Thursday’s disaster aid package rollout was good news for agriculture but many of the details are still uncertain. The total aid amount could come in at $16 billion and will cover a wider range of crops than last year’s aid to farmers. However, the administration didn’t disclose some key details like just how much money individual farmers and ranchers will get in cash.
Politico says $14.5 billion is being earmarked for direct payments to producers. USDA developed a new and more complex formula for calculating producers’ compensation to remove incentives for planting certain crops. Instead of being tied to what farmers actually grew in 2019, they’ll be computed on a county-by-county basis. Officials say they’ve estimated the amount of damage inflicted on producers by trade disputes and will then multiply that by the acreage planted in the area. Farmers who don’t plant a crop this year won’t be eligible for cash assistance.
This will likely complicate things for Midwest producers who’ve been battling rain this spring while trying to plant. The USDA’s trade aid package could encourage them to try to plant anyway. The president says the aid would be paid for by the tariffs that China is paying into the U.S. Treasury. That’s not the case. Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue says the USDA will tap into the Commodity Credit Corporation, which has broad authority to stabilize the farm economy.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) —Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly this week faces a key test of her power to shape the state budget and keep moderate Republicans on her side as the GOP-controlled Kansas Legislature prepares to consider overriding her vetoes of spending and tax relief measures.
Lawmakers are set to convene Wednesday to conclude any final business and adjourn for the year. The day is their only chance to enact a Republican tax relief bill and several budget items over vetoes that reflected Kelly’s belief that the measures would create future budget problems.
Republicans have the two-thirds majorities needed in both chambers to override vetoes, so Kelly needs at least a few moderate GOP defections. The votes will come only a week after skittish moderate Republicans abandoned a push with Democrats for Medicaid expansion, causing a plan backed by Kelly to fail.
“We have to rely on moderate Republicans,” said House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer, a Wichita Democrat. “It is a test, and hopefully they will come down on the side of fiscal sanity.”
The tax bill would reduce taxes for individuals and businesses paying more in state income taxes because of changes in federal tax laws at the end of 2017. It has near-universal support among Republicans, but Kelly contends the tax reduction — roughly $240 million over three years — would “decimate” the budget. Republicans say that the tax bill is a matter of fairness, preventing a tax hike that came without legislative action.
Kelly also vetoed an extra $51 million payment to the state pension system for teachers and other state workers. She argued that the state should dump the dollars into its cash reserves as a cushion against a future economic downturn.
Republican leaders argue that a long-term gap in funding for the state pension system remains a cloud over the state’s finances so that an extra payment is worth doing.
Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, a conservative Overland Park Republican, said he also suspects Kelly wants to pad the state’s cash reserves now so that she can tap those dollars to cover extra spending later.
“My assumption is she plans to do a lot of deficit spending going forward,” Denning said.
Even with Kelly’s vetoes of several spending items, the budget for the fiscal year beginning in July is more than $18.3 billion. It includes extra funding for public schools, social services, higher education, prisons and pay raises for state workers.
This year’s budget debate was in sharp contrast to spending debates after lawmakers slashed income taxes in 2012 and 2013 at former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s urging and saw persistent shortfalls follow. Lawmakers reversed most of the tax cuts in 2017 and Kelly ran successfully for governor last year largely against Brownback’s fiscal legacy.
Kelly has cast top Republicans’ pursuit of tax relief this year as a return to Brownback policies, appealing to GOP moderates who helped reverse the Brownback tax cuts. State Rep. Don Hineman, of Dighton, said he and other moderate Republicans are “happy that we seem to be returning to the days of fiscal stability.”
But Hineman said the tax bill appeals to moderates because the state never intended to collect the extra revenue.
“It was a windfall to the state,” Hineman said. “It’s kind of a correction.”
Kansas could face budget problems whether Republicans override Kelly’s tax relief veto or not. Legislative researchers project a $221 million shortfall at the end of June 2022 without the tax relief and a $466 million shortfall if it is enacted, though changes in the economy could make those numbers better or worse.
KANSAS CITY (AP) — Six more fatal shootings in the Kansas City area over the Memorial Day weekend have police concerned about the uptick in violence.
Police on the scene of the Sunday shooting investigation photo courtesy KCTV
The killings occurred between Friday and Sunday and included one man who was killed after struggling with a Kansas City, Missouri, police officer.
Kansas City, Missouri, has recorded 54 homicides this year, up from 48 at the same time a year ago.
Three of the weekend shootings were in Kansas City, Kansas, one in Grandview, Missouri, and two in Kansas City, Missouri.
A suspect in an armed carjacking was shot and killed early Sunday by a Kansas City officer. Police say 30-year-old Terrance Bridges ran from police then resisted arrest when the officer caught up with him. The officer was unhurt.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson is activating the state National Guard to help battle ongoing flooding.
Parson signed an executive order Monday directing National Guard members to help with response efforts in Jefferson City, where residents are still recovering from a tornado that struck last week.
The National Guard is also headed to Chariton County to sandbag around a stressed levee near the central Missouri city of Brunswick.
Parson says local resources were already strained following historic flooding this spring, as well as severe storms and tornadoes that hit the state last week. More could be in store.
Parson is urging residents to watch the weather and be prepared to seek shelter. A release from his office says more severe storms are possible in parts of the state Monday and Tuesday.
TEXAS COUNTY, MO- One person died in an accident just after 6:30p.m. Sunday in Texas County.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2014 Honda Rancher driven by Colton Ogden, 14, Licking, was westbound on Pidgeon Creek Road four miles northeast of Licking. The ATV left the road and traveled through a fence. The driver was ejected and struck a tree.
Ogden was transported to Texas County Memorial Hospital where he died. He was not wearing a helmet, according to the MSHP.
GEARY COUNTY– Law enforcement authorities are investigating a police officer for domestic violence.
Jason Waryan -photo Geary Co.
On Monday, special agents of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) arrested Junction City Police Lieutenant, Jason Waryan, according to a media release from the agency.
The Junction City Police Department contacted the KBI at approximately 1 p.m. on Monday to request an investigation into a domestic violence incident.
The incident occurred in the early hours of the morning between on-duty Lieutenant Jason Waryan, 39 and his live-in girlfriend, Krysteen Harbert, 27. The incident occurred on the 700 block of McClure St in Junction City. Waryan was arrested for domestic battery and criminal restraint. Harbert was arrested for domestic battery.
The KBI released no additional details late Monday.
DECATUR COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a man for attempted murder after an altercation with sheriff’s deputies.
Man intentionally drove the tractor in the sheriff’s vehicle. Photo courtesy WHO-TV
Just after at 3 p.m. Thursday, The Decatur County Iowa Sheriff Ben Boswell and two deputies were dispatched to 14163 -128th Avenue in rural Grand River following a 911 call with a report of an altercation between family members, according to a media release from the Iowa Department of Public Safety.
The initial responding deputy was confronted by 54-year-old Gerry Greenland, who was driving a John Deere 4250 tractor that was outfitted with a front-end bale spear.
As the deputy drove up the driveway, Greenland drove the tractor towards the deputy’s vehicle. The deputy took evasive action to avoid contact with the tractor.
Greenland then drove the tractor towards the vehicle occupied by Sheriff Boswell that was stopped on the grass next to the driveway.
Greenland photo Ringold County
Greenland struck Sheriff Boswell’s vehicle, forcing one of the bale spear tines through the driver’s door and pushing Sheriff Boswell and his vehicle more than 100 feet.
When the tractor and impaled vehicle came to a rest, deputies were able to get Greenland from the tractor and take him into custody without further incident. Sheriff Boswell was unharmed.
The Iowa State Patrol and Division of Criminal Investigation charged Greenland with one count of Attempted Murder.
KANSAS CITY (AP) — Over the past three decades, federal and local governments have poured more than $5 billion into buying tens of thousands of properties that are susceptible to flooding.
September 2018 flooding in Riley County -Photo courtesy RCPD
An analysis of federal data by The Associated Press shows those buyouts have been getting more expensive. Many of the costliest have come during the last decade after strong storms pounded heavily populated coastal states such as Texas, New York and New Jersey.
This year’s record flooding in the Midwest and Plains states could add even more buyouts to the queue.
The purchases are happening as the climate changes. Along rivers and sea coasts, some homes once considered at little risk of flooding are now endangered due to water that is climbing higher and surging farther inland than historic patterns predicted.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Department of Corrections owes counties tens of millions of dollars for housing inmates before they’re transferred to state prisons.
The state is about nine months behind with reimbursements, Corrections spokeswoman Karen Pojmann told KCUR radio.
Data provided by the department shows massive outstanding balances. As of 2018, the state owed the City of St. Louis more than $2,500,000 and almost $1,900,000 to Jackson County.
“Every one of us taxpayers is hit with the burden of this, to hold prisoners for the state,” the Jackson County legislature’s vice chairman Dan Tarwater said.
“It’s an unfunded mandate,” he said.
The agency provides reimbursement of $22.58 per inmate per day, although state law specifies a rate of $37. Some county officials say that is not nearly enough.
Cass County Sheriff Jeff Weber said it costs about $65 a day to house a prisoner.
“There’s two thirds of that cost that we’re eating,” Weber said.
Department Director Anne Precythe told a House Budget Committee in January that it needs to be allocated more money to cover these costs.
“The department receives a $10 million appropriation every quarter and we’re writing $10 million worth of checks in one business day,” Precythe said. “So we’re sitting on go, ready to write it, and when that’s done, we have another 89 days before we get another $10 million.”
It is down to Gov. Mike Parson to decide whether to allocate more money to address the backlog in payments.
Weber, of Cass County, is not optimistic.
“I don’t know what that is, but at the current rate we’re operating, the state will never get ahead,” he said. “We’ll never get these costs caught up and we’re going to keep plunging down that road. And I don’t know what will happen in the future.”
Trust Women runs one of four clinics in Kansas where women can get abortions. FILE PHOTO / CREATIVE COMMONS
That landmark ruling bolsters an ongoing lawsuit to expand access to abortion in Wichita. The case aims to clear the way for a clinic there — unable to find any willing, local doctors — to lean more on physicians in other states.
Trust Women runs one of four clinics in Kansas where women can get abortions. It wants a district judge in Topeka to block the Sedgwick County district attorney and the Kansas Board of Healing Arts from prosecuting or taking other action against doctors who help it.
“People struggle to get access to health care,” Trust Women CEO Julie Burkhart said. “We want to be able to broaden that access for people in Kansas so they can continue to make decisions about their lives and their health care.”
At issue is a state ban on telemedicine abortions — in which a physician isn’t on site at the clinic where a woman takes medication to induce abortion. Instead, the physician consults with her, observes her ultrasound, reviews her medical records and guides her procedure over a remote video connection.
Kansas lawmakers banned telemedicine abortion years ago, but a judge blocked the ban pending a court challenge.
That case is ongoing. But a second lawsuit arose recently because Trust Women fears some state and local agencies won’t follow the judge’s injunction.
The Kansas Attorney General’s Office has argued the years-old injunction isn’t valid anymore and doesn’t apply to all state and local agencies.
The odds of the state winning either of these cases narrowed significantly last month when the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that women have a right to abortion under the state constitution.
The Attorney General’s Office has been arguing in ongoing lawsuits that no such right exists. It withdrew that argument on Wednesday at a hearing in one of the two ongoing lawsuits related to telemedicine abortion.
Wednesday’s hearing was the first in the new lawsuit, which could go to trial by the end of this year.
Trust Women said its staff and physicians already face regular harassment from protesters, and in recent months, they’re facing an investigation by the Kansas Board of Healing Arts, too.
The Board won’t publicly confirm an investigation, what might have prompted a probe and who might be a focus.
Lawyers for Trust Women say the investigation relates to telemedicine abortions, but they declined to elaborate.
Trust Women flies in doctors to Wichita from other states to offer abortions in person there two days a week. It says those hours were too limited, making it difficult for many women to schedule their procedures.
So last October, the clinic added more days by connecting out-of-state doctors to their patients through telemedicine. The clinic stopped at the end of the year for fear of legal trouble.
The clinic has struggled to find doctors based in Wichita. Abortion provider George Tiller — Burkhart’s boss at the time — was murdered at his church in Wichita by an anti-abortion extremist 10 years ago this month.
If it can resume telemedicine abortions, Trust Women hopes eventually to provide abortion in more locations through that means. Namely, remote and rural parts of the state.
Celia Llopis-Jepsen is a reporter for the Kansas News Service.You can reach her on Twitter @Celia_LJ or email celia (at) kcur (dot) org.
Thursday’s disaster aid package rollout was good news for agriculture but many of the details are still uncertain. The total aid amount could come in at $16 billion and will cover a wider range of crops than last year’s aid to farmers. However, the administration didn’t disclose some key details like just how much money individual farmers and ranchers will get in cash.
