By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Johnson County Chairwoman Annabeth Surbaugh and other elected officials recently sent out an "informational" mailer to voters. It was more like shameful propaganda on behalf of the quarter-cent sales tax on the Aug. 5 ballot.
It's a tax that should be defeated.
The four-color pamphlet -- paid for by taxpayers -- didn't even include the most basic information that voters deserve to see:
What does the ballot language say? Forget campaign promises; how will the money legally have to be spent, according to the ballot?
True, the ballot language is long and confusing. So maybe county officials didn't want to bother voters' pretty little heads with all that information.
But here's the biggest omission.
The county's publicly financed propaganda -- sent out at a cost exceeding $35,000 -- didn't tell voters that cities would skim off more than $10 million a year from the sales tax to spend how they want.
The mailer didn't contain one sentence saying how the cities would use the money.
The state law that allows this sham to occur -- with voters approving money for the county, and 36 percent of it then being diverted to cities -- should be repealed.
In the meantime, Johnson County voters have good reasons to reject the quarter-cent sales tax this August.
Surbaugh and others at the courthouse then should have to find better ways to pay for public safety projects.
The pot calling the kettle black? Or maybe more humorously, someone who works in a big glass building casting stones? You no longer have pride or shame so this post is really just to myself.
Stick with the smoking ban, Yael.