By STEPHEN KORANDA

Kansas lawmakers, increasingly skeptical that tax breaks deliver economic wins, looked closely this week at economic incentive programs.

Senators on the Commerce Committee spent several days discussing bills that would add new requirements to sales tax revenue bonds, known as STAR bonds.

STAR bonds allow local governments to borrow money for a building project, and tax collections created by the development are diverted to pay off the loans.

 

The Topeka Capital-Journal reported last year that more than $500 million in tax revenue had been used to pay back the bonds since 2001.

One bill would create a panel to study the proposals, including the state’s return on the investment, before approving the projects.

The secretary of commerce currently approves STAR bonds. Republican Sen. Julia Lynn, who heads the Senate Commerce Committee, wants more oversight.

“To make a decision on whether to use millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to go to a development project,” Lynn said, “there’s just nothing in place.”

Another bill before senators would restrict the types of projects eligible for STAR bonds. It would allow tourist attractions but put new restrictions on retail developments. Some lawmakers have said shopping centers should be financed by private developers, not state incentives.

Olathe City Manager Michael Wilkes urged lawmakers not to block retail developments.

“From a practical application, (that) really kills your project,” he said. “Those kind of things are the only things that generate enough revenue that really make the project worthwhile.”

He said large stores such as Cabela’s or Nebraska Furniture Mart in Wyandotte County can be critical to an overall development package that works.

Johnson County resident Clint Anderson is a financial advisor with experience in commercial banking and real estate. He told senators that he’s opposed to projects, including a soccer stadium and training facility in Kansas City, Kansas, being subsidized with public bonds.

He said there’s no shortage of private funding available.

“If there’s a good idea that’s operationally and economically feasible, there’s capital for it,” Anderson said. “It shouldn’t be paid for by the taxpayers.”

Trey Cocking, deputy director of the Kansas League of Municipalities, said that won’t always be the case. He used the example of a project being developed in Atchison that would include an aviation museum and updates to the city farmer’s market.

“These aren’t projects that the private market’s going to do, because there are public components to these projects,” he said. “There are public goods to these projects.”

Amanda Stanley, general counsel for the municipal league, said it’s easy to look back at successful STAR bond projects and assume they would have attracted private investment. Bu she said that’s not a guarantee.

“At what point would it have developed? How long is the state willing to wait?” she asked. “There are sometimes projects that just need that push start.”

House members also dove into the issue of state tax incentives, advancing a bill Thursday that would make more information publicly available on local and state incentives, including STAR bonds.

It would require state officials to compile and publish information about tax incentives and whether each of the incentive programs is producing a positive return on investment.

Democratic Rep. John Carmichael said the bill will help lawmakers next session as they evaluate whether incentive programs need to be modified.

“We need to know how much these tax benefits are costing the state of Kansas,” he said. “Our constituents not only need to know it, they want to know it.”

Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for KPR, a partner in the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @kprkoranda.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – The Latest on allegations involving Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (all times local):

4:15 p.m.

The ex-husband of a woman Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens had an extramarital affair with is testifying before a House committee investigating allegations against the Republican governor.

Attorney Al Watkins represents the woman’s former spouse and told reporters that the man was speaking with the House panel Friday.

House Speaker Todd Richardson formed the committee in response to Greitens’ recent grand jury indictment on a felony invasion-of-privacy charge stemming from the 2015 affair.

The ex-husband has been a central figure in the controversy surrounding the governor and the affair. He provided a recording to a St. Louis TV station of the unnamed woman saying that Greitens took a compromising photo of her and implied he would release it if she exposed the affair. She did not know she was being recorded.

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ST. LOUIS (AP) – Attorneys for Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens want prosecutors to tell them whether they offered enticements to witnesses in the invasion-of-privacy case against him.

A motion filed Thursday by Greitens’ attorneys says there’s reason to believe that prosecutors enticed reluctant witnesses to testify by offering leniency or warning of possible charges or adverse actions against the witnesses if they did not.

A spokeswoman for St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the motion contained “baseless and false allegations.”

Greitens was indicted last month on a felony count for allegedly taking a nonconsensual photo of a woman who was at least partially nude and transmitting the image in a way that could be accessed by a computer.

He has acknowledged an extramarital affair but denied criminal wrongdoing.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say an 11-year-old boy is believed to have been accidently shot by his older brother with a rifle.

The boy was treated Thursday evening at Lawrence Memorial Hospital after being taken there in a personal vehicle.

Deputies with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office determined the boy had been shot in the ankle with a .22 caliber rifle by his 16-year-old brother outside their residence. The injury is not life-threatening.

Sgt. Kristen Channel says the sheriff’s office is still investigating, but it appears the shooting was accidental.

REEDS SPRING, Mo. (AP) – A cockfighting investigation has led to the seizure of more than 230 birds from a rural southwest Missouri property.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that the Stone County Sheriff’s Office and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals removed the birds Thursday. The ASPCA says in a news release that investigators found the birds, mainly roosters, living in makeshift wire cages. Many of the birds lacked access to proper food or water.

The release says several birds had injuries consistent with cockfighting. Also found were performance drugs and items such as spurs that are used to maximize injury.

The Stone County Sheriff’s Office says deputies first discovered the suspected cockfighting operation while executing a narcotics search warrant north of Reeds Spring. The birds are being kept at a temporary shelter.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A new law in Kansas promises harsher sentences repeat drunken drivers who kill or injure others.

Gov. Jeff Colyer on Friday signed “Caitlin’s Law.” It takes effect in July and stiffens penalties for drivers who cause accidents while intoxicated or while circumventing restrictions placed on them because of DUI convictions.

Colyer said state officials hope tougher penalties will send a message to people with a history of driving under the influence. The presumed prison sentence for a person with a previous DUI conviction will be nearly 8 years, rather than 5½ years.

The new law is named for Caitlin Vogel, a Stilwell special education instructor killed by a drunken driver in 2016 with two previous DUI convictions at the time of the accident. Her 26th birthday would have been Friday.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A lawsuit alleges a special needs student in Kansas was sexually assault by another student on a school bus.

The Kansas City Star reported Thursday that the lawsuit filed against First Student alleges the company was negligent by not having an adult monitor on the bus when the assault occurred in April 2016.

A message seeking comment from First Student was not immediately returned.

The teen was a Lenexa resident and student at Shawnee Mission South High School.

The lawsuit filed in Johnson County District Court alleges an adult monitor on the bus got off before it left the school. It contends the girl was seated two rows behind the driver and “continually molested” by another student who sat down beside her.

EUGENE, Mo. (AP) – A body found in the rubble of a mid-Missouri farm house after a fire has been identified as that of a 57-year-old woman.

Miller County Sheriff Louie Gregorie said Thursday that the cause of death for Sandra Bush hasn’t been determined but that the fire isn’t believed to be suspicious. The Jefferson City News-Tribune reports that Bush lived in the Miller County home that burned Tuesday. Her body was found in a back bedroom.

The state fire marshal’s office said Wednesday that the fire occurred on or near a recliner. A heating pad and a lightweight energized extension cord found in the area couldn’t be eliminated as a possible cause.

RENO COUNTY— Another round of funding has been approved for the rail line served by Amtrak’s SW Chief.

According to a media release from the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Tiger Grant will be used for rehabilitating track giving the route that passes through Kansas another shot in the arm as its advocates try to bolster the train line uncertain future.

The money, $16 million from a Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant, means about three-quarters of the money needed for track upgrades for the Chicago-to-Los Angeles route have been secured.

It’s a sigh of relief for the Southwest Chief’s main proponents, who were fearful about the prospect of securing federal dollars under a White House that has signaled a distaste for long-distance rail. It was four years ago that Amtrak and BNSF threatened to move the train off of the current line and on to the main Transcon route through Oklahoma and Texas.

The move would have eliminated service to Hutchinson, Garden City and Dodge City along with southeast Colorado and northern New Mexico. Cities, counties and states along the route have been chipping in to match funds for the grant including Hutchinson which has regularly provided matching funds for the grants.

While the funding is good news it may be a moot point as the Trump administration has also sent a strong message about its stance toward Amtrak’s long-distance rail routes — like the Chief’s — by proposing cuts in Amtrak’s budget for the lines.