WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has voted to make permanent an expired tax break designed to help small businesses invest in equipment and property.
The White House has threatened to veto the bill because it would add $79 billion to the budget deficit over the next decade.
The bill is part of a package of more than 50 temporary tax breaks that Congress routinely extends every year or two. The entire package expired at the start of the year. Now, House Republicans are moving to make selected ones permanent.
The bill would allow businesses to immediately write off capital expenses of up to $500,000, rather than taking the deductions over several years.
The White House supports making the tax break permanent, but wants to pay for it by eliminating other business tax breaks.
The state board that oversees Kansas’ public colleges and universities on Wednesday endorsed an effort by the University of Kansas Cancer Center to earn the highest level of recognition from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The Kansas Board of Regents backed the initiative by approving a resolution that said, in part, that the cancer center “would substantially improve cancer research and treatment opportunities for Kansans” by earning the enhanced designation.
Though it did not endorse outright a proposed increase in the state excise tax on cigarettes, the resolution noted the effect an increase would have on reducing smoking rates in the state and on smoking-related cancer.
Based at the University of Kansas Medical Center campus in Kansas City, Kan., the cancer center earned the first level of recognition in July 2012 – capping a nearly decade-long drive for the designation. Backing by the state, including a $5 million annual appropriation from the Legislature, and by state higher education officials proved instrumental in earning the initial designation, Dr. Doug Girod, executive vice chancellor of KU Med, told the regents.
“It really took a village to make this happen,” Girod said, citing hundreds of millions of dollars in financial support from a number of quarters, including the University of Kansas Hospital, the Kansas Bioscience Authority and local sales tax proceeds. The same type of commitment, including support for the resolution, would be just as crucial in the effort to earn the enhanced designation as a “comprehensive” cancer center, Girod said.
Pursuit of the comprehensive designation will come as part of the cancer center’s application to renew its initial five-year designation, cancer center officials said. The officials said the cancer center would submit it in September 2016, and they anticipate getting word on the application from NCI in July 2017. According to the NCI, of the 68 NCI-designated cancer centers across the country, 41 are comprehensive cancer centers.
The NCI website says that hallmarks of first-level cancer centers include research that crosses laboratory science, clinical research and population-based topics. Comprehensive centers, the site says, must demonstrate “reasonable depth and breadth” across those three areas in addition to proving their ability to disseminate “clinical and public health advances” to the communities they serve. “We know we need to be deeper and broader in everything we do,” Girod told the regents. The cancer center service area includes all of Kansas and 10 counties in western Missouri.
Girod said within that region every year there are about 26,000 new cancer diagnoses, and nearly 11,000 people die of cancer. He said the cancer center has made tobacco cessation and prevention one of its main priorities in meeting the public outreach and cancer-reduction requirements of a comprehensive cancer center.
Tobacco-related illnesses cost the state about $1.1 billion each year, Girod said. Health groups, which have banded together as Kansans for a Healthy Future, have endorsed Gov. Sam Brownback’s proposal to almost triple the tobacco tax, from 79 cents to $2.29 per pack, as part of his plan to close a hole in the state budget. Girod said pricing is a key part of a comprehensive approach to reducing the use of tobacco products. T
he resolution approved by the regents noted the health and fiscal effects of tobacco usage in the state, adding that the “most effective methods for demonstrating that the state is making an impact on public health and reducing tobacco use and cancer occurrence is to combine an expanded smoking cessation and prevention program and an increase in the tobacco excise tax.”
According to the resolution, Kansas ranks No. 36 in the country when it comes to its level of tobacco taxation. The wording on the tobacco tax unsettled regent Zoe Newton of Sedan, the lone dissenter in the voice vote to approve the resolution. “I’m very proud of the cancer center and support what they are doing,” she said afterward. “But as a matter of principle, when it comes to taxation, the language just made me very uncomfortable.”
Mike Sherry is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – The Kansas City Royals and closer Greg Holland avoided salary
arbitration when they agreed to an $8.25 million, one-year contract before their hearing.
Under the terms of Friday’s agreement, Holland will receive a $100,000 assignment bonus if he’s traded.
The 29-year-old right-hander was 1-3 with a 1.44 ERA for the AL champions and struck out 90 and walked 20 in 62 1-3 innings. He had seven more saves and a 0.82 ERA in the postseason. The Royals reached Game 7 of the World Series before losing to San Francisco.
Holland made $4,725,000 last year and had asked for $9 million when the sides exchanged proposed arbitration salaries last month. The Royals had offered $6.65 million.
He is eligible for free agency after the 2016 season.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has upheld a murder conviction for a Wichita man who took part in the shooting death of a 13-year-old boy.
The court on Friday rejected an appeal from Eli Betancourt, who was convicted of premeditated first-degree murder in the June 2010 death of Miguel Andrade. The boy was shot several times when he opened his front door after hearing sounds outside.
Prosecutors say Betancourt and three other men fired on the wrong house as they sought vengeance for an attack on a relative of Betancourt’s. He is serving a Hard 25 life sentence.
Betancourt’s attorney had argued that the Sedgwick County court made several errors during the trial, including admitting his police statement as evidence, and that there was not sufficient evidence to convict him.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A carjacking suspect is dead following a police chase that ended in Kansas City, Kansas.
Authorities say the chase began after the suspect stole a van from a pest control worker in Bonner Springs. The chase went into Kansas City, Missouri, before ending after about 30 minutes when the vehicle drove through a fence near a church in Kansas City, Kansas.
Kansas City, Kansas, police spokeswoman Amber Hickerson says the driver at one point tried to hit a Kansas City, Missouri, police vehicle.
Hickerson says it is unclear if the suspect fired at officers or pointed his weapon at them but a Kansas Highway Patrol officer and three police officers shot him.
David Dillon, the former chief executive of Kroger, testified Wednesday in favor of a bill that would allow full-strength liquor sales in Kansas grocery and convenience stores. Credit Andy Marso / Heartland Health Monitor
By ANDY MARSO
Retired grocery store executive David Dillon had a simple answer Wednesday to concerns that allowing stores like his to sell full-strength liquor would increase underage drinking.
“Hogwash,” Dillon said.
Dillon is the former chief executive of Kroger, owner of the Dillons franchise of Kansas grocery stores and one of the nation’s largest retailers.
He told the House Commerce and Economic Development Committee that Kroger’s Kansas stores already safely sell other restricted products like pharmaceuticals, tobacco and low-strength beer.
“We have proven ourselves to be a responsible citizen of the state,” Dillon said, “and in all the other 25 states where Kroger does business and has these products in the store, we have a similarly strong track record.”
Dillon was among those who testified for House Bill 2200, legislation that would allow full-strength beer, wine and liquor sales in grocery and convenience stores starting in 2018.
Opponents are scheduled to testify Thursday and neutral testimony is set for Friday. Rep. Mark Hutton, a Republican from Wichita who chairs the committee, said he expects the committee to debate and possibly vote on the bill late next week.
Legislators have unsuccessfully introduced similar bills in each of the last few sessions. This year’s bill attempts to quell opposition from liquor store owners by capping the number of full-liquor Class B licenses statewide and allowing liquor store owners to sell their licenses to grocers or convenience stores within the same county. Grocery and convenience stores would be able to access an uncapped number of Class A licenses limited to full-strength beer sales.
A study released last year by the Kansas Health Institute, found that expanding liquor licenses in the state has the potential to increase underage drinking http://www.khi.org/news/article/potential-health-effects-expanding-liquor-licenses, unless the expansion is accompanied by other regulatory controls. Other public health impacts could include an increase in traffic fatalities and sexually transmitted diseases, according to the study.
Much of the proponent testimony Wednesday centered on consumer convenience and the ideals of free market competition.
But consumers who had lived in other states that allow liquor sales in grocery stores testified that they saw no negative effects.
Aaron Rosenow, owner of Vern’s Retail Liquor and leader of a group of Kansas liquor store owners who oppose the bill, said after the hearing that he has seen evidence to the contrary.
Rosenow pointed to Washington state, which two years ago opened alcohol sales to private retailers, including supermarkets, after previously allowing them only at state-controlled liquor stores.
“Now they have the highest theft of alcohol they’ve ever seen,” Rosenow said. “It’s exponential numbers. Thirty, forty thousand dollars one guy got away with per month, stealing high-end booze and selling it at pure profit.”
The bill being considered in the Kansas House also would lower the age at which a store employee could sell alcohol from 21 to 18, but only if the employee is supervised by another employee who is 21 or older.
Rep. Rick Billinger, a Republican from Goodland, asked Dillon if that has caused problems in other states.
“You ever have any fines for these 18-year-olds selling alcohol to their friends who are 18?” Billinger said.
“We’ve had a few,” Dillon said.
Dillon said the company had one such instance last year in Kansas, where its stores can only sell beer up to 3.2 percent alcohol content. Dillon said corporate training has minimized such infractions.
“We’re actually very proud of our record, and we push ourselves hard,” Dillon said.
Tom Palace, who testified for the bill on behalf of convenience store owners, said those stores also already safely sell age-restricted products like lottery tickets and cigarettes.
“Obviously compliance is an important issue for us, and we take precautions,” Palace said.
Palace said technology allows convenience store owners to take “human error” out of the equation when it comes to checking consumers’ identification cards. Software now allows clerks to punch in a birthdate and immediately be told whether the consumer is of age.
Rosenow said that system wouldn’t be sufficient to stop an 18-year-old convenience store clerk from selling a bottle of vodka to an underage friend for a party.
“If a 21-year-old is on the floor in the back room doing something and his friend comes up and he’s the only one at a gas station that sells hard liquor or hard beer, it’s not going to take that long to enter in a fake birthdate to skirt their system of controlling regulation of the age of who buys a product,” Rosenow said.
Editor’s note: The Kansas Health Institute 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.
Deputies and paramedics worked an unusual accident south of St Joseph off US-169 highway.
A 35-year-old man was injured in the back when he was hit by a three foot log. The location was near the Platte River bridge on 169 highway south of St Joe.
Emergency responders had a difficult time locating the precise location of the accident, and were hampered getting access by muddy conditions.
A helicopter ambulance was able to land in the area, and the man was transported to Mosaic Life Care. His condition was not immediately available.
LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — Get ready for superstition — times three.
Friday is the first of three Friday the 13ths this year.
Each year has at least one Friday the 13th, but there can be as many as three. 2012 was the last year with three Friday the 13ths. The next will be 2026.
It’s a quirk of the calendar that gives the superstitious three times as many reasons to avoid walking under ladders or near black cats.
But it also lets those who don’t believe in bad luck tempt fate by breaking mirrors, stepping on cracks and spilling salt.
British journalist Ellen Widdup is moving Friday while wearing a locket containing a four-leaf clover.
She never opens umbrellas indoors but says moving on Friday the 13th is a way to test her fears.
A petition seeking to repeal St Joe’s Clean Air Ordinance has fallen short.
Bar owner Steve Peterman of Peterman’s Shamrock hopes to repeal the anti-smoking ordinance, and substitute another that would allow adults-only businesses to make their own decisions about going smoke free.
St Joseph City Clerk Paula Heyde says the petitioners needed 2,568 signatures to force further action on the repeal.
The County Clerk’s Office was only able to certify 1,759 signatures.
Ms Heyde says her office sent a certified letter to the petitioners, notifying them that the petition was 809 signatures short. Once Mr. Peterman receives that letter, he has just two days to notify the City Clerk in writing if they intend to file more signatures. If they notify the clerk, they’ll then have another ten days to file the additional petitions.
Mr Peterman was the named plaintiff in a failed lawsuit that sought to overturn the original ordinance.
TOPEKA — City judges and attorneys are asking for the ability to remove their personal information from public websites.
Senate Bill 128 would allow municipal judges, attorneys, and their assistants to request that their identifying information, like home addresses and phone numbers, not be published on public websites that can be searched with keywords.
Currently the Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) allows federal and state judges and prosecutors to request that their contact information be removed from public websites.
Dick Carter, Jr., representing Overland Park, said city judges and prosecutors need to be exempted as well. “Municipal judges and prosecutors deal with persons with extensive criminal histories, and with serious personality and mental health issues,” Carter said.
Last year Overland Park Municipal Court Judge Cynthia Cornwell received threats on social media that resulted in felony charges. Carter said it was one of two threats against Cornwell in the last two years.
“Our administrative prosecutor also received a letter in the mail with disturbing, violent descriptions, even towards her family,” Carter said.
Sen. Jeff King (R-Independence) proposed an amendment to also exclude special assistant attorney generals and special county and district attorneys from KORA.
In written testimony Nicole Proulx Aiken, legal counsel with the League of Kansas Municipalities, supported the bill. “It is not uncommon for them to receive threats because of their public positions and the decisions they make,” she wrote.
Budget Director Shawn Sullivan said local governments may have to spend some extra money to restrict information on public websites but said he couldn’t determine precise costs.
The committee will take final action on the bill on Feb. 19.
Austin Fisher is a senior from Lawrence studying journalism at the University of Kansas.
STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press
