TO: City Council
County Commission
Selected Community Leaders
Board of Regents
FROM: Shocker Black & Golds
Date: 24 NOV. ‘06:BARE BONES
•In our Nov. 2nd response to the Eagle’s Suellentrop Oct. 8th article, p.30, we identified our presentation to the Board of Regents on Oct. 19th requesting that the Board take over the debt service of $900,000 per year to the year 2017, and also identified our letter to president Beggs asking if he would also now request the Board of Regents’ debt service for our new engineering lab buildings, thereby opening up $900,000 per year on the mill levy. We then said:
“Whether president Beggs will dither or will now request our fair share of the state Board of Regents capital improvements budget on behalf of the university he represents, thereby providing himself and the university an additional $900,000 annually to the year 2017 for flexibility to solve our local problems; or will evidence his prior commitment to Chancellor Hemenway and the KU folks, remains to be seen and is presently unknown. We should all pray for reason to prevail, but don’t gamble on it or hold your breath. By the November Board of Regents meeting, we will see.”
“Whether or not the Board of Regents will now properly take over the debt service of the new engineering lab buildings, as they should have in the first instance, or will thumb their collective noses at us, we will have to wait until their November meeting to see. Stay tuned. But be assured, if they do not, we will rigorously seek a remedy with local and state officials. As Sedgwick County tax payers, we do not intend to continue to be uniquely double taxed in the state, as opposed to all other counties, simply by the internal policy of the Board of Regents that has been on going for decades, with the Board not building a single new building for WSU in the 42 years WSU has been in the state system.”
• I am sad to report that president Beggs has now written his response, and that while he avoids straightforwardly saying he will not even ask the Board of Regents for any money on the State’s Board of Regents Capital Improvements Budget, the import of his letter is that he will not do so. And, our follow up letter confirming his position as not willing to even ask for any money on the State’s Board of Regents Capital Improvements Budget, has not been clarified or responded to, clearly confirming that president Beggs, incredibly, will not even request any State moneys from the Capital Improvements Budget.
• If there were any folks still with a scintilla of doubt, as to the control of KU chancellor Bob Hemenway over president Beggs and WSU, on the issues of the State Board of Regents Capital Improvements Budget, and on the return of football to WSU; any such doubt should now be beyond reasoned discourse.
• I am also sad to report, that the interim general counsel of the Board of Regents advises that the president and CEO of the Board, Regie Robinson, will not place our request for the full Boards consideration of debt servicing WSU new engineering lab buildings on the Agenda for the full Boards consideration. Regie Robinson, KU undergraduate, KU Law School graduate, and apparently hand picked president and CEO of the Board by chancellor Hemenway; it seems is committed to chancellor Hemenway’s desires not to have any competition from WSU for State Board of Regents Capital Improvements Budget moneys.
• It seems that when the Kansas Legislature voted 31 to 9 in the Senate, with the 9 no votes being KU alumni; and 91 out of 125 votes in the House, to preclude KU or any other institution having monopolistic control of the State Board of Regents, S.B. 345; chancellor Hemenway ignored the clear legislative message and statutory instruction, proverbially thumbed his nose at the legislature, and proceeded to control the Board by way of the power to set the Agenda, and the position of president and CEO of the Board. But enough is enough. It is time to put an end to this insidious embedded corruption of the Board of Regents.
• In 42 years WSU has had no new building built by the State. Our mill levy funds were only to pay off the then existing outstanding capital improvement debt of WSU, so that the assets of WSU could be transferred to the State debt free. The capital improvement debt then existing and outstanding consisted of some $1.5 million debt on the round house. That debt has been paid off for decades.
• At the time of WSU’s entry into the state system, 1964, the statute required the Board of Regents to have oversight jurisdiction only over the 1.5 mill levy, for the purpose of seeing to it that the $1.5 million then existing outstanding capital improvement debt was in fact paid off. While the statute still exists, the reason for the oversight jurisdiction by the Board of Regents has long since disappeared, and the statute to the extent of the oversight jurisdiction should now be repealed. Nor did the Board ever have any jurisdiction to dictate any additional uses of the 1.5 mill levy moneys, but only had oversight jurisdiction to accept or deny the gift, not to dictate the line item use of the moneys.
• But the KU folks have apparently continually falsely advised new members of the Board that the legislature meant for WSU to only have use of the mill levy for capital improvements, and therefore no access to any state funds for capital improvements. Even as late as the Boards meeting on October 19th, KU regent Dick Bond, made the false assertion. However, WSU was admitted into the state system as a full member with no such restrictions, and is entitled to full and fair consideration as is any other university in the State for the State Board of Regents Capital Improvements Budget funds. Nor as I have advised above, will the KU folks even allow the issue to come to the full Board for consideration and determination. It’s all about money, in what can only be described as chancellor Hemenway’s piggish desires for State Board of Regents Capital Improvements Budget moneys for KU.
• On July 26th ‘06, we put up our Bare Bones summary statement of State Board of Regents Capital Improvement Budget we obtained by way of Open Records Request of the Board of Regents. The total for projects approved was $727,197,150; projects completed, $291,978,282; and State moneys provided totaled $150,058,212. KU had approved $435,346,403 or 59.9 percent of the total, with 70.4 percent of the money for the presently completed projects being funded by State funds. KSU had approved $210,463,920 or 28.9 percent of the total. WSU has received zero, nada, nothing from the State Board of Regents Capital Improvements Budget; and only $145,000 in state general funds for a maintenance study.
• Isn’t it just precisely the case that the 29 percent K-State number, that in fairness and equity should have also been the WSU proportionate share, in fact went to KU’s 29 percent number, to in effect produce twice as much money for KU? And if not, why isn’t that the practical affect? WSU received zero, and KU received WSU fair share, so as to double the moneys to KU.
• In 42 years not a single new building for WSU was paid for by the state, while hundreds of millions of dollars have been provided to KU and K-State. But Sedgwick County sends more tax money to the State than any other county with perhaps the sole exception being Johnson County, the great beneficiary of the Kansas City KU center campus in Johnson County and the KU medical facilities in Johnson County. It’s called just being piggish, and building your own university’s empire, irrespective of any principle of fairness or conciliatory behavior vis-a-vis WSU. It is time for chancellor Hemenway to release his grip on the Board of Regents, WSU, and president Beggs neck, or to otherwise step forth and defend his position and actions publicly; thereby allowing a reasoned debate on whether or not the policy, clearly never intended by the legislature, should be allowed to be continued by KU.
• This Board of Regent KU policy falsely determined by the Board when KU had monopolistic control of the Board, has continued since 2000 when we were able to statutorily de-pack the Board of Regents from KU’s control by use of the KU alumni majority of the Regents. KU now controls the Board by use of the power to set the Agenda, and the position of president and CEO of the Board. New regents are simply told the false policy exists, so that WSU is to receive no moneys from the State Board of Regents Capital Improvements Budget.
• The affect of this Board of Regent policy is double taxation uniquely on Sedgwick County taxpayers alone in the state. Without question, double taxation uniquely upon Sedgwick County taxpayers should no longer be consonance, or tolerated by the legislature.
• It seems that we have got very nearly to the end of the period when this insidious issue was unknown to the legislature, and the Sedgwick County public, and to when it may have been worth while endeavoring to conciliate the issue inter se the Board of Regents; and to when this established kind of perpetuated tyranny of policy – including chancellor Hemenway and the KU folks’s preclusion of WSU football, that has been so profoundly injurious of WSU, resulting in the loss of some 9,000 traditional students – needs to be vitiated by whatever means it takes; including the instruction of State Board of Regent Capital Improvement Budget funding, for WSU’s new engineering lab buildings.
• VISIT: Alumnishockerblackandgolds.com