kansas he will continue to serve your interests. Vote Paul Davis for Governor of Kansas.

Harry E. Bennett

Madison, WI