Topcity: Jenkins Claims "Life's Not Fair"; Topeka Voters Agree

Copied and pasted straight from Topcity.org. Their site is fabulous and so is this wonderful, wonderful rant:

Ms. Jenkins, the Kansas Treasurer and challenger to Rep. Boyda’s house seat, declared at a meeting in Topeka, October 27th, that “life’s not fair.”

Ms. Jenkins was responding to Commissioner Miller of Topeka’s question as to why some Kansas counties would be “unduly enriched” by over payments in fuel tax revenue. Shawnee County, which Commissioner Miller represents, would barely be breaking even on the colossal fiscal blunder.

This massive mistake was caused by a miscalculation in computer software, and had been ongoing for nearly nine years. Jenkins, who “discovered” the software screw up in April, waited two more months to notify the counties of the problem, apparently being too busy running for a national election to worry about her duties to Kansas as the state Treasurer.

Apparently, the current talking points out of the Jenkin’s camp is that “life’s not fair” when an elected official wastes millions in state funds. Similarly, this ambiguous psuedo-aphorism also applies to the failure of Ms. Jenkins to make a timely notification of the pernicious problem (both for the state and her political future) when it was discovered.

Because life’s not fair, and Ms. Jenkins couldn’t hide in a political fallout shelter while slogging down the campaign trail in April and May.

And life is also unfair for Ms. Jenkin’s partisan supporters, a faithful group of loyal Republicans, who have watched in horror as Ms. Jenkins pried up the floorboards of fiscal conservatism from the party platform, smashed the time-honored planks into kindling and then torched her and the Kansas Republican Party’s credibility on the issue in a media bonfire.

But fear not. Topcity Magazine feels that life is fair sometimes. One of those times will be November 4th, where hopefully Ms. Jenkins will receive the vote from Topekans and other Kansans she deserves. If life truly is fair, people will recognize the missed KPERS meetings, the fuel tax overpayment and the gross incompetence of its handling.

And maybe they’ll remember the utterly insensitive, self-serving retort of “Life’s not fair” from a defensive elected official too busy worrying about the job she’s trying to get instead of the job she was elected to do.

Amen!

Jenkins on Tax Mismanagement: Counties "should never have been notified"

The tangled web of state Treasurer Lynn Jenkins' mismanagement of state motor fuel tax dollars got even more tangled yesterday when Topeka-area government officials had what the Topeka Capital-Journal called a "terse" meeting with the embattled Jenkins, during which she made it clear she had no interest in accountability and even going so far as to say the counties have no right to know so much they're been shorted or overcompensated.

Oh, and she also left the door open for massive tax increases to fix her mistake.

That from a women who seeks a higher office that requires an even greater commitment to oversight and openness than the one she currently holds.

While that attitude from Jenkins is deeply troubling, her proposal as to how the legislature should fix her failing is much worse- at least in a pocketbook sense.

Kansas Treasurer Lynn Jenkins vowed Monday to urge the 2009 Legislature to compensate counties shorted millions of dollars in state fuel tax revenue and avoid the political agony of seeking reimbursement from overpaid counties.

Shawnee County Commissioner Vic Miller and Topeka Mayor Bill Bunten, who attended a periodically terse meeting in Topeka with Jenkins, said the state treasurer's proposal would allow some counties to cling to huge financial windfalls.

"Why should they be unjustly enriched?" Miller said. "We might get what we should have been paid, but they will have received more than they should have."

"Life's not fair," Jenkins replied. "What I'm worried about is moving forward, and that will be my recommendation."

Just so we're clear on what our petulant child of a state treasurer wants to do: The Jenkins Plain will compensate the counties who have been shorted, but will not require repayment from counties who got more than they were due.

Where will all of those millions come from? It will almost definitely require increased taxes or significant cuts in state spending.

How would Lynn like to pay for it? Mums the word. That Jenkins will push off the hard choices to the State Legislature, while it was her office's blunder, is telling as to her lack of leadership ability and a quite sad coming from home who harps about accountability and diligence on the campaign trail.

There's lots more in the article regarding Jenkins' basic lack of interest in open government and public accountability for the actions of her office. Read on:

Jenkins said she chose not to voluntarily distribute to county officials a detailed report on which jurisdictions were overpaid and underpaid in 2008. She said she withheld the information to avoid a "feeding frenzy" by counties that might engage in battles with other counties over the fuel tax money.

Read: Jenkins won't tell anyone what they're due because, gee, they might get upset and ask for it. Probably not a position the local government involved will be willing to take lying down, and, oh, look! Members of local government unwilling to take that lying down were in the room with her when she said it!

During the meeting in Wagnon's office in Topeka, Miller sought a full report on all 105 counties.

"What is your interest in every other county?" Jenkins said.

"I believe that is public information that would be vital to each and every Kansas county," Miller said.

Jenkins dismissed his concern, saying "some people are bright enough to understand that it's not something we should concern ourselves with."

WHAT ON EARTH? "Some people are bright enough to understand that it's not something we should concern ourselves with"?!?!!? Did she honestly say that local governments shouldn't be concerned with the fact they've been either underpaid or overpaid by her office for years? She can't have actually said that, because to deny something so obvious would be evidence of a total disconnect from reality.

It continues, though, and it's obvious that is actually what our dear state treasurer believes:

Miller said he remained unsatisfied with the flow of information to counties about the mix-up.

"You should never have been notified," Jenkins said.

"Why is that?" Miller said.

"My hope is that you're not shorted — that you're going to be made whole," Jenkins said. "We're hoping it's irrelevant to the discussion."

The amount you've been shorted, counties, is "irrelevant to the discussion." Can you believe that?

Can you believe she actually thinks no one should be concerned about the amount of money misappropriated?

Of course every single county government and every single member of the state legislature is deeply, deeply concerned with the actual amounts of money concerned in this disaster- because someone is going to have to pay to fix this mess.

Does Lynn Jenkins just not understand that?

AP Analysis: Jenkins' Vagueness Hurts Her

As reported by the Lawrence Journal-World, Lynn Jenkins waved around a piece of paper with two paragraphs of a "plan" to slash $310 billion out of the federal budget during her debate in Lawrence against Congresswoman Nancy Boyda. While Jenkins said during the debate it was her "plan" that she had been "working" on, in reality, the plan was constructed by The Heritage Foundation and would, if enacted, cut billions from federal support for rural school and eliminate Perkins Loans- college loans given to high school graduates who couldn't afford college otherwise.

Since the debate, though, Jenkins has been mum on any new details.

Jenkins provided the outlines of her proposal during a televised debate nearly two weeks ago, giving reporters a half-page summary after the event ended. Since then, her campaign for the 2nd Congressional District seat hasn't filled in more details.

Why isn't she providing details? Two reasons: She probably doesn't have any and, even if she does, she's scared offering them would open her to more attacks from Boyda & the press.

She has reasons not to go beyond the broad outlines, of course. The more details she offers, the more Boyda can criticize what Jenkins is proposing - and the more voters can get lost in the nuts and bolts, pulling their attention away from Jenkins' bigger themes. Jenkins also has limited time and staff resources for hashing out the wonky stuff while raising money and making campaign appearances.

'Course, Boyda & Kansas voters have already caught on to Jenkins' lack of substance.

Boyda, seeking her second term in her eastern Kansas district, dismisses Jenkins' proposal, saying that many voters already have concluded, "There's nothing to it."

"Why doesn't she go out there and put some detail behind this?" Boyda said. "People expected more from Lynn Jenkins. Really, in the long run, it's not serving her well."

A few more kernels from the article:

Which position is more reasonable?

The Republican challenger argues that Congress should make permanent the tax relief pushed by President Bush during his first term. Boyda has said she wants to preserve tax relief for the middle class, but that Congress must consider closing loopholes for the wealthy and big corporations before tackling cuts in spending on important programs.

Pretty clear to us.

And, this golden gem:

Still, Jenkins promises to go through the federal budget, line by line, to find savings, and she says as a CPA, she is trained for such work.

Oh right, Lynn, just like you were SO careful with the Kansas budget...how many millions have we mismanaged? How many millions do you owe Shawnee County? How many extra tens of thousands did you give Riley?

Another County Realizes Jenkins Screwed Them

Newspapers and county commissions all over the state are continuing to turn their attention to the multi-million dollar blunder that has been state Treasurer Lynn Jenkins' management of Kansas motor fuel taxes- today's article comes to us from Sumner County:

During the debate, Boyda said Jenkins should have sorted out the issue long before entering her sixth year as treasurer. And, Boyda said, recipients of revenue sharing had a right to forthright disclosure of the situation.

"Have you contacted the county commissioners to let them know?" Boyda asked Jenkins during a debate last Tuesday night at KSNT-TV.

Josh Hersh, spokesman for Jenkins' congressional campaign, said Jenkins "notified all relevant parties"

Oh, really, Josh? That's not what the good folk of Sumner County would tell you:

According to the latest information from the state, $10,805.29 is owed to Sumner County in fuel-tax revenue, but officials in the County seemed to have no idea of it.

“Really? Oh, I didn’t know anything about that,” said an official in the treasurer’s office.

[...]

Officials in Sumner County aren’t sure when they will receive the money owed them, but assured the public, “We will be looking into this. We didn’t know anything about it.”

Fine, Josh, Jenkins might have told Governor Sebelius and the Republican Party leadership in Topeka about her failings, but she didn't let the people who really needed to know- the county commissioners and the taxpayers of Kansas- until months and months later.

“Basically for six years, (Jenkins) wrote checks to the wrong people. Then, once they finally found out, it took her then another two months to tell counties about it, and even after that, it took her another four months to tell counties how much they were owed or how much they might owe. Even then, when she finally got around to announcing it, she got her numbers wrong. And she told all the counties that had been overpaid that they were underpaid and vice versa,” said spokesperson Tom Seay, an aide for Boyda.

Shocking- particularly coming from a person running based on her qualifications as a CPA- and stunningly irresponsible.

Oh, also- there might be more of a bombshell yet to hit. Remember, this isn't a new mistake, and the amounts paid over and under what were owed only deal with the most recent fiscal year- just wait until we see the total damage for the whole of Jenkins' term.

We'll have to wait to see that, though, because Lynn's office doesn't know what the number is yet.

After the election, right, Lynn?

Lynn Jenkins Campaign Manager Now Speaks for State Legislature, Too

Ever since the story broke that Lynn Jenkins has mismanaged tens of millions of Kansas tax dollars over the course of the last six years, the Jenkins campaign has been desperately trying to blame anyone other than Lynn Jenkins herself for a mistake that has resulted in increased taxes all over Kansas.

So much for the buck stopping with you, huh, Lynn? Is that "New Republican Leadership?"

“Now she’s saying it isn’t her job to make sure $15 million in taxpayer dollars goes to the right counties, despite those funds being specifically under her control,” said Kansas Democatic Party executive director Mike Gaughan. “For an accountant, Lynn Jenkins seems to have zero interest in accountability.”

One of the really scary problems counties face now is what will happen next. Jenkins says her failure will get corrected by state legislature (Why? Why on Earth should the Legislature fix an Executive Branch screw-up?), and that it's all out of her hands. The only facts we actually know are that dozens of counties were overpaid millions by the state, and dozens more are due millions of dollars from the state.

Don't worry to much, though, because today in the Manhattan Mercury, Lynn's campaign manager Patrick Leopold offered some fortune telling that should reassure counties statewide.

Leopold did say, however, that overpaid counties, such as Riley, "can safely assume that they (the state legislature) will not ask for the money back."

How in the world can anyone "safely assume" anything like that?

We'd say, actually, you can safely assume the exact opposite of what Mr. Leopold is saying, and that, in about five months, the legislature will have its collective hand out in front of each of the overpaid counties asking for the funds back- so the state can then turn around and cut checks to the counties still due millions. Counties like Riley and Osage and Wilson and Jackson will get to pay the "Lynn Jenkins Screw-Up Tax" at the tune of tens of thousands of dollars a pop while taxpayers in Shawnee and Douglas and Leavenworth counties might have actually seen lower taxes for the last six years- had Ms. Jenkins been doing her job.

It's obvious the Jenkins Campaign is in overdrive in an attempt to smooth this disaster over, but one thing is for certain: Lynn Jenkins, CPA, let a massive error go unnoticed in her office for six years. We simply can't trust her enough to send her to Washington, DC.

Across the District: Jenkins Misappropriation Costs Counties Millions

Newspapers across the state have exploded with stories about Lynn Jenkins failure to properly manage state motor fuel taxes, and local officials are scrambling to make up for her massive mistake.

From the Pittsburg Morning Sun:

When financial times are tough, as they seem to be nationwide these days, any revenue is good revenue.

So when Bourbon County Commissioner Bill Brittain was told on Monday that his county was recently shorted more than $1,400 in state fuel tax revenue, he was quite concerned.

"This is a very tight budget year," he said. "So any revenue that we can collect that is uncollected... those all add up. We definitely would like any revenue we can get."

Bourbon County joined Crawford County as part of the 65 counties statewide that were shorted during this year's fuel tax revenue distribution from the state. Crawford County is owed approximately $7,900.

On the flip side, Cherokee County was one of 40 counties that received too much fuel tax revenue and could possibly be forced to pay back the extra amount. Cherokee County received roughly $5,400 too much.

[...]

“Ultimately, the Legislature will determine and make a policy decision on the overpayments and the underpayments,” Wagaman said. “It’s clearly a situation the Legislature wants to have hearings and take action on.”

But not a situation that Rep. Julie Menghini, D-Pittsburg, said she wanted to see. Menghini said it was good news that Crawford County didn’t owe money, though she said she wasn’t sure how the Legislature would proceed.

“It’s going to be a delicate balancing act with the counties that were underpaid,” Menghini said. “And hopefully we don’t do too much damage to the counties that were overpaid.

“I don’t see why it’s a Legislative issue when the treasurer’s office made the mistake,” she said.

Rep. Bob Grant, D-Cherokee, was more succinct in his analysis.

“Stuff rolls downhill,” Grant said. “So I guess we’re at the bottom of the hill.”

Grant said he also wasn’t sure why it was the Legislature’s problem.

“We allocated the money, but it was up to (the treasurer) to make the distribution,” Grant said. “I don’t know if leadership is trying to take the heat off Lynn Jenkins at this (election) time or what it is.

From the Manhattan Mercury:

For Riley County, what started out looking like a windfall Friday afternoon might have become a shortfall instead.

According to a report in the Topeka Capital-Journal Saturday, Riley County commissioner Mike Kearns received a phone call Friday morning from Capital reporter Tim Carpenter informing him that the state Treasurer Lynn Jenkins' office had made an error in calculating the shared fuel tax earnings for 2008. According to the reporter, Riley County was due $70,000 in back revenue.

That news quickly turned to frustration, however, when Carpenter called Kearns back later that afternoon. After talking to the treasurer's office, Carpenter reported that Jeff Wagaman, the assistant state treasurer, had misread the spreadsheet and incorrectly told the newspaper that Riley County had been underpaid for its 2008 gas tax figures, when in fact it had actually been overcompensated by $70,000.

[...]

Kearns told the Mercury Saturday that he is "still trying to figure out exactly what side of the issue" Riley County is on, and expressed frustration over the fact that the treasurer's office had not notified the county of the problem themselves.

"You get the money from the state and you bank that they do their bookkeeping properly," he said, adding that he would "not be pleased" if the state asked for the $70,000 back. "I don't know where this will go, but we'll just have to work it out."

[...]

Representatives from Jenkins' office were unavailable for comment.

From the Topeka Capital-Journal:

Shawnee County Commissioner Vic Miller says the state owes Shawnee County about $3 million and wants to know why there is any question about whether the state will pay the money.

"If we had had the money in hand a couple of months ago, we could have given the taxpayers an even bigger refund than we did," Miller said.

[...]

Miller has said Shawnee County was shorted $1 million last year alone. He also believes the county missed out on similar amounts in 2006 and 2007.

He said cities and townships in Shawnee County especially would benefit because more than half of the total owed to Shawnee County would be passed along to the county's townships and cities.

From the Lawrence Journal-World:

Douglas County has been shorted $340,000, and possibly much more, because of an error in calculation of state gas tax reimbursements to counties, officials said Monday.

[...]

Some counties got too much, and some not enough. Douglas County received too little, as did Shawnee County, $1 million; and Leavenworth County, $192,000.

Jenkins’ office said the error was programmed into the system in 1999 -- three years before she was elected state treasurer. Jenkins has praised her staff for discovering the problem.

Democrats, however, have pounced, saying that the issue undermines Jenkins’ assertion that as a certified public accountant she would be able to rein in the federal budget. She should have caught the mistake earlier, they say.

“Now she’s saying it isn’t her job to make sure $15 million in taxpayer dollars goes to the right counties, despite those funds being specifically under her control,” said Kansas Democatic Party executive director Mike Gaughan. “For an accountant, Lynn Jenkins seems to have zero interest in accountability.”

Fine, Lynn Jenkins hasn't increased any taxes since she was in the state legislature directly- but, through her inaction as state treasurer, Jenkins has increased taxes all over the state as counties have had to make up for funds they should have been receiving from the state. It's ridiculous someone who has managed a department this badly would ever ask anyone to trust her with a new higher stress job.

Lynn Jenkins: Can't be trusted with our Kansas budget, can't be trusted with the federal budget.

Comedy of Depressing Errors at the Treasurer's Office

It just gets worse and worse for Lynn Jenkins (and the people of Kansas)

When the story broke earlier this week that Jenkins has mismanaged tens of millions of Kansas motor fuel tax dollars for more than six years, both shortchanging and overpaying Kansas counties, one of the more shocking bits of the drama was that her office has still not told the counties how much they had either been over- or underpaid.

That was Thursday.

On Friday, the Treasurer's office pushed out the door a spreadsheet with all the amounts all of the counties were misappropriated. Lovely, right?

Oh, don't count your horses before they're hatched there, Billy- remember who's Treasurer's office we're dealing with here: Good Ol' Lynn "Competent" Jenkins- because the spreadsheet sent to the counties inverse all the numbers!

Yes, we know! Can you believe it? And this woman thinks she can handle the federal budget?

Riley County Commissioner Mike Kearns felt like he had struck gold Friday morning when told the state treasurer's office miscalculated fuel tax revenue sharing and shorted the county $70,000 in the past year.

"I'll take that in a heartbeat," he said. "You bet. We can use every dime."

Then, the No. 2 official in Treasurer Lynn Jenkins' office popped Kearns' bubble.

Jeff Wagaman, assistant state treasurer, said Friday afternoon he had incorrectly interpreted a spreadsheet presented earlier to The Topeka Capital-Journal detailing which of 105 counties were improperly enriched or shortchanged when 2008 shares of the fuel tax were split.

Instead of 40 counties, including Riley, embracing a financial windfall, all actually received too much fuel tax cash from Jenkins. Rather than 65 counties scrambling to return money to the state, all were due cash.

"You're kidding me," Kearns said upon hearing of the reversal of fortune. "This is quite phenomenal."

You got that right, buddy- this is a phenomenal error, a screw up of George Bush proportions.

Riley County isn't alone in being hit with this "Lynn Jenkins Mismanagement Tax"- counties in the 2nd District like Linn, Jackson, Nemaha, Neosho, Pottawatomie and poor little Wilson county all owe the state more than $20,000 in overpayments- with Miami county, too, owing the state back almost $70,000.

Like we said when the story hit- no local government anywhere budgeted any money just in case Lynn Jenkins screwed up, so where this money will come from in counties like Wilson County is anyone's guess, though probably in the form of property tax increases in the next budget cycle.

Wilson County coordinator Kris Marple, interviewed when he was under the impression the county was due a bonus of $22,500, said it might be difficult for counties to return fuel tax revenue they weren't legitimately entitled to spend.

He said flooding the past two years in Wilson County had torn through the budget for road and bridge repair, and all available funding streams had been tapped to address trouble spots.

"We've pinched every penny," Marple said. "We've looked around every corner and looked under every rug."

Folks in counties like Wilson County only wish Lynn Jenkins would have been as careful with money as they are.

As to the counties on the other end, counties like Shawnee, which was shorted more than $1 million through Jenkins' lax accounting, are in a much better position- though who knows how much lower the taxes could be in those counties had they been receiving the correct amount of money from the state all these years.

We will, of course, give Lynn the credit she is due: Tim Shallenburger was the horrible state treasuruer who created this mess- but CPA extraordinataire Lynn Jenkins, Lynn Jenkins who we're supposed to trust with cleaning up Washington, DC, took six years to find the error, waited 2 months to tell the counties there was one, and then waited another 4 months to tell them what they were liable for- only to then have to turn around and say, "Wait, no, we can't read a spreadsheet."

It's sad and it's embarrassing and makes it devestatingly clean we can't trust Lynn Jenkins in Washington.


For a full listing of what each Kansas county is owed or owes back to the state click here.

Jenkins Sat on Fund Mess-up for Two Months

From not showing up to KPERS meetings while the fund was losing $1 billion to waving around a plan to cut funds for rural Kansas schools and student loans to mismanaging $15 million in taxes, Lynn Jenkins is proving more and more she's just really, really bad with money.

From today's Topeka Capital-Journal:

State Treasurer Lynn Jenkins made no effort to inform Kansas counties upon the initial discovery of a state computer blunder that led to misallocation of an undetermined portion of $22.5 million in fuel tax revenue and vehicle registration fees shared with county governments, officials said Wednesday.

The Topeka Republican said a software miscue introduced into the treasurer's computer system nearly a decade ago had gone undetected until April. For nine years, the glitch shortchanged or overpaid counties receiving shares of $2.5 million annually allocated to them, but a full accounting of mistaken payments doesn't exist.

If that's not unbelievable enough from a woman harping about on-the-job diligence when it comes to her opponent, read on:

Josh Hersh, spokesman for Jenkins' congressional campaign, said Jenkins "notified all relevant parties" about the computer malfunction by sending letters April 18 to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and leaders of the House and Senate. Another spokeswoman for Jenkins said a two-sentence statement, along with the letter to Sebelius, was simultaneously dropped in mail boxes of Statehouse reporters. It didn't result in any newspaper, radio or television coverage.

"Of course," Jenkins said, "none of the press found it worthy to report on."

It wasn't until June that the state treasurer's office systematically informed county officials about problems made in calculating distribution of payments, said Jeff Wagaman, assistant state treasurer. By that time, a private audit paid for by the treasurer's office had affirmed allocations to counties were wrong.

So, they knew in April the error existed and that for six years of the Jenkins administration they had been either shortchanging or underpaying counties across the state. She told the Governor (good girl, Lynn) and some legislative leaders, and then slide a two-line nothing into the drawers of the state government press pool. Story effectively made too small to notice- move on to the next step: Do nothing. Then, in June- months later- finally tell the counties you've been screwing up for years and years, all the while hoping it doesn't becoming public because lord knows you don't want to do anything to jeopardize you little run for higher office.

But, at least, in June we all know there's a mistake and it's been rectified, right? Oh, don't you betcha...

Wagaman said the 2008 annual payment to counties also was made in June. It was based on the old, faulty calculation scheme rather than a corrected formula.

Oh, good. Just keeping doing it wrong. Jenkins has told all the counties how much the either owe to the state or are owed from the state at least, right?

No spreadsheet has been produced by the treasurer's office denoting shortfalls and overpayments since 1999, Wagaman said.

Oh, no! Again with the failing!

But, gosh, she'll at least take the credit for screwing it all up for SIX FRIGGIN' YEARS, right?

A fact sheet distributed Wednesday by the Jenkins' campaign assigned blame to her predecessor as treasurer, Tim Shallenburger, nongovernment auditors hired by the state and the Kansas Department of Revenue. Some statistics transferred to the treasurer from the revenue department were wrong, Jenkins said.

Mike Gaughan, executive director of the Kansas Democratic Party, said statements by Jenkins and her campaign staff pointed a finger at everyone but the GOP candidate.

"For an accountant," Gaughan said, "Lynn Jenkins seems to have zero interest in accountability."

To say the least, Mr. Gaughan, to say the least.

For six years Lynn Jenkins- who promises to go to Washington and "clean house," had a huge, huge ledger book error right under her nose.

Finally, after someone else found it she waited two months before she told the people who really needed to know- our county governments.

Now, because of her inattentiveness, counties might be expected to pay the state treasury back for overpayments Jenkins allowed to happen. What on Earth will Woodson County or Brown County or Linn County do if Lynn Jenkins sends them a letter today that says, "Oh, I'm so sorry, but because I overpayed you for years you owe the state $150,000"? Counties have already crafted their 2009 budgets at this point- if she had acted with due diligence and delivered to them the amount the are either owed from the state or owe back to the state in April, May, or even June of this year, it's possible they wouldn't be faced with the potentially disastrous choice of paying for Lynn's error or funding necessary county projects.

This kind of lax attention to her duties as treasurer are simply unacceptable, and she owes every county government and every single Kansas taxpayer an apology for dedicating her time and efforts to running for Congress rather than the job she has right now.

With this horrible mismanagement of state money, and the fact she couldn't be bothered to even show up to meetings of the KPERS Board of Trustees while a $1 billion loss was happening, it is just amazing Lynn Jenkins would dare to ask us to trust her with our federal tax dollars.

How could she be this bad at her job in Topeka and expect to get sent to Washington, DC?

Boyda vs. Jenkins Round Three

After three debates, it's pretty obvious there's not much love lost between our little candidates for Congress. Regardless of the all of the fireworks, Congresswoman Nancy Boyda again showed herself to be the more knowledgeable and the more professional of the two woman running in the Kansas 2nd.

We aren't going to do a point-by-point (we did that over on Twitter- ain't the interwebs fun?), but we do have a couple of highlights we'd like to return to:

• Earmarks: Boyda and Jenkins went round and round again on earmarks, and we all should, again, come away with the same basic points: Lynn Jenkins will make sure KU and K-State don't receive federal monies for research programs, she'll make sure places like Iola don't get help building new water treatment facilities designed to provide clean drinking water to her would-be constituents, and she will make sure our law enforcement officials don't have the new equipment they need to keep us safe. That's the commitment we all got again from Lynn tonight.

• Taxes: Jenkins continued to lie about Nancy Boyda's record in Congress reading taxes. The facts- Boyda hasn't voted to increase taxes on working class Americans even once, while Lynn Jenkins has, in fact, actually vote to raise sales taxes, gasoline taxes, and property taxes. Actually, Lynn's the only person in this race who has ever voted to increase taxes on the middle class. Oh, something else? Those tax increases all came after Jenkins promised she wouldn't raise taxes. So much for that whole pledge thing, huh, Lynn?

• Diligence: Lynn Jenkins promises us that, as a CPA, she's going to go to Washington and "clean things up" and find all kinds of money she can cut from the budget all over the place and use her CPA powers to balance the budget in 18 months...even though she'd be a freshmen member of the minority party who literally everyone will ignore.
  

Anyway, she's going to go to DC and make sweeping reforms and find huge savings for us as taxpayers. Oh...but, Lynn, it took you six years- six years- to discover a formula error in the way our state handles gasoline tax revenues. For six years you mismanaged millions and millions of dollars all because of an error you rightly say you didn't cause- but that you didn't catch either.

So sorry, Lynn, but the Kansas state budget is nothing compared to the federal one, and $15 million is nothing compared to trillions- but, still, if you couldn't find a mistake right under your nose that had been there for six everloving years, how on Earth will you ever find anything buried deep in the federal budget? Even you aren't really that naive.

(Pair that evidence our little CPA is bad at her job with the fact she couldn't even be bothered to attend any of the meetings of the KPERS Board of Trustees for the last quarter- while the state retirement system was losing a $1 billion...she's not just a flawed candidate for Congress, she's a bad State Treasurer).

It's remarkably clear: Lynn Jenkins loses on the issues, she loses on rhetoric, and she even loses when you talk about the job she has right now today! Please, tell me- when you balance the two, how in the world can anyone justify a vote for Lynn Jenkins right now today?

UPDATE: Read more about the debate at the Kansas City Star, the Topeka Capital-Journal and WIBW Channel 13 Topeka. A choice pull from the Cap-J article:

Jenkins said local governments should pay for local projects and responded to Boyda's mention of no Kansas Republicans revealing their earmark requests.

"I'm not running against Todd Tiahrt, or Dennis Moore or Pat Roberts," Jenkins said. "I'm running against Nancy Boyda, and I'm saying you're flat wrong on this issue."

Boyda shot back that Jenkins' "cloak of righteousness" on earmarks would have negative effects locally.

"If you have your way, Kansas will absolutely be the loser in this whole thing," she said.

Yep, Kansas will be out millions of dollars for things like law enforcement equipment, water treatment plants, university research that creates jobs all over the state if Jenkins is our representative in Congress.

Lynn Jenkins is the one who is flat wrong on this issue, and if she got her way, she's hurt Kansas in order to get elected to Congress. That's just wrong.

KS GOP Blogs Stupid: "Nancy's a Poopy Head!"

See, we were going to wait until tomorrow to post something regarding Lynn Jenkins' miserable performance in tonight's debate (and that post is still scheduled to hit tomorrow morning, childrens), but we just couldn't let Christian Morgans inane word vomit over at The Kansas Trunkline (snicker) go without some kind of response.

Mr. Morgan said:

All through the debate, Nancy Boyda disrespected not only Lynn Jenkins, but the hosts and the rules of the debate. It is a small issue, but a clear indication that Nancy Boyda will break any rule and cut every corner to win an election.

Oh, you whiny, infantile little twit! You are the King of Melodramaland, and Prince of False Umbrage. The vanity plate on your car doesn't say "Oh my paws and whiskers," does it?

Are you seriously going to say, as the spokesman for a state-level political party, that the important thing we should all take from tonight's debate is that Nancy Boyda didn't follow the rules and that that means she's a liar and a cheat? Can you really be serious?

First of all, we don't agree with Morgan's very premise. The exact opposite was true- Jenkins interrupted the Congresswoman and tried to talk over her a number of times.

But to flesh this one out, in this race it's obvious only one of the candidates is really willing to "cut every corner to win" and that's Lynn Jenkins.

The fact Jenkins continues to rant, even though she knows it's not true, that Nancy Boyda voted for "the largest tax increase in history" shows she'll lie willfully in order to advance her own ambition. Jenkins rants about the fact Boyda has raised taxes- which isn't true at all- Lynn Jenkins is the only candidate in this race who has raised taxes. Jenkins moans about the fact Boyda left a meeting room for 10 mnutes, but skipped out on every meeting of the KPERS Board while $1 billion vanished AND managed to mismanaged 15 million tax dollars for six years.

It's all the classic bait and switch- Jenkins excells at misdirection...or lying...to the voters.