Moratorium on road use

The citizens of Washington, Clay, Dickinson, Marion, Butler, and Cowley counties have a new neighbor coming in the near future. This new neighbor, Keystone/TransCanada, is buying valuable easements in each county so as to connect a pipeline from Canada with the ultimate goal of Cushing, Oklahoma and perhaps on to the Texas Gulf Coast. As new residents of six Kansas counties Keystone/TransCanada has the right to expect the use of roads for construction on the project and will continue to use county roads in monitoring and maintenance activities during the life of the pipeline. They will also want the security and protection provided by law enforcement, fire protection, sanitation and all  the other services that counties provide the residents. There is a problem with our new neighbor: Keystone/Trans-Canada is claiming a property tax exemption for at least 10 years. They say it was provided by a law, KSA 79-227, that was passed in 2006. When this issue first came to light by action from the Dickinson County Commission I made contact with Kansas State Senator Jay Emler, and he stated that while the law offered an exemption to pipelines, Keystone/TransCanada had not met the conditions imposed to claim the exemption. 
This morning I spoke to Mr. Jim Prescott, a spokesman for Keystone/TransCanada, and he said that they do indeed have an exemption from property taxes in the six counties.
Keystone/TransCanada is a private for-profit foreign company that should have the ability to pay its fair share of property taxes.  In an otherwise down economy, companies in the oil business have enjoyed record profits, and the future looks bright for their continuing success.  I think we can clear up this misunderstanding with some communication between the Kansas Legislature and Keystone/TransCanada.  In the meantime I propose that the governmental units in the six counties place a moratorium on road use agreements, conditional-use permits, eminent-domain proceedings, and any other pipeline related permits until a satisfactory solution is found to the property tax problem.

I am a private citizen who wanted to make my opinion known to the main players in this issue, so I called them up on the phone for a chat.  If anyone else would like to do so, Mr. Jim Prescott can be reached at 708-488-1881 by phone or 708-717-2110 cell, you can offer suggestions on why it is fair for his company to pay property taxes like the rest of us.  The law that exempted the property taxes had its birth in the Senate and House Energy Committees seemingly without much consultation with the Counties affected.  To discuss this issue one can call the Chairman of the Kansas State Senate Energy Committee, Jay Emler, at 620-241-2910 or Chairman of the Kansas House of Representatives Energy Committee, Carl Holmes, at 620-624-7361.

Harry E. Bennett
Marion