New Tax Information

Tax and population data is out for the State of Kansas, and the news is not great for the Southeast region (“SEK”). Take a look at the following chart which compares recent statistics of ten SEK counties:

The bad news is that SEK loses about 83 people a year, about 8 of which move out of Bourbon County. The good news is that Bourbon County had the highest average levy a few years ago, and now is down to 3^rd out of the 10 counties; our levy has been lowered slightly in recent years, while surrounding counties have continued to increase theirs. Additionally, our countywide debt is lower than the average SEK county.

Notice that two of the three counties with the lowest average levies experienced the lowest percentage of population loss. The exception is Cherokee County, which is experiencing other cultural issues; additionally, their levy is low because their assessed valuation is relatively high.

The two challenges ahead for Bourbon County are to raise our total assessed valuation by attracting new construction, and continuing to lower the mill levy until we are not in the upper half of this list. We cannot think about competing with the rest of Kansas and Western Missouri for economic development if we do not compare well with our neighbors in SEK. These two objectives will be the focus of Bourbon County REDI in the coming years.

At this year’s Christmas family reunion, we played the “Name That Song” game. Twenty-four individual, cartoon-graphic images were printed on a single piece of paper, each representing a different Christmas carol, and points were awarded for the couple with the most correctly-named songs within a ten-minute period.

For example, one picture showed “O’s” stacked as a Christmas tree. The correct answer? “Oh Christmas tree.” Most weren’t quite so easy. This was one that caused problems: ABCDEFGHIJKMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ. As I walked from room to room, a twenty-two-year-old couple kept reading those letters aloud…over and over again.

One time through should be sufficient, but my granddaughter, Britney, and her boyfriend, Cole, could not figure it out. “There is no ‘L.’ There must be a clue in that somewhere.”

They had answered much more difficult pictures but had completely missed this one. How was that possible? When time was up and we congregated to hear the correct answers, they could not believe that they had failed to answer something so obvious.

“We kept saying ‘no L’ but never put it together that the answer was ‘Noel.’” Another couple had done likewise.

Have you ever missed the obvious? I sure have. I don’t see the Christmas tree farm for the firs.

That’s what happened when, following a Sunday service one morning, a church congregant asked the pastor this question: “If you were stranded on a desert island and could only have one book, which book would it be, and why?” The pastor answered with his “obvious”: The Bible because “it would give me spiritual strength to get through the challenge of being alone on a desert island.”

He asked his questioner what he would choose. The answer was immediate. “I would want a book titled ‘How to Build a Boat.'” The pastor realized his mistake. After all, they were in a church when the question was asked. Surely a spiritual answer was expected.

Unfortunately, the pastor missed the obvious. If God sent that marooned man a Bible, he probably would have remained on the island. While it may not have cost much for the pastor to miss the obvious, it can cost us everything.

Following Jesus’ death, he appeared to two disciples on their way home from his execution. Downtrodden, they were appalled when Jesus asked them why they were so sad. After all, everyone knew that the one they believed would be their king had been crucified. Who wouldn’t be heartbroken?

It’s a Biblical mystery as to how they didn’t recognize the Messiah until he later broke bread with them at which time their eyes were open and Jesus’ resurrection became real to them.

Over the holidays, a granddaughter said that she wondered how many times she, as a child, had missed what God was doing in her life, how many times He saved her from disaster or even favored her but she took credit. I told her that I think that when we get to Heaven, we all will be overwhelmed by stories God shares about how much He was involved in our lives, and we never recognized it or gave Him credit.

I pray that 2022 is filled with opportunities to become aware of all the ways God is working in our lives. Just being aware will help us not miss the obvious.