GRANDVIEW, Mo. (AP) — Authorities in suburban Kansas City say a woman has been found dead inside a burning home.

The fire was reported Friday night at a Grandview home. Fire Chief Ron Graham says firefighters arrived at the home to find smoke coming from the front of the house.

Graham says firefighters were able to quickly put out the fire and found the woman’s body close to the front door. It was unclear how long the fire had been burning.

Officials have not released the victim’s name or the cause of the fire.

NORTON, Kan. (AP) — A statewide shortage of trained medical personnel has left many rural county ambulance services having to delay hospital transfers to ensure they have enough staff for emergencies.

For example, in Norton County in northwest Kansas, the county’s 5,400 residents are served by six full-time volunteers and nine volunteers, who respond to all 911 calls and taken patients from one hospital to another.

“Sometimes patients needing to be transferred are left waiting,” said Craig Sowards, Norton County EMS director.

In response to the problem, a proposal before the state Legislature would allow drivers without medical training to transport stable patients in rural areas, which sometimes can take hours. Ambulances would still need to have one person with medical training riding in the back, such as an EMT or a nurse, The Kansas News Service reports .

Some state and local EMS officials say having only one trained person on board could be risky, and they worry about lowering standards of care in rural areas.

“Occasionally patients decline and it’s often helpful to have an extra set of hands to stabilize (patients) before they move on,” said David Johnston, president of the Kansas Emergency Medical Services Association.

Joe House, executive director of the Kansas Board of Emergency Medical Services, defended current regulations that require two medically trained workers on board, including the driver.

“We write our regulations to protect the public’s well-being and safety,” House said. “It’s either safe to do or not safe to do.”

Emergency medical services are competing with clinics, hospitals and schools for trained personnel — and offer a starting wage of only about $21,000 a year, House said.

Many rural ambulance services rely on certified volunteers. Phillips County in northwest Kansas has 84 volunteers to serve a population just under 5,400 but the number drops significantly in surrounding counties.

Pete Rogers, EMS director for Phillips County, said he can’t imagine operating ambulances without two medically trained personnel on board.

“If you have somebody that’s simply a driver and you still have two technicians in the back of the truck with the patient then, then I, I see absolutely no problems with it,” he said. “But I would be concerned if it was a non-certified person driving and only one technician in the back.”

In Norton County, Sowards doesn’t think it’s necessary to have two trained EMS workers for stabilized transfers.

“I’ve been in EMS for 20 years running transfers — maybe once in 20 years I’ve had to have a driver come help,” he said, adding allowing non-certified ambulance drivers for transfers “could help a lot.”

By STEPHEN KORANDA

The Republican-controlled Kansas House approved wide-ranging tax legislation Thursday. The measure would reduce sales taxes on food, which could help Kansans across the income spectrum. It would also give some big corporations a break, and that will likely spark a showdown with Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.

Senate leaders introduced the initial version of the bill earlier this session in response to the federal tax overhaul of 2017. They pushed for the legislation to allow Kansans to continue itemizing on their state taxes even if they no longer do so on their federal returns because of larger standard deductions. They also wanted to free Kansas businesses from owing state taxes on overseas income that Congress incentivized them to repatriate.

Supporters of the proposal in both the Senate and the House said without it the federal tax cuts would trigger a state tax increase on businesses and people who itemize.

Opponents argued it amounts to a tax break for big business and the wealthy and would prompt the state to forfeit an estimated $400 million in revenue over the next three years just as its finances are stabilizing.

“I understand the temptation to keep the money,” Republican state Rep. Les Mason said during the House debate Thursday. “Are we going to do the right thing? Are we going to get this money back to the rightful owners?”

To make the legislation more palatable, House lawmakers bundled in a provision to cut the sales tax by 1 percentage point, which alone would lower state tax collections by around $175 million over three years. Another added provision would offset that some by collecting more from online purchases, raising an estimated $88 million during that time.

If lawmakers advance it with another vote, the bill will head to negotiations between the chambers to reconcile the changes made by the House.

Gov. Kelly hasn’t explicitly threatened to veto the bill, but she has said that tax cuts should not be a priority right now. Instead, she said the Legislature should come up with the money to satisfy the Kansas Supreme Court that school funding is adequate.

“It is time to put the priorities of Kansas families first and fund our schools,” she said last month. “With a Supreme Court deadline fast approaching, the Legislature should be focusing on education, not another irresponsible tax plan.”

The state’s finances are on solid ground since lawmakers reversed many of the tax cuts passed in 2012. But, Kelly has said making major tax changes could cause a repeat of the fiscal troubles Kansas faced during former Gov. Sam Brownback’s tenure.

In a way, the internet tax collections and food sales taxes are a political dare legislators may drop in front of Kelly. The food sales tax cut and internet sales tax provisions appear quite popular and they could be used to pressure her to sign the bill into law or stoke criticism if she vetoes it.

“It’s all about the hate of our governor,” Democratic state Rep. Cindy Neighbor said on the House floor. “It’s time to quit playing party politics.”

Reducing the food sales tax has broad support as a way to benefit lower-income Kansans, but it never happens because of the huge financial cost to the state budget.

Some House members blasted the bill for only cutting the state food sales tax from 6.5 to 5.5 percent. Local sales taxes further raise the rate.

Uncertainty over the cost of the bill is also a sticking point, with supporters and opponents alike questioning the accuracy of the estimates.

“It’s a shot in the dark,” Republican Senate President Susan Wagle said earlier in the session. She wondered aloud how much Kansas could stand to lose if the legislation doesn’t pass and businesses leave the state for a more favorable tax climate.

The uncertainty is exactly why Democrat Jim Gartner opposed it Thursday in the House. Without knowing the true cost, he said the bill could put the state in dire financial straits if the country enters a recession.

“What are we doing?” he asked on the floor. “We have no data. No concrete data.”

Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @kprkoranda.