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Headlines for Monday, June 3, 2024

A graphic representation of eight radios of various vintages, underneath the words "Kansas Public Radio News Summary"
Emily DeMarchi
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KPR

Kansas Revenues Come in Short of Estimates for Month of May

UNDATED (KNS) – Kansas tax collections fell far short of expectations in May, after a revenue spike the previous month. The Kansas News Service reports that the state brought in about $660 million in taxes last month, 20 percent less than predicted. Kansas took in less than half of what was anticipated in corporate income taxes. Personal income taxes were also well below the forecast. But those May numbers might be a result of higher collections in April. The Kansas Department of Revenue says faster processing of tax payments inflated revenue in April and led to lower numbers in May. The shortfall comes two weeks before lawmakers hold a special session to consider state tax cuts.

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Man Claims He Was Abducted in Oklahoma, Escaped Captors in Kansas

UNDATED (KPR) - Authorities in Kansas and Nebraska are looking for two men accused of kidnapping another man. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is now looking into the bizarre and unfolding case in which a man in Oberlin, Kansas, told police he had been abducted and held histage by two men. Late Saturday morning, the victim told police he had been kidnapped from a bar in Oklahoma and was held captive until he was able to escape in Decatur County, Kansas. Authorities in Kansas and Nebraska are currently trying to locate two suspects: a white male and a black male, who are considered to be armed and dangerous.

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Kansas Senator Working to Speed Up Mail Delivery in Kansas City Area

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (KPR) - Slow mail delivery has been plaguing the Kansas City area and now, Kansas Senator Roger Marshall says he's trying to do something about it. Marshall helped secure an audit of U.S. mail services at Kansas City's mail processing and distribution Center. As part of the audit, the USPS Office of Inspector General will conduct a thorough review of delivery operations and property conditions at post offices in KCK, Mission and Kansas City, Missouri.

"This audit is a great first step in getting much-needed answers for the Kansas City area communities who deserve reliable mail services," Marshall said. "We have been sounding the alarm on these delays for months and are now in close contact with the USPS. This audit represents a significant step toward improving services for Kansans," he said

The Kansas-Missouri region has been significantly affected by mail delivery delays, with some of the worst performance data of any region in the country. According to the USPS's online service performance dashboard, less than 68% of First-Class Mail is delivered on time, with an average delivery time of over three days.

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Chair of Kansas Senate Education Committee Won't Seek Re-Election

UNDATED (KNS) – The Republican lawmaker who chairs the Education Committee in the Kansas Senate is not running for re-election this year. State Senator Molly Baumgardner withdrew her filing for Senate District 37, south of Kansas City, as Monday's noon deadline approached. The Kansas News Service reports that Baumgardner has served in the Kansas Senate since 2014. She pushed for the creation of the state’s Dyslexia Task Force in 2018 and the Kansas Blueprint for Literacy, which was adopted earlier this spring.

Republican Doug Shane filed to run for Baumgardner’s seat. His opponent will be Democrat Sherry Giebler, a counselor and community volunteer.

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Tick-Related Illnesses on the Rise in Kansas and Missouri

UNDATED (KCUR) – Cases of tick-related illnesses are increasing in Kansas and Missouri as summers get longer and hotter. One of those diseases is alpha-gal syndrome, or AGS. That's an allergy to red meat that usually occurs after a tick bite. Taylor Harris with the Platte County Health Department in Missouri suggests wearing long clothing and using insect repellent if you go into the woods or areas with long grass, cautioning that “...after you are out in woody areas, be sure to examine yourself and even your pets for ticks and try to remove those immediately.” Symptoms of AGS usually appear a few hours after eating. They range from hives to vomiting to a life-threatening drop in blood pressure.

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Smallest School District in Kansas Close to Closure

LIBERAL, Kan. (KNS) – The smallest school district in the state - Healy, in western Kansas - is on the verge of closing because of low student enrollment. It's a trend that could affect other rural schools in Kansas. Healy Public Schools has seen student enrollment drop by nearly half since 2021. Only 21 students were enrolled this year. Projections from Wichita State University show rural counties in Kansas could lose up to half of their population in the next 50 years, further stressing school districts and their budgets. Lawmakers passed a bill to stop funding from going to a school district with no students attending classes there. But that could complicate funding allocations as rural school districts consolidate or share students and resources. Healy Superintendent Jeff Jones declined to comment on the potential closure.

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Interactive Map Educates Kansans About Federal Drug Savings Program

UNDATED (KNS) – A recently published interactive map helps Kansans learn which hospitals in the state participate in a federal drug savings program called 340B. The Kansas News Service reports that the map, created by the Alliance for Integrity and Reform of 340B, also highlights news articles exposing hospitals that misuse the program. Nicole Longo, a representative for the alliance, says 340B was originally designed as a way for hospitals that serve low-income communities to lower prescription drug costs. But Longo says some hospitals profit by marking up the price of the discounted drugs, making patients pay more. “The website and tool is to help everyday people get a better sense of how the 340B program works in their state and to give them the information they need to ask their hospitals what they’re doing with the program,” she explained. Longo says more than 90 hospitals in Kansas are part of the 340B program.

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The Kansas Supreme Court Has Ruled That Voting Is Not a Fundamental Right. What's Next For Voters?

UNDATED (AP) – A split Kansas Supreme Court ruling last week issued in a lawsuit over a 2021 election law found that voting is not a fundamental right listed in the state Constitution's Bill of Rights.

The finding drew sharp criticism from three dissenting justices on the high court. The Associated Press looks at what the ruling might mean for Kansas residents and future elections.

WHAT IS THE ISSUE?
The ruling itself is wide-reaching, combining different lawsuits at various stages of litigation that challenge three different segments of a 2021 election law passed by the Kansas Legislature. It was a lawsuit challenging a ballot signature verification measure in which a majority of the high court found there is no right to vote enshrined in the Kansas Constitution’s Bill of Rights.

The measure requires election officials to match the signatures on advance mail ballots to a person’s voter registration record. The high court reversed a lower court’s dismissal of that lawsuit and instructed the lower court to consider whether the measure violates the equal protection rights of voters. But four of the court's seven justices rejected arguments that the measure violates voting rights under the state's Bill of Rights.

WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?
The decision was written by Justice Caleb Stegall, who is seen as the most conservative of the court’s seven justices, five of whom were appointed by Democratic governors. Stegall dismissed the strongly-worded objections of the dissenting justices, saying there in not a “fundamental right to vote” in Section 2 of the Bill of Rights, as the groups had argued. The dissenting justices said that ignores long-held precedent by the Kansas Supreme Court. Justice Eric Rosen said “it staggers my imagination” to conclude Kansas citizens have no fundamental right to vote and called the majority opinion a “betrayal of our constitutional duty to safeguard the foundational rights of Kansans.” Justice Melissa Taylor Standridge called the decision troubling, with far-reaching implications, and that the ruling “defies history, law, and logic and is just plain wrong.” “For over 60 years, this interpretation of section 2 has been our precedent,” she wrote. “Without even a hint that it’s doing so, the majority overturns this precedent today.”

WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE RULING?
A determination that voting is not a fundamental right could embolden state lawmakers to push for further restrictions on advance voting and mail-in ballots, said Jamie Shew, election officer for Douglas County. The constant changes in election law are also confusing not only to election officials, but to voters, Shew said. “I’ve had two voters who came in this morning, and they’re like, ‘Well, I read the paper about signature verification. Is my signature going to get tossed out?’” he recalled. “They were really nervous about it.” Election laws had been fairly constant since the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act by Congress, Shew said. But that changed in 2013, when the U.S. Supreme Court tossed out a key provision of that act, he said. “Since then the rules just keep changing,” Shew said. “And I think our job is making sure that voters not only don’t get confused, but also don’t get frustrated and just stop participating.”

HOW DID WE GET HERE?
The Republican-led Legislature passed a raft of election law changes in 2021 over Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto amid false claims by some in the GOP that the 2020 presidential election wasn’t valid. Since that election, there have been lawsuits over voting across the country, and partisan election law battles have continued in in high-profile states like GeorgiaArizona and Wisconsin. Fights for election advantage are also being waged in smaller states like South Dakota and Nebraska.

WHAT'S NEXT?
Shew said he and other election officials will focus on meting out the state's voting laws fairly and helping make sure the public understands them. Justice Dan Biles said in his dissent that courts must insist that the signature verification requirement — if it survives the lawsuit against it — is handled reliably and uniformly across the state. That includes analyzing the procedures for how a mismatched signature is flagged, how a voter is notified of the mismatch and whether the voter is given a reasonable opportunity to cure the problem. “The Kansas Constitution explicitly sets forth—and absolutely protects—a citizen’s right to vote as the foundation of our democratic republic,” Biles wrote, “so it is serious business when a government official in one of our 105 counties rejects an otherwise lawful ballot just by eyeballing the signature on the outside envelope.”

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Bill Haw, Former National Farms CEO, Dies at Age 85

UNDATED (KCUR) – A Kansas City business leader who left a lasting legacy in the Flint Hills died on Thursday of last week. KCUR reports that Bill Haw, Sr., was CEO for more than 40 years of the cattle-feeding business National Farms. He bought large swaths of land in the Kansas Flint Hills and transformed ranching practices in the region. His “intensive grazing” method is now standard practice. When Haw decided to sell his Flint Hills ranches three years ago, he worked to preserve an area about half the size of Shawnee, Kansas. He spoke with KCUR about the deal in 2021, saying that “...we've placed a conservation easement, which is for eternity to ensure that it will never change."

Haw, who was 85, also owned the Livestock Exchange Building in Kansas City, and developed real estate in the West Bottoms area around it.

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Former Overland Park Police Officer Lands Job as Douglas County Sheriff's Deputy

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (JoCoPost) – A former Overland Park police sergeant accused of mishandling charity funds has landed a new law enforcement job, one county over. The Johnson County Post reports that Tim Tinnin was one of four Overland Park officers accused of mishandling funds for a charity intended to help the families of fallen police officers. An audit found the officers disbursed thousands of dollars to themselves to pay for personal expenses. They were never charged with any crimes, but all four resigned from the Overland Park police department last year. In January, Tinnin was hired as a deputy in the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Jay Armbrister said in a statement that a background check found evidence that Tinnin did, in fact, take charity money to help pay his family’s bills. But Armbrister says it was a mistake, and Tinnin deserves the “opportunity to show this is not who he is."

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Summer Temps Rising in Midwest and Plains

UNDATED (KNS) - Summers are bringing more unpleasantly hot and humid days to the Midwest and Great Plains than in the past. Over the past half century, average summer temperatures have risen in the middle of the country. That’s according to Climate Central, a nonprofit group that compiles weather data. Compared with 1970, St. Louis now gets an extra three weeks per summer of hotter-than-usual weather. Topeka gets an extra two weeks. Wichita, an extra week. Kansas City, a few days. At night, those cities don’t cool off as much as they used to. Yet, the Midwest isn’t warming as quickly as some other parts of the country, like the Southwest and the East Coast.

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Emerald Ash Borer Detected in Lyon County

MANHATTAN, Kan. (KPR) – Tree experts say the Emerald Ash Borer has been discovered in Lyon County. The Kansas Department of Agriculture recently confirmed the presence of the damaging insect in Emporia. Lyon County is now the 14th county in Kansas confirmed to have the invasive insect. The beetle is responsible for the destruction of tens of millions of ash trees in 30 states. The pest was first discovered in Kansas 12 years ago, in Wyandotte County.

The Emerald Ash Borer – as its name suggests – is a green, invasive, wood-boring beetle that kills ash trees by eating tissues under the bark. Adult beetles are known to emerge in mid-to-late-May. Tree experts at Kansas State University say early detection and proper treatment can save some of the infected trees.

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Kansas Supreme Court Majority: State Constitution Does Not Include a Right to Vote

UNDATED (AP) – The Kansas Supreme Court offered a mixed bag in a ruling Friday that combined several challenges to a 2021 election law, siding with state officials on one provision, reviving challenges to others and offering the possibility that at least one will be halted before this year's general election.

But it was the ballot signature verification measure's majority opinion — which stated there is no right to vote enshrined in the Kansas Constitution's Bill of Rights — that drew fiery dissent from three of the court's seven justices.

The measure requires election officials to match the signatures on advance mail ballots to a person’s voter registration record. The state Supreme Court reversed a lower court’s dismissal of that lawsuit, but the majority rejected arguments from voting rights groups that the measure violates state constitutional voting rights.

In fact, Justice Caleb Stegall, writing for the majority, said that the dissenting justices wrongly accused the majority of ignoring past precedent, holding that the court has not identified a “fundamental right to vote” within the state constitution. “It simply is not there,” Stegall wrote.

Justice Eric Rosen, one of the three who dissented, shot back: “It staggers my imagination to conclude Kansas citizens have no fundamental right to vote under their state constitution.”

Conversely, the high court unanimously sided with the challengers of a different provision that makes it a crime for someone to give the appearance of being an election official. Voting rights groups, including Kansas League of Women Voters and the nonprofit Loud Light, argued the measure suppresses free speech and their ability to register voters as some might wrongly assume volunteers are election workers, putting them at risk of criminal prosecution. A Shawnee County District Court judge had earlier rejected the groups' request for an emergency injunction, saying that impersonation of a public official is not protected speech.

But the high court faulted the new law, noting that it doesn't include any requirement that prosecutors show intent by a voter registration volunteer to misrepresent or deceive people into believing they're an election official, and it thus “criminalizes honest speech” where “occasional misunderstandings” are bound to occur, Stegall wrote in the majority opinion. “As such, it sweeps up protected speech in its net,” Stegall said. Because the lawsuit over the false impersonation law's constitutionality is likely to succeed, the state Supreme Court ordered the lower court to reconsider issuing an emergency injunction against it.

“For three years now, Kansas League of Women Voters volunteers have been forced to severely limit their assistance of voters due to this ambiguous and threatening law," said Martha Pint, president of the chapter. "The League’s critical voter assistance work is not a crime, and we are confident this provision will be quickly blocked when the case returns to the district court.” Loud Light executive director Davis Hammet said he hopes the lower court “will stop the irreparable harm caused daily by the law and allow us to resume voter registration before the general election."

Neither Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab nor state Attorney General Kris Kobach responded to requests for comment on that portion of the high court's ruling. Instead, in a joint statement, Schwab and Kobach focus on the high court's language bolstering the signature verification law and its upholding of a provision that says individuals may collect no more than 10 advance ballots to submit to election officials. "This ruling allows us to preserve reasonable election security laws in Kansas,” Schwab said.

Supporters have argued the ballot collection restriction combats “ballot harvesting” and limits voter fraud. The GOP-led Legislature passed it over a veto by Democratic Governor Laura Kelly. Critics have said it's a Republican reaction to baseless claims that the 2020 election was not valid, which prompted a wave of misinformation and voter suppression laws across the country.

Last year, the Kansas Court of Appeals reinstated a lawsuit challenging the ballot collection limitation and the signature verification, saying both impair the right to vote. But the high court upheld the limit on ballot collections, saying “voters have numerous avenues available to deliver their ballots” and that ballot collecting doesn't fall within the parameters of free speech.

Kobach defended the majority's opinion as “well-reasoned” and confirms that the Legislature has the constitutional authority to establish proofs “to ensure voters are who they say they are.” “And that is exactly what Kansas’s signature verification requirement is," Kobach said.

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Sunday Presentation in Emporia Covers History of the Kansas Historical Society

EMPORIA, Kan. (KPR) - No doubt you've heard of the Kansas Historical Society, which collects and catalogues the history of Kansas. But what about the history of the Historical Society itself? This Sunday afternoon in Emporia, the Executive Director of the organization, Patrick Zollner, will present the History of the Kansas Historical Society. The free presentation begins at 2 pm Sunday at Red Rocks State Historic Site, the former home of writer and publisher William Allen White. Zollner will also discuss the redesign of the Kansas History Museum in Topeka.

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Kansas Among States Addressing Property Tax Hikes

UNDATED (AP) – For retirees Tom and Beverly McAdam, the good news is the value of their two-bedroom home in suburban Denver has risen 45% since they purchased it more than six years ago.

That's also the bad news, costing them thousands more in real estate taxes and leaving less for discretionary spending.

“To pay the higher property taxes, it just means we’ve got to take more money out of our investments when it comes time to hit those big bills,” Beverly McAdam said.

She backs a Colorado ballot proposal that could cap the growth of property tax revenue. It's one of several measures in states this year to limit, cut or offset escalating property taxes in response to complaints.

Over the past five years, single-family home prices have risen about 54% nationally, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

That means higher tax bills for homeowners when governments don’t offset higher real estate values by reducing tax rates. And with offices seeing higher vacancies as people still work from home after the coronavirus pandemic, some commercial property values are declining, putting even more pressure on residential properties to deliver revenues.

“With assessed values skyrocketing over the past few years,” said Jared Walczak, vice president of state projects at the nonprofit Tax Foundation, “homeowners are clamoring for relief, and state policymakers are increasingly exploring ways to provide it.”

Colorado, like Alabama and Wyoming, also has a new law that will limit the growth in tax-assessed values for homeowners. Property tax relief will be part of a special legislative session beginning June 18 in Kansas, while Nebraska also could hold a special session to cut property taxes.

Georgia voters will decide in November whether to authorize a new law limiting increases in assessed home values for tax purposes to the rate of inflation, unless local governments or school boards opt out.

Five years ago, Lanell Griffith and her husband paid a little less than $2,700 in property taxes on their Topeka, Kansas, home in a historic neighborhood of tree-lined, brick streets. Their bill last year was more than $3,700.

“The government shouldn’t be able to arbitrarily just increase what they say you owe them without any sort of guardrails on that,” Griffith said.

Kansas lawmakers this year passed three measures that would have reduced the state's property tax levy for public schools. But each was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly because of concerns about other sections to cut income taxes. The special session will mark a fourth attempt at consensus.

In Vermont, Republican Gov. Phil Scott has vowed to veto a bill that would raise property taxes by an average of nearly 14% to provide more money for public schools. Scott said people “simply cannot afford a historic, double digit property tax increase.”

In many states, property taxes are primarily a function of local governments such as counties, cities, school boards and special districts for libraries, fire departments and water systems. Each entity sets its own property tax rate, which is added to the others to come up with an overall tax bill for property owners.

State legislatures can intervene in a variety of ways. They can establish statewide limits on how much assessed property values can rise, create partial tax exemptions for all homeowners or provide income tax credits to help offset property taxes for certain people, such as those 65 and older.

But any relief carries consequences. Limits on the growth of assessed property values may provide a greater benefit to the wealthy. Exemptions for homes used as primary residences can shift a greater tax burden to rental properties and businesses.

"If you do this too much, you can now start tying the hands of your local government and cutting them off from the ability to raise revenue," said Richard Auxier, a principal policy associate at the nonprofit Tax Policy Center.

While signing several property tax relief laws this year, Republican Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon vetoed one that would have exempted 25% of a home's value from property taxes. He said it “jeopardized the financial stability of the state and counties.”

In 1982, voters in Muscogee County, Georgia, approved a local ordinance freezing assessed property values for homes used as primary residences. The result: longtime homeowners pay very little, newcomers pay more and businesses face some of the state's highest property tax rates, said Suzanne Widenhouse, the county’s chief appraiser.

Last year, two similar homes worth around $330,000 had dramatically different tax bills. One, whose assessed value was frozen in the 1980s, owed less than $8. The other, whose assessed value was frozen when purchased about five years ago, owed $3,236, Widenhouse said.

“Anytime you grant an exemption, you create an inequality,” she said.

A Georgia ballot measure would amend the constitution to allow increases in assessed property values to be capped at the rate of inflation. But it wouldn’t undo past increases.

In the eight years since Rob Romeijn bought a ranch-style house on 10 acres (4 hectares) southeast of Atlanta, Rockdale County has raised the assessed value of his property from $127,000 to $230,000, also bumping up his property tax bill, he said.

As a Dutch immigrant with permanent residency, Romeijn can’t vote in elections in Conyers, but he was so unhappy about the increase that he made a sign urging people to vote out Rockdale’s commissioners and protested outside county offices in April.

Colorado also has been at the center of the property tax debate. The state has experienced decades-long growth in new residents, driving up demand for housing. Meanwhile, it has struggled to find a balance between providing tax relief for homeowners and sufficient funding for local governments.

A 1982 constitutional amendment limited residential properties to 45% of Colorado’s total property tax base while also setting a fixed assessment rate for commercial properties. To keep the ratio in balance as home values rose, residential tax assessments were cut, leaving less revenue for essential services such as fire districts.

Colorado voters repealed that constitutional provision in 2020. Since then, assessed home values have risen rapidly and the General Assembly has responded. The latest law, signed in May, is projected to shave over $1 billion annually off future property tax revenue by reducing tax rates and imposing growth limits.

But that’s not enough to satisfy some residents. The conservative group Advance Colorado backed a citizens initiative asking voters in November to cap all property tax revenue growth at 4% per year and is gathering signatures for still another ballot initiative to lower property taxes.

“People are saying this is too much growth; government doesn’t need this much money,” Advance Colorado President Michael Fields said. "People are genuinely scared of losing their houses.”

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K-State Baseball Team Advances to NCAA Super-Regionals

UNDATED (KPR) - The Kansas State baseball team has advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals for the first time since 2013. In Fayetteville, Arkansas, over the weekend, the Wildcats defeated Southeast Missouri State, 7-2. In the second inning, K-State sent nine men to the plate and scored four runs. The Wildcats added three more in the third for a 7-0 lead and held SEMO in check until the eighth when the Redhawks scored their only runs. K-State’s big hitter for the weekend was Chuck Ingram, a senior from Belton, Missouri, who played three seasons at Wichita State before transferring to the Wildcats program. Ingram went 7-for-11 with two homers and drove in six runs at the regional.

K-State will play at the University of Virginia in a best-of-three series this weekend. The winner of the super-regional will advance to the College World Series in Omaha.

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This summary of area news is curated by KPR news staffers. Our headlines are generally published by 10 am weekdays and are updated through 7 pm. This ad-free news summary is made possible by KPR members. Become one today. And follow KPR News on X (formerly Twitter,).