Outlays would not meet spending goals mandated by Supreme Court

Governor's budget office recommends cuts in K-12 spending

In the face of a deepening budget crisis, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius may not be able to preserve K-12 education spending at a level ordered by the Kansas Supreme Court, after all.

After saying the education budget would not be affected b the state's economic crisis, Sebelius’ budget office confirmed Thursday that it was recommending that current fiscal year spending for public education be reduced by $11 million, from $3.246 billion to $3.235 billion.

In addition, education spending would be reduced, by about $1.5 million in the following fiscal year, which begins July 1. [ Read more...]

Some legislators say across-the-board cuts are the only option if crisis is to be resolved. 'The well is dry.'

School spending cuts could set collision course with the Supreme Court

If a recommendation floated by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' budget office yesterday is followed, Kansas could find itself on another collision course with the state Supreme Court over public education funding.

Whether the recommendation is followed is a big if, according to sources contacted Friday by Kansas Liberty.

Kathe Decker, a former Republican Kansas House member from Clay Center who chaired the House Education Committee when the 2005 Supreme Court order mandating more education spending was issued, said she believed neither the Legislature nor the governor had the “gumption” to turn the recommendation into reality in apparent defiance of the Supreme Court order. [ Read more...]

Safety, economic growth among local officials' concerns. Kansas Contractors Association: 'This is going to put a lot of people out of work.'

Budget crisis forces KDOT to suspend highway projects

The Kansas Department of Transportation announced today that KDOT will suspend the majority of its December and January bid lettings for highway projects due to “funding uncertainties.”

Steve Swartz, spokesperson for KDOT, said 27 of the 70 projects that were scheduled to be awarded to contractors in December and 34 of the 86 scheduled projects for January were suspended.

"This has been a decision made after several discussions with KDOT leaders and after hearing the economic news," Swartz told Kansas Liberty. "It is important to remember these projects are not being canceled - they are just being suspended."[ Read more...]

Local layoffs spread as the nation's financial problems grow.

Rising unemployment shows Kansas isn't immune to economic downturn

After the Wall Street collapse that led to the massive bailout of financial institutions, it looked for a time that Kansas might be immune to some of the problems faced by businesses elsewhere.

But lately, more and more evidence of the country’s economic decline has been surfacing in Kansas in the form of layoffs. In the last week alone, four major Kansas employers – two in the Kansas City area and two Wichita - have announced job reductions ranging from 270 employees to 500 employees.

In Wichita two aircraft manufacturing companies, Hawker Beechcraft and Cessna, announced job reductions. Hawker Beechcraft is cutting about 5 percent, or 500 employees, from its workforce and Cessna has also announced an unspecified number of job reductions. [ Read more...]

In the last five months alone, more than 300 staffers cut loose as readers, advertisers bail.

Kansas City Star to sack 50 more employees as stock hits new low

In a memo to employees Monday, The Kansas City Star's publisher, Mark Zieman, announced that 50 more employees would soon be facing unemployment. Zieman blamed the layoffs on a "harsh economic downturn" during "one of the most challenging years in Star history."

It may also be the last year in Star history if Zieman is unsuccessful in turning around the failing newspaper.

Zieman's memo was just the latest piece of bad news in what has been a very bad week for the Star and for the company that publishes the paper, the McClatchy Company.[ Read more...]

Dan Biles may move from appearing before the court to deciding his clients' cases.

Attorney for school boards and gaming interests among Supreme Court justice nominees

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius received the names of the three nominees to take over Kansas Chief Justice Kay McFarland’s position today. McFarland is retiring Jan. 12 after having served 31 years as a Supreme Court justice, including five years spent as the chief justice.

The candidates, selected by a committee dominated by lawyers and meeting in secret, included Douglas County Chief Judge Robert W. Fairchild and Court of Appeals Judge Tom Malone.

The third name may be the most controversial, however.[ Read more...]

She's among those being mentioned. Backers of of the plans say if tax increases are necessary, it'll be worth it.

Will Sebelius help Obama deliver 'universal' health care?

Several recent media reports have speculated that Governor Kathleen Sebelius is a leading candidate for being appointed to a cabinet post by President-elect Barack Obama. The gossip has only increased after Sebelius took a short trip to Chicago - where Obama’s transition team is located - last weekend.

The department most often mentioned? Health and Human Services, a cabinet post with the most direct influence on health care decisions.

If Sebelius is appointed to the position, she could have a lead role in implementing Obama’s intensive health care reform plans. According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers study released yesterday, the plan will cost the taxpayers $75 billion in 2009, increase to an annual spending of $130 billion by 2018 making the cumulative 10 year cost more than $1 trillion. Other reports put the price tag much higher. [ Read more...]

Sebelius' favorite alternative energy source is unplugged. Meanwhile, Wisconsin follows Kansas in banning new coal-fired plants.

T. Boone Pickens: 'Wind projects are on hold.'

T. Boone Pickens, the Texas billionaire whose ad campaign this summer made him a poster boy for wind power, said he’s pulling the plug, at least temporarily, on a massive wind-power generation project in the Texas Panhandle.

The Pickens Plan, a blueprint for energy independence that was enthusiastically endorsed by several prominent Kansas Democrats, including Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Third District Congressman Dennis Moore.

The plan called for a vast increase in wind-generated electricity and for more dependence on natural gas to power the U.S. automobile fleet. In Kansas, Sebelius had looked to wind power to provide an alternative to coal as an energy source. [ Read more...]

Obama's an NRA dream come true. 'The day he was elected, there was an explosion in sales in the firearms and ammunition industry,' said one Johnson County gun dealer.

Business is booming for gun dealers

Forgive Mike Egan if he has mixed feelings about the ascension of Barack Obama to the Presidency.

Egan and others involved in the firearms industry say while they disagree with Obama pretty much up and down the line on issues, his election already had stoked demand for all gun-related products.

“His election was good news/bad news for me,” said Egan, a veteran Johnson County gun dealer and a Benefactor Member of the National Rifle Association. “The day he was elected, there was an explosion in sales in the firearms and ammunition industry.” [ Read more...]

Where can a guy go these days to get a trim and a full dose of wisdom? Fortunately, says Bill Wyckoff, Louie Gartner's still on the job.

The man with the keys

As a nation are we losing our ability of working hard, saving for the future, and still being thankful for what we have? The examples set for us by those belonging to the “greatest generation” seem to be considered old fashioned or like an old soldier having just faded away.

We all have memories of our best teacher, favorite grandparent and best friend. But those people aren’t the only ones making us who we are today. Think back about all of the others who helped shape your life as it is today.

Louie Gartner gave me my first haircut. Today at 93 he still cuts a little hair, goes dancing, loves to fish, and cares about other people. [ Read more...]

The Week on the Web

Even the Chiefs can afford him now. Smoking Gun has the low-down on the best NFL player in Kansas, Michael Vick. According to the 'Gun, Vick is making 12 cents an hour at Leavenworth, perhaps the worst franchise in the US penal league. Sebelius' money problems are chump change compared to Vick's. 

Talk about a party... So when Sebelius went to Chicago recently (as reported in Kansas Liberty last week), the governor's spokesperson was clear: it was for fun only. As she told the AP, the cut-up couple flew coach to Chicago to celebrate "The First Dude's" birthday. Honest. "It was strictly a social excursion." A few days later, the AP was told the trip to Chicago, where John Podesta and the Obama transition team are in residence, happened to come just a day after a conference call chat with Podesta. Pure coinky-dink, of course, with an extra scoop of coy.

Kansas success. Last Saturday was National Adoption Day. Perhaps no other state in the union has a better legacy of taking care of unwanted children than our state. Hundreds of families in Kansas have roots here because the orphan trains delivered homeless children from New York and Boston to waiting families on the plains. Those kids settled in Kansas and grew up to become parents, then grandparents, then great-grandparents - a phenomenon memorialized by Concordia's National Orphan Train Museum. There are still 129,000 orphans waiting for homes in America, but, as WIBW reports, after Saturday, there are 22 less, thanks to Kansans.

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