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Kansas tax collections continue downward trend, putting pressure on state reserves
Kansas missed revenue projections in March, continuing a monthslong trend that puts the state $175 million below forecasts for the fiscal year.
Kansas tax collections continue downward trend, putting pressure on state reserves
Kansas missed revenue projections in March, continuing a monthslong trend that puts the state $175 million below forecasts for the fiscal year.
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Civil rights • Voter rights • Anti-trans legislation • Abortion • Immigration • Municipalities’ local control • Kansas State Board of Education
MORe KANSAS NEWS
Kansas GOP senators firmly denounce proposed 2.5% pay raise for state employees
Republicans on the Kansas Senate’s budget committee attacked Gov. Laura Kelly’s plan to allocate $52 million to raises of 2.5% for state executive, legislative and judicial branch workers and to appropriate $10 million to state universities that could be used to bolster employee compensation.
Lauren Bishop/CDC
No mask needed outdoors if you’re vaccinated, except among crowds, CDC says
Those who are at least two weeks past receiving their final dose of a COVID-19 vaccine can safely be unmasked at small outdoor gatherings and while dining outdoors with friends from multiple households, according to the new guidance.
Schmidt joins Republican AGs taking aim at ‘social cost of carbon’ emissions
The attorneys general in Missouri and Kansas have joined their Republican counterparts in 20 states demanding that the federal government not consider the social cost of carbon emissions when determining whether to approve new natural gas pipelines.
Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector
Judicial salary upgrade, replacement of fee revenue hang in legislative balance
Updated data shows that depending on job classification, Kansas judicial branch employees needed increases up to 18.9% to bring salaries to market level, Chief Justice Marla Luckert said.
Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector
Kelly signs into law sweeping reform of Kansas unemployment system
Gov. Laura Kelly signed into law Monday legislation affirming a commitment to modernize the Kansas Department of Labor’s computer network relied upon to handle jobless claims and to guarantee employers weren’t liable for fraudulent unemployment filings during the pandemic.
Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector
Kansas House, Senate prayers point to ‘precarious times for truth, justice, equity’
A review of the 2021 Legislature’s collection of opening prayers revealed how the Rev. Cecil Washington urged the Senate and the Rev. Eunice Brubaker offered the House seasoned spiritual advice for politicians at risk of losing sight of God’s message as they battled ideological foes real or imagined.
Andrea LaRayne Etzel
Kansas governor recognizes ‘little lady in tennis shoes’ advocating for national Juneteenth holiday
Each year since 2016, when she was 89, Opal Lee has walked from her home in Fort Worth across the country, stopping everywhere from Washington, D.C. to North Carolina to Kansas, in an effort to make Juneteenth a national holiday.
Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector
Kansas GOP focuses on governor’s race; also aspires to take out U.S. Rep. Davids
Attorney General Derek Schmidt prefaced a direct appeal for support in the GOP governor’s race Saturday by tallying the number of lawsuits his office filed against President Joe Biden and denouncing the stream of vetoes issued by Gov. Laura Kelly.
Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector
Kansas GOP lawmakers eager to rally partisan allies to challenge Kelly’s veto surge
A six-pack of Republican lawmakers amplified for faithful party members their resolve to challenge Gov. Laura Kelly’s vetoes of bills on gun rights, tax reductions and fair elections along with a smattering of legislative diversions into transgender athletics and distinctive license plates.
New report estimates Medicaid expansion could save Kansas employers up to $80.6M
A new report indicates employers in some of Kansas’ most critical industries could save tens of millions of dollars a year if the state were to expand Medicaid.
Noah Taborda/Kansas Reflector; file
Democratic Kansas governor vetoes GOP-inspired voting, firearm and license plate bills
Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed two bundles of election reform measures Friday that would have restricted advance voting, eliminated emergency powers to alter voting procedures, added a new crime for turning in others’ ballots, and strengthened penalties for existing election crimes.
Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector
Gov. Kelly signs legislation creating workforce development scholarship program
Gov. Laura Kelly signed bipartisan legislation Friday authorizing a scholarship program aimed primarily at encouraging Kansas community college and technical college students to develop skills in high-demand areas of the state’s economy.
Advocacy groups push for transparency in Evergy’s $8.9 billion ‘sustainability’ plan
Environmental and consumer groups are raising alarms about what they claim is limited transparency as Kansas regulators review Evergy’s plan to spend more than $8.9 billion on the utility provider’s infrastructure across the state.
Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector
Kansas governor blocks attack on transgender athletes, civics test for high schoolers, NRA curriculum
Gov. Laura Kelly on Thursday vetoed a series of controversial bills that would have banned transgender athletes from school sports, required high schoolers to pass a civics test before graduation, and installed NRA-sponsored curriculum in public schools.
Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector
After George Floyd’s murder, a racial equity panel proposed changes; the Kansas Legislature ignored them
The Commission on Racial Equity and Justice issued more than 30 suggestions in its December report for state legislators to consider, but none has received meaningful consideration.
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