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A report released last week on improving the state's tax revenue estimates also proposed changing which agency is responsible for preparing the fiscal notes on tax legislation. Currently, the nonpartisan Kansas Legislative Research Department analyzes proposed tax bills in the Legislature to estimate the fiscal impact, positive or negative.
I am a homeowner and do not have children, but I do know we need to take care of the next generation. And if that means tax increases, then so We cannot expect the state of Kansas to run on the generosity of large companies and the wealthy citizens of the state, because it is obviously not working like our governor had hoped.
It's good that 26 GOP state senators and candidates now acknowledge that "Kansas is on the wrong track." And that they now seem at least somewhat open to changing direction on state tax policies.
Two months ago, the Brownback administration asked all state agencies to demonstrate how they would handle a 5 percent budget cut. While administration spokeswoman Eileen Hawley called such requests "a common practice," the state's precarious fiscal situation had many agencies worried that substantial cuts were actually on the way.
The USD 413 Board of Education presented a film canister to a local historian Monday evening during its regular monthly meeting. The film depicts students at Royster Junior High helping in the World War II effort in the 1940s.
If it seems as if the state always misses its tax collection estimates, that's because it's happened a lot lately. August tax collections were $10.2 million less than projected - the 10th month of the past 12 that the state missed its estimates.
A bipartisan council of top legislative leaders and Gov. Sam Brownback on Friday approved a $100,000 settlement inspired by a federal lawsuit against a state agency alleging culpability in child-custody decisions leading to the beating death of a 4-year-old boy. The State Finance Council voted unanimously to authorize payment to the mother of Mekhi Boone, who was killed by his father in 2013.
Expect wailing and gnashing of teeth if the Kansas Supreme Court orders the state to increase funding to K-12 public schools - perhaps by more than $500 million. But the blame for such a ruling should fall squarely on Gov. Sam Brownback and state lawmakers, who put cutting taxes before adequately funding schools.
Two members of the Kansas State Board of Education believe Gov. Sam Brownback needs to take an active leadership role in crafting of the state's next school finance funding formula. Board chairman Jim McNiece said Wednesday during the second day of the board's monthly meeting that he's heartened Brownback recently asked for input from Kansans by the end of November about what should be part of the next funding formula.
Gov. Sam Brownback is not running for the 4th Congressional District seat, but two candidates in the race sought in a Monday night debate to link Rep. Mike Pompeo to Brownback.
Seated between U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins and Gov. Sam Brownback, former Senate Majority Leader and presidential candidate Bob Dole was honored at the Combat Air Museum at Forbes Field on Thursday where a conference room used for the museum's youth education programs was renamed the Bob Dole Education Center.
Four local school districts are asking the Kansas Supreme Court to order the state to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more per year on public schools, in a legal dispute that is shaping state politics and threatening Republican Gov. Sam Brownback's tax-cutting legacy. The justices plan to hear arguments Wednesday from attorneys on whether the Legislature is fulfilling a duty under the state constitution to finance a suitable education for every child.
WASHINGTON - New Jersey welcomed 275 Syrian refugees in the past 12 months, even as the state was one of only two in the nation that refused to help in the resettlement effort. The refugees were among the 11,491 from Syria who settled in the U.S. as President Barack Obama met his goal of accepting 10,000.
Four Kansas Supreme Court justices targeted for ouster in this year's election face anti-incumbent sentiment and a backlash over rulings that overturned death sentences for two brothers convicted of infamous multiple murders. Conservative Republicans hope to give term-limited GOP Gov. Sam Brownback a chance to remake a seven-member court they view as too liberal.
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback announces that his administration is working on a new education funding system proposal and calls on leaders in Kansas and the education community to assist in developing the proposal during a press conference Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016, at the Kansas Statehouse, in Topeka, Kan. TOPEKA, Kan.
Members of the Seaman Unified School District 345 board of education approved the 2016-17 school year teachers' contract during a special meeting Thursday but not without one dissenting vote. Board member Rich Eckert said he voted against this year's negotiated agreement because he doesn't agree with the formation of a committee made up of teachers and administration officials, who in the coming months will review the potential of combining the current annual two days of vacation leave with 10 days of sick leave into one pot for certified staff.
In criticizing the Sedgwick County Commission's decision to restore the Community Health Improvement Plan coordinator, commissioners Richard Ranzau and Karl Peterjohn find name-calling helpful: "Nanny-state progressives" and "nanny-state drones" . Their name-calling is as uninformed as it is unimaginative.
Here is another reason the Legislature needs to revisit its tax cuts: Providers of community-based services to Kansans with intellectual and developmental disabilities are struggling to pay bills and keep employees. It's been eight years since the state has increased reimbursement rates to I/DD service providers.
The day after his administration canceled five public meetings aimed at gathering reaction to the imposition of a 4 percent cut to Medicaid providers, Gov. Sam Brownback announced last week that he wants to reverse the cut. Instead, he wants to increase a provider tax on hospitals.