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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Letter From Daddy
House Majority Leader Rides to the Rescue
July 18, 2005
In the July 17th issue of the Independence Daily Reporter House Speaker Doug
Mays wrote a letter to the editor defending Rep. Virgil Peck Jr.'s "NO" vote on
the Honorarium for KS. National Guard Members killed in action in Iraq. Earlier
in the week Rep. Frank Miller took out an ad in local papers attacking the
Supreme Court and defending why the conservatives should be allowed to limit the
power of the court. Also both Miller and Peck had plenty to say after the school
finance package was passed. Miller stated; "I love education, all my children
are educated." Peck's opinion of the bill was; "It's extremely fiscally
irresponsible." Peck went on to say that school administrators told him they
could not effectively spend the increased funds.
Below is Doug Mays letter defending Peck and below that is my response to the
actions of Mays, Miller and Peck;
Dear Editor:
Recently your newspaper published a letter accusing State Rep. Virgil Peck of
not supporting the Kansas National Guard. Nothing could be further from the
truth!
During this year's regular legislative session and in the just completed special
session, there two votes were taken concerning survivor benefits of $250,000 for
families of Guard members killed while deployed in combat zones. Rep. Peck voted
against the first plan, which relied on state general fund payments to
survivors, and would have exposed Kansas taxpayers to as much as $100 million in
liability. This plan was adopted at the very end of the legislative session with
very little discussion.
Virgil, however, advocated for a more responsible plan also providing for a
$250,000 survivor benefit for family members. Under this plan, the state would
pick up the premium cost for federal military insurance.
While providing the same protection for survivors, the annual cost is projected
to be just $390,000. Apparently this second plan made a good deal of sense,
because every other member of the Kansas Legislature voted with Rep. Peck and
adopted the second plan during the just completed special.
$390,000 vs. $100,000,000. You be the judge.
I have known Virgil Peck for several years. A more patriotic Kansan would be
hard to find. He is a stanch supporter of the military including our National
Guard members. I regret very much that his good name has been maligned, and
thank you for this opportunity to set the record straight.
Rep. Doug Mays
Speaker of the House
Topeka
MY RESPONSE:
Dear Editor:
How wonderful it must have been for Mr. Peck to have the Speaker of the House
make his excuses for him. It was a lot like having Daddy writing a note and
asking the teacher to excuse his son's bad behavior because down deep he really
is a good boy. What a shame that Mr. Peck (I have a hard time calling him
"Representative" since he's done little to represent the people of District 11
since he was elected), was not able to account for his actions on his own. The
fact remains that no matter how he tries to sugar coat it he only supported our
troops when it meant a boon for his business, the Insurance industry!
As for Mr. Miller, what a nice ad you ran in the paper too bad that when you
spun it the weave did not hold together. At no time did anyone say that the
legislature acted “illegally“, no not at all. The legislature acted
irresponsibly and unconstitutionally and that is why the Supreme Court had to
step in. But the conservative Republicans think that they should not have to be
accountable to anyone. Here is the truth of the matter that Mr. Miller did not
include in his ad; Miller and Peck both refused to support school finance
without a constitutional amendment that would limit the Supreme courts power.
They have both voted against all compromise education bills. They did vote for a
Conservative education bill that was approximately $86 million, but included a
lot of gimmicks and also required passage of a constitutional amendment before
taking effect (really nothing more than an attempt to coerce support for the
amendment). We are glad that all “your children” are educated but what about the
rest of Kansas children?
Senator Derek Schmidt receives an "at-a-boy" for putting our children first and
working with Democrats and Moderate Republicans to present a package that
supported our schools and accounted for the financing of the same without tax
increases. To bad Miller, Peck and the rest of the conservative Republicans had
to rip it to shreds. Mr. Peck said that he found the bill that was finally
approved, "Fiscally Irresponsible", I guess he considered it "Fiscally
Responsible" to have to be ordered into special session costing the taxpayers
money because the conservative House didn't do for our children what should have
been done to begin with.
James A. George and Debra K. Peck George
For More Information Contact:
PLURIBUSUNUM.NET THE FORUM OF DEMOCRACY
P.O. Box 653 - Independence, Kansas67301
Tel: (620) 331-5938
FAX:
Internet:
orator@pluribusunum.net
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