Judge's ruling on special tax was no surprise

It wasn't surprising to the layperson that Lancaster County District Judge Paul Merritt ruled that a tax on property along the Republican River was unconstitutional.

Most of us saw the logic of the Friends of the River lawsuit, which contended that laws enacted in LB701 unfairly and illegally targeted a small group of people to pay for solutions to Kansas' demand for what it thinks is its fair share of water.

Merritt wouldn't go along with the idea of allowing only Republican River Natural Resources Districts to use the special taxing authority.

Neither did most of us who paid the special tax. We didn't sign the Republican River Compact; why should we pay for compliance?

Now it looks like the special property taxes levied by the NRD will be refunded using the occupation tax levied on irrigated acres, which could generate about $12 million a year if the levy is pushed to the maximum of $10 an acre.

But there's no guarantee that tax won't be challenged as well. Friends of the River attorney Rod Confer said as much Tuesday. "It wouldn't be truthful if I said we weren't talking about it," he said of another lawsuit.

We don't want to see the Kansas-Nebraska water conflict drag on any longer than necessary, but the LB701 "solution" always seemed a little too tidy and convenient for the rest of the state, which was taken off the hook.

The signing of the Republican River Compact in 1943 committed the entire state to complying with its provisions. Sixty-five years later, nothing about that basic obligation has changed.