Wichita Eagle: State Government

Economist Arthur Laffer says tax cuts will help Kansas grow

BRENT D. WISTROM — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 20:45 CDT

Gov. Sam Brownback and his celebrity tax policy consultant, Arthur Laffer, said Tuesday that the income tax cuts Kansas lawmakers approved earlier this year will drive growth and make Kansas more competitive with surrounding states.

Laffer told more than 200 people at a small-business forum at Johnson County Community College that there is a war among states over tax policy and that nowhere is that revolution more powerful than in Kansas. He said Kansas’ tax cuts and political shifts will produce “enormous prosperity” for the state.

“It’s not a left-wing, right-wing thing,” Laffer said. “It’s economics.”

Wichita public hearing on gas rate increase set for Thursday

Dion Lefler — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 20:43 CDT

Wichitans will get their chance this week to weigh in on a proposal by Kansas Gas Service to raise rates for residential and small-business customers and reduce rates for bigger businesses.

Kansas Corporation Commission members will come to Wichita on Thursday to hold a public hearing on the gas company’s request for a $32.7 million overall rate increase. The hearing will begin at 6 p.m. at the Wichita Central Library, 223 S. Main.

If approved, the new rates would add about $5.68 a month to the average home customer’s gas bill, according to the company. Customers will pay more in fixed monthly charges and their bills will be less dependent on how much gas they actually use.

New DMV hazard to avoid: double billing with online renewals

Dion Lefler — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 18:08 CST

Add another car-registration hazard to hours-long waits in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles – the possibility of being charged more than once for the same car when you renew on the Internet.

The good news is it’s a problem you can avoid just by being patient.

Sedgwick County officials warned Tuesday that people who register online should not click the button to submit their registration more than once, no matter how long it takes to go through or how locked up the system seems to be.

Changes in liquor laws raise spirits of Kansas bar owners, retailers

Brent D. Wistrom — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 21:11 CDT

TOPEKA Carry Nation would not be pleased.

Kansas, once known as a flashpoint in Nation’s bar-bashing, anti-alcohol crusade and a state where airlines couldn’t serve drinks even while flying 10,000 feet above, is loosening its liquor laws starting Sunday.

Bars will be able to offer happy-hour specials after more than 25 years of being able to reduce prices only if they’d done so for the entire day. Liquor stores will be able to offer unlimited free samples of beer, wine and liquor. And the growing business of microdistilleries will be freed to produce up to 50,000 gallons of booze a year, offer free samples and sell bottles of their product, much as microbreweries have done.

Crowd voices concerns about governor’s Medicaid plan

Fred Mann — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 21:12 CDT

State health officials received a lot of feedback, nearly all of it negative, at a public meeting Monday in Wichita about Gov. Sam Brownback’s plan for Medicaid.

Several hundred people attended the meeting at Wichita State University’s Hughes Metropolitan Complex, 5015 E. 29th St. North, and 36 spoke out about the plan as Robert Moser, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, and Shawn Sullivan, secretary of the Department on Aging, listened.

Brownback’s plan, called KanCare, would move nearly all of the state’s 380,000 Medicaid beneficiaries into managed-care plans run by private insurance companies beginning Jan. 1. State officials have said that will slow the growth of Medicaid costs and save the federal and state governments more than $850 million over five years while improving health outcomes. Five insurance companies have bid for three state contracts.

State Rep. Susan Wagle criticizes subpoenas over governor’s meetings

JOHN HANNA — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 21:15 CDT

TOPEKA – A Wichita Republican accused a Democratic district attorney Tuesday of conducting a “political fishing expedition” for issuing subpoenas to seven legislators to force them to answer questions about private dinner meetings lawmakers had with Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.

Sen. Susan Wagle was among the seven lawmakers subpoenaed late last month in Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor’s investigation of seven dinners in January at Cedar Crest, the governor’s official residence. Brownback invited members of 13 House and Senate committees, including Wagle, almost all of them Republicans.

Taylor spokesman Lee McGowan said Wagle and Sen. Bob Marshall, of Fort Scott, received subpoenas, as did Reps. Steve Brunk of Bel Aire, Anthony Brown of Eudora, Rob Bruchman of Overland Park, Virgil Peck of Tyro, and Scott Schwab of Olathe. Bruchman and Schwab were later released from their subpoenas.

Flurry of briefs filed in Kansas redistricting case after last week’s testimony

Dion Lefler — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 09:24 CDT

Some of the state’s biggest political names have made final attempts to influence a panel of federal judges before they redraw the state’s 179 legislative, congressional and state school board districts.

Gov. Sam Brownback, Secretary of State Kris Kobach and Attorney General Derek Schmidt are urging the court to draw districts that vary in population by less than 2 percent.

State legislators are urging the court to go with – or at least use as a starting point – redistricting maps that made it through at least the House or the Senate. In those maps, the population from district to district varies as much as 9.86 percent.

Glitch lurks in Kansas income tax cuts

BRAD COOPER — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 07:26 CDT

The mammoth new tax bill passed in May was supposed to cut Kansas income taxes and still allow deductions for donations to charity and interest paid on home mortgages.

Well, maybe not.

The tax bill signed into law by Gov. Sam Brownback last month contains a glitch that sends conflicting signals about whether the deductions would be repealed or not, The Kansas City Star has learned.

Judges seem poised to draw their own district maps for Kansas

Dion Lefler — Wed, 30 May 2012 20:47 CDT

– Federal judges deciding the fate of Kansas’ legislative districts sent strong signals Wednesday that they might jettison plans that didn’t make it through the Legislature and draw their own district maps.

On the second day of hearings in the Kansas City courthouse, the three-judge panel spent significant time pressing Corey Carnahan – the Legislature’s go-to guy on maps – for details of how redistricting is done and how they could take advantage of his services.

The hearings had begun Tuesday with Carnahan, an analyst in the Department of Legislative Services, giving the court a primer on the use of mapping software to develop legislative districts.

Patience wears thin with delays at driver’s license, tag offices

Deb Gruver — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 18:08 CST

Sighing, grumbling and in some cases, swearing, about 150 people stood, or sat, in line Tuesday to try to get new or renewed driver’s licenses at Twin Lakes near 21st and Amidon. Meanwhile, just south of there, the scene was repeated as dozens of people waited hours at the main Sedgwick County tag office for vehicle tags or registrations.

No one was happy.

The Kansas Department of Revenue is working out kinks in a new system that state leaders say eventually will save time by combining data about Kansans’ driver’s licenses and vehicle registration. The state’s driver’s license stations and tag offices were closed the first week of May so workers could transfer 6.8 million records to the new $40 million system.

Court allows lawmakers, voters to intervene in redistricting suit

Mon, 21 May 2012 18:39 CDT

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Three federal judges who will set new political boundaries for Kansas ruled Monday that at least 13 people — including a congressman, two state lawmakers and two Wichita businessmen — will be allowed to participate in a lawsuit over the Legislature’s failure to approve any redistricting plans.

Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the defendant in the case, had asked the court to limit who could intervene. He asked the judges initially to reject requests from seven people, including Senate Reapportionment Committee Chairman Tim Owens, R-Overland Park, a key figure in the Legislature’s impasse over redistricting.

U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder, a freshman Republican who represents the 3rd Congressional District in the Kansas City metropolitan area, filed his request to intervene just hours before Monday’s hearing. The other legislator allowed to intervene is House Minority Leader Paul Davis, D-Lawrence. Kobach didn’t object to his involvement.

What passed, what failed in the 2012 Legislature

Brent D. Wistrom — Sun, 20 May 2012 22:23 CDT

Here’s a look at some things the Legislature passed — and some it didn’t — during its 99-day session.

Key issues

With tax cuts and budget deal, Kansas Legislature finishes session

Brent D. Wistrom — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 09:54 CDT

TOPEKA – Kansans can expect income tax cuts, a little more education funding and, if the economy doesn’t grow quickly, significant cuts in state services as a result of one of the most politically divisive legislative sessions in recent history.

But lawmakers failed to give a full endorsement to any new political boundaries, leaving the redistricting issue up to the courts after nearly a year of debate, piles of proposed maps and political fights that damaged relationships among Republicans.

Lawmakers slammed the final gavel of a grueling 99-day session late Sunday afternoon, and Gov. Sam Brownback is expected to sign this year’s most significant bill sometime this week.

Late-night budget deal gives $40 million more to Kansas schools

BRENT D. WISTROM — Sun, 20 May 2012 11:35 CDT

TOPEKA – State lawmakers reached a compromise late Saturday night that would mean $40 million more in spending for schools.

The budget deal comes after a series of stalemates on issues all day Saturday, including education, as moderate Republicans sought to lock in more money for schools and conservatives pushed for education policy changes sought by Gov. Sam Brownback.

Earlier, the Senate rejected a wide-ranging offer from Brownback that sought to end the session by giving the Senate the education funding and budget deals it sought in exchange for approval of a batch of redistricting maps and an alternative tax-cut plan that wouldn’t hit the state’s budget as hard as the massive tax-cut bill sitting on Brownback’s desk.

Kansas to merge arts, film groups; arts funding uncertain

JOHN HANNA — Sat, 12 May 2012 19:16 CDT

– While Kansas plans to overhaul its arts agency this summer to focus it on generating new jobs, state funding for arts programs remained uncertain as legislators continued discussing budget issues Saturday.

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback signed a bill Thursday to merge the Arts and Film Services Commission into a new Creative Arts Industries Commission in the state Department of Commerce. But his proposed $14.1 billion budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 included only $200,000 for the new commission, and he hasn’t said whether he’ll approve more money than he originally proposed.

Last year, the governor vetoed all state dollars for the Arts Commission, making Kansas the only state to eliminate funding for arts programs.

Kansas House pushes through tax-cut plan, sidelines compromise bill

BRENT D. WISTROM and DION LEFLER — Thu, 10 May 2012 07:52 CDT

TOPEKA – Gov. Sam Brownback said he’s ready to sign a major tax-cut plan that is projected to plunge the state’s budget into a $270 million deficit in 2014 and cascade to a $2 billion hole within a few years.

The plan eliminates income taxes on 191,000 businesses, cuts individual tax rates and allows six-tenths of a cent of sales tax to expire next year as planned.

Backers say it will spur job growth, but opponents say it is likely to force drastic cutbacks to state services.

Wichita lawmaker floats idea of selling KU Hospital

Brent D. Wistrom — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 09:24 CDT

TOPEKA -- Rep. Gene Suellentrop, R-Wichita, this evening offered an amendment to study the viability of selling the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City.

But he withdrew it after House Speaker Mike O'Neal, R-Hutchinson, called it a "bad idea" that wasn't discussed with House Republicans until the late hours of a nine-hour budget debate.

The idea has been floated in the past, but has never gained traction.

Kansas House adds more money for schools, passes budget

Brad Cooper — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 09:24 CDT

TOPEKA — The Kansas Legislature moved closer to increasing funding for education Tuesday when it approved a plan to add $50 million to elementary and secondary education.

The House voted 99-17 to add the money to a $14 billion budget that it started debating midday Tuesday and passed about 11:30 p.m. The vote to pass the budget was 77-44.

The education money approved by the House sets the chamber up to negotiate with the Senate, which last week put $77 million into education for the fiscal year starting July 1.

Bill would give state contractors incentive to hire workers with disabilities

BRENT D. WISTROM — Tue, 08 May 2012 06:55 CDT

The state might be able to move some people with disabilities off its troubled waiting lists if it creates a new program that gives state contractors an incentive to hire people with disabilities.

A program being considered by the Senate Ways and Means Committee would give contractors that employ people on the physical or developmentally disabled waiting lists — and that have at least 20 percent employees with disabilities — a better shot at getting state contracts.

Those certified companies would win state contracts as long as their bids were within 10 percent of the lowest qualifying bid.

House committee advances proposed $14 billion Kansas budget

Tue, 01 May 2012 19:03 CDT

TOPEKA – A Kansas House panel on Tuesday finished writing a proposed $14 billion state budget for the fiscal year that starts in July.

The House Appropriations Committee made its final changes to the plan, which also contains supplemental funding sought by Gov. Sam Brownback for the current budget year, including $24.6 million for public schools.

Committee chairman Marc Rhoades, R-Newton, said the House will probably debate the bill next week, although the chamber could take it up later this week. Rhoades said other issues, including the confrontation between House and Senate Republican leaders over redistricting, were complicating the timing of the debate.