TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The city of Topeka says any new operator of Heartland Park Topeka will have to make more than $7 million in improvements.
City attorney Chad Sublet says the city has submitted an amended project plan to the Kansas Department of Commerce as it tries to buy the troubled racing facility. Whoever the city chooses to operate the track will be required to pay for 16 improvements at Heartland Park, including commerce park development, garages and high-end facilities and a new banquet facility.
Topeka’s efforts to buy the track depend on the state issuing $5 million in additional STAR bonds. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports city manager Jim Colson has said the city won’t issue the bonds if it doesn’t find a track operator.
MANHATTAN –On Tuesday, Kansas State University Police asked the public for assistance in identifying a fan who stormed the court after the K-State basketball win at Bramlage.
The fan came forward and wrote an apology letter to the KSU Collegian.
Nathan Power wrote:
K-State friends, I was the individual identified as the fan who bumped Jamari Traylor during the court storm following K-State’s victory over KU. I want to take this moment to share a sincere apology in breaking from the Wildcat way and stepping outside what is acceptable in the spirit of the game. Following the basketball game I simply let my emotions get the best of me in all of the chaos. In my excitement I was not careful of the people I was around. I am sorry that I made the KU basketball team—Jamari Traylor in particular—feel disrespected. By no means can I change what took place but in the future I will be aware of how emotions can impact good judgment.
LOUISBURG- One adult and three children were injured in an accident just before 4 p.m. on Tuesday in Miami County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2009 Toyota Matrix driven by Crane, Jill Beth Crane, 44, La Cygne, was eastbound on Kansas 68 just west of the state line. The vehicle came to a stop to make a left hand turn. A semi rear-ended the Toyota.
Crane and two children from La Cygne were transported to St. Luke’s Hospital. Another child from Louisburg was transported to Children’s Mercy.
The semi driver Paul Clayton Scott, 35, Ottawa, was not injured.
The KHP reported all were properly restrained at the time of the accident.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts, R-Kan., Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, today held the first hearing of his chairmanship and breaking with tradition, first heard the concerns of farmers and ranchers on the implementation of the Farm Bill followed by the testimony of U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Chairman Roberts was pleased to welcome Mr. Rich Felts to testify before the Committee on the first panel. Mr Felts is a Wheat, Corn, Soybean, and Livestock Producer from Liberty, Kan. For his prepared testimony go here.
The hearing, titled “The Agricultural Act of 2014 implementation after one year and Farm Credit Administration nominations,” had three panels.
“Today’s hearing is special,” Chairman Roberts said. “Today, we will conduct our first oversight hearing of the one year old Farm Bill by hearing from farmers first, then the administration.
“It is my hope that our witnesses will be able to bring forward testimony of their challenges and successes of the new farm bill — and then the Committee and the Secretary will work to address the challenges raised by our four witnesses and by others who have reached out to our Committee members.
“We thank Secretary Vilsack for his willingness to try something new today. I believe this hearing will send a strong message to America’s farmers and ranchers that their government is listening to them and that we can and will work together on their behalf.”
Senator Roberts is an outspoken advocate for America’s farmers and ranchers. He is the first member of congress in modern history to serve as both Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee and as Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Roberts has also served as the ranking member for each Committee.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Teachers no longer would be exempt from criminal charges for showing students materials deemed to be harmful to minors under a bill given first-round approval in the Kansas Senate.
Teachers could be charged for any materials thought to be too sexual or too profane for minors.
Republican Sen. Forrest Knox of Altoona said he supported the bill and said teachers should not be protected from showing materials that would draw penalties in other contexts.
Democratic Sen. David Haley of Kansas City said that Senate Democrats intended to argue against the bill, but were out of the chamber when it came up for discussion. The bill swiftly moved through the approval process without debate and will be up for a final vote Wednesday. It will then pass to the House.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A tax exemption championed by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback helped about 90,000 more business owners than previously anticipated, as well as about 53,000 farmers.
New state Department of Revenue figures have intensified a debate over how to address the budget problems that arose after lawmakers cut personal income taxes in 2012 and 2013 in a bid to boost the economy.
But Revenue Secretary Nick Jordan said Tuesday that tax relief for owners of small businesses should not be blamed for budget difficulties.
Lawmakers in 2012 eliminated personal income taxes for many owners of sole proprietorships, partnerships and other businesses. The state had said 191,000 business owners would be helped.
The department now estimates that nearly 281,000 business owners were helped, along with the farmers, whose numbers weren’t estimated previously.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A new government report shows the value of principle Kansas crops plummeted last year to $6.51 billion.
The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Tuesday that the decline compares to $7.85 billion in 2013 and $8.09 billion in 2012.
The lesser numbers come as no surprise, given the waning drought last year that decimated the state’s winter wheat crop before late spring and summer rains salvaged fall -harvested crops. Grain prices also have fallen in the past couple of years, making the remaining crop worth less.
Among the state’s major crops, the agency valued the state’s wheat crop at $1.51 billion last year. It pegged the value of Kansas corn at $2.12 billion. Soybeans came in at $1.38 billion, with sorghum trailing at $755.2 million.
The Allied Arts Council announces Tim Norman as the winner of the 2014-15 St. Joseph Sculpture Walk People’s Choice Award.
Norman’s sculpture “Heritage” depicts a life-size bald eagle and can be viewed at its current location for a few more weeks. The bronze casting is installed across from the Ground Round restaurant on 6th Street between Edmond and Felix.
It can be yours for $11,000.
It’s not too late to own a sculpture from the 2014-15 Walk. For purchasing information on Norman’s sculpture, and others in the Walk, please contact the Allied Arts Council at 816-233-0231, Teresa.fankhauser@stjoearts.org, or stop in our office at 118 S. 8th St. St. Joseph, MO.
Sculptures will be uninstalled during the month of May. Grab a friend or take your family down as the weather gets warmer to enjoy this year’s sculptures. Stayed tuned for details on the 2015-16 Sculpture Walk.
Born and raised in Wallowa County, Oregon, Mr Norman grew up on a farm along the Lostine River where at an early age he liked to draw, photograph and carve wildlife and the natural environment. His first formal training began at Enterprise High School exploring drawing, painting, sculpting and the potter’s wheel.
Working in bronze production for the past 30 years, Norman uses his intimate knowledge of the process to produce his own line of fine art castings in his shop for the past 17 years near Enterprise, Oregon. Over the years, Norman has participated in shows and displayed in galleries across the United States. His work is also enjoyed by collectors throughout the country and in Europe.
“Drawing inspiration for my work from the beauty and grace of the natural environment, I strive to reflect this in my paintings and bronze sculptures, so the viewer can evoke a memory, emotion, or share in a captured moment in time. The bronze sculpture of a life-size bald eagle “Heritage” depicts a proud icon of North America perched looking intently over his surroundings. Faced with dwindling numbers from a variety of factors, the bald eagle has made a remarkable comeback and is once again taking its place among the most regal of the large birds of prey,” said Norman
By ANDY MARSO
Public health advocates are cheering proposed changes to the state tax code that would encourage healthy behaviors. But Gov. Sam Brownback and the legislators who pitched them face challenges in getting them passed.
As part of a larger effort to fill a gaping budget hole, Brownback called for increasing taxes on tobacco and alcohol. The tobacco tax in particular has gathered support from the state’s health community.
But the pushback from industry and business groups — including convenience and retail liquor stores — has been swift, and legislative leaders who campaigned on their conservative credentials have objected to the tax increases.
Meanwhile, two legislators have introduced a bill to exempt fresh fruit and vegetables from the state sales tax, but that proposal is likely to run into the opposite problem: The state desperately needs the tax money.
“We’re not under any illusions it will be easy,” said Sen. Michael O’Donnell, a Republican from Wichita.
O’Donnell introduced the produce tax exemption with Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, a Democrat from Wichita, as a beacon of bipartisanship. He said the timing might be right in that the budget crisis will force legislators to delve into the state tax code and crack the door for his bill.
It’s projected to cost the state about $43 million in tax revenue each year, but Faust-Goudeau said in the long term it actually could save the state more in health care costs if it encourages Kansans to eat healthier.
Weight problems are a significant factor in the state’s health care costs.
A report released last year by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment found that as of 2011, 64.4 percent of Kansas adults were overweight, including almost 30 percent classified as obese.
In 2000, only about 21 percent of Kansas adults were obese.
A survey released in 2010 by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that less than 25 percent of Kansans reported eating the recommended five combined servings of fruits and vegetables per day.
Healthy encouragement?
Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University professor who has studied how changes to the tax code can encourage or deter healthy behaviors, said he had not heard of any other state exempting only fruits and vegetables from its sales tax. But Gostin said he thinks it’s “an excellent idea.”
“Why should states tax healthy behavior, such as eating fruits and vegetables?” he asked. “Government encourages the population to eat healthily, so it shouldn’t tax individuals who comply with these health recommendations.”
Most states exempt all groceries from sales tax. Kansas is one of 14 states that include groceries in their sales tax and, at 6.15 percent, the Kansas tax on food is second highest in the nation, trailing only Mississippi at 7 percent.
Add in sales taxes levied by local governments, and Kansans in many cities and counties pay almost $10 in tax on every $100 grocery bill.
The last time the Kansas Legislature examined the sales tax on food, in 2013, a plan to lower taxes on all groceries to 4.95 percent passed the Senate but faltered in the House.
Sen. Jeff Melcher, a Republican from Leawood, eventually voted for the tax reduction but expressed some concern that it would exacerbate the obesity problem by encouraging people to buy and eat more food.
Gostin said there’s no evidence that’s the case in states with no grocery sales tax.
“But if government subsidizes unhealthy foods such as through corn subsidies, it makes unhealthy foods more affordable and attractive,” he said.
Gostin said that might be one shortcoming of the proposed fruits and vegetables tax exemption: If processed foods remain cheaper even with sales tax included, then the exemption primarily will benefit middle- and upper-class Kansans who already buy more fruits and vegetables.
Increasing the tobacco tax is more likely to benefit overall public health, he said.
Gostin called tobacco taxes “the single most important strategy for reducing smoking, especially among young people.”
He said there is “something psychological” about a tax increase that makes it even more effective in deterring behavior than a tax exemption is at encouraging that behavior.
Bipartisan opposition to tobacco tax
Lobbying groups representing the state’s doctors, dentists and hospitals all lined up to support Brownback’s proposed tobacco tax in a hearing last week. So did Roy Jensen, the director of the University of Kansas Cancer Center, and public health groups like the American Lung Association and the Kansas Health Foundation.
Jeffrey Willett, the foundation’s vice president for programs, said the proposed $1.50 per pack cigarette tax increase is projected to reduce youth smoking in Kansas by 20 percent and encourage about 25,000 Kansas adults to quit.
That would make a dent in the state’s estimated $1 billion a year in tobacco-related health care costs, Willett said, and keep Kansas from sliding further in its efforts to curb smoking.
“In 1991, Kansas had the eighth-lowest adult smoking rate in the nation,” Willett said. “Today, we have dropped all the way to 31st. We believe Kansas can do better.”
Business interests led by the powerful Kansas Chamber of Commerce lined up in opposition to the bill, saying it would only increase cigarette smuggling and black market sales or drive cigarette buyers across the state line to places like Missouri, which has one of the nation’s lowest tobacco taxes.
The Kansas Chamber, in written testimony from CEO Mike O’Neal, declined to address the possible public health benefits.
“Taxing cigarettes and alcohol may be a way to socially engineer behavior, but that is not the expressed intent of this bill,” O’Neal said. “A $107 million price tag has been affixed to this proposal to help plug a hole in the a budget that can be plugged with reductions in spending.”
In the end, there may be bipartisan support for killing the proposed cigarette tax increase.
Republican leaders who, like O’Neal, prefer spending cuts as a budget fix already have voiced opposition. And Democrats who have railed against the income tax cuts that preceded the budget crisis have said they’re loath to use tobacco taxes to fill the hole because they fall disproportionately on poor Kansans — a shortcoming Gostin outlined in a paper published in the journal Promoting Health: Intervention Strategies from Social and Behavioral Research.
Gostin wrote that the cigarette tax, while effective in promoting public health, is “burdensome” on smokers with lower incomes.
“It may compel individuals to pay a ‘health tax’ on a behavior that is addictive and, to a certain extent, beyond the person’s control,” he wrote. “More importantly, the tax is highly regressive because most adults who smoke are in lower socioeconomic classes.”
Editor’s Note: The Kansas Health Foundation is the primary funder of the Kansas Health Institute, which is the parent organization of the editorially independent KHI News Service.
Andy Marso is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The city of Topeka says any new operator of Heartland Park Topeka will have to make more than $7 million in improvements.
