TOPEKA– Data from the latest revenue report released Wednesday indicates the state has collected $196.52 million over last fiscal year at this time, totaling $2.02 billion this year, according to a media release from the Kansas Department of Revenue.
So far this fiscal year that started in July, the state has collected $884.09 million in total individual tax, which amounts to $143.03 million over last year. In the same time span, sales tax collections total $793.08 million, putting it $30.11 million over last year. Corporate income tax collections continue to vastly exceed previous year collections by $23.67 million.
“This trend of higher than last year corporate receipts confirm expectations of an improved economic climate taking root,” Revenue Secretary Sam Williams said. “That becomes even more distinct when looking at the modest growth in sales tax receipts.”
October tax receipts totaled $500.71 million, which is $53.69 million over October last year. Individual income tax collections totaled $229.42 for the month, while sales tax revenue came in at $194.19 million. Corporate income tax totaled $16.58 million.
The Consensus Revenue Estimating group will meet Thursday and release projections indicating how much revenue the state expects to collect for fiscal years 18 and 19.
Vehicle involved in the fatal January crash-photo KCPD
KANSAS CITY— (AP) – A suburban Kansas City man has been charged with driving under the influence of marijuana in a crash that killed two 18-year-olds.
Nineteen-year-old Rodriquez Franklin, of Lee’s Summit, was charged Tuesday with two counts of driving while intoxicated leading to death. Prosecutors also filed alternative counts of first-degree involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors requested that bond be set at $50,000. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.
The charges stem from a crash in January that killed Kaeden Hernandez and Zachary Meyers. The police investigation found that Franklin was speeding when he lost control, struck a curb and a large tree in southern Kansas City. Court records say Franklin was following a car that belonged to his girlfriend. The girlfriend said she didn’t know who was following her.
Kansas legislators voted this session to retract tax exemptions for thousands of business owners and to raise individual income tax rates. Whether those moves helped to fix the Kansas budget remains to be seen.-file photo Kansas News Service
After wrestling to balance the budget for years, Kansas lawmakers bit the bullet this spring and agreed to undo many of Gov. Sam Brownback’s signature 2012 tax cuts.
The question now is whether they have done enough to fix the state budget, as many promised to do in the 2016 campaign. Lawmakers will get a better idea of the state’s financial situation later this week when the consensus revenue estimating group determines whether revenues are tracking with projections.
Kansas lawmakers overrode Brownback’s veto of a tax plan in June, retracting the 2012 income tax exemption for thousands of business owners and raising individual income tax rates.
At the time, Republican Rep. Stephanie Clayton of Overland Park found it hard to believe they had taken a step toward fixing the budget.
Rep. Stephanie Clayton
“I think that it was very big. It hasn’t even sunk in yet, honestly, the reality,” Clayton said.
Four days after the tax vote, lawmakers approved a budget with some targeted spending increases — including $300 million more for schools over two years — in the hopes that it would be enough to satisfy the Kansas Supreme Court and end a long-running battle over public school funding.
But in an order issued after the Legislature adjourned, the court said the increase that lawmakers approved was not sufficient to ensure adequate and equitable funding — a clear indication that work remains before lawmakers can claim they have stabilized the budget.
There are other indications as well.
The Kansas Constitution requires a balanced budget, so lawmakers and other policymakers keep a close eye on revenue reports and estimates.
Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, a conservative Republican from Shawnee, said the state isn’t able to make its scheduled contributions to the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System.
“We can pretend that we have a balanced budget, that there has been some sort of structural fix,” Pilcher-Cook said. “This is a fake budget that does not pay our bills.”
A “structural fix” would mean the Kansas budget is balanced without any accounting tricks or one-time cash.
Kicking the can?
After the 2012 tax cuts took effect, state tax collections tumbled by $700 million in the first year as Kansans kept more of their income. Tax collections in 2018 are expected to rebound back to roughly where they were before.
Revenue estimators will be looking for evidence that is happening when they meet Thursday.
Republican House Majority Leader Don Hineman of Dighton said in August that for the first time in a while, Kansas tax collections were beating estimates. He is among those counting on that trend continuing.
“That’s good news in terms of the budget,” Hineman said. “It raises the possibility that maybe we make some downward adjustment to tax rates in the future if we can.”
Dave Trabert, president of the Kansas Policy Institute, a nonprofit organization focused on limited government, said the tax increase won’t be enough to stabilize the budget. There will continue to be structural problems until spending is substantially reduced.
“The can has been kicked down the road as far as possible,” he said. “We’re going to have to get spending under control.”
The state needs a top-to-bottom overhaul to employ efficiencies and cut spending, according to Trabert. If lawmakers don’t do that, he said, the budget will be in the red by 2020, even before considering additional costs for services like education.
“Whether they want to admit it or not, history says they are setting Kansans up for perhaps the mother of all tax increases,” Trabert said.
Uncertainty remains because official state budget estimates only cover two years. Nonpartisan legislative staff said internal budget projections they’ve produced show the state could be in the red in 2020, driven by variables like pension costs.
Heidi Holliday leads the Kansas Center for Economic Growth, a nonprofit organization that often takes the opposite view of the Kansas Policy Institute. Sitting in her office recently with her newborn son, Holliday said spending cuts aren’t the answer to the state’s fiscal challenges, because they would hinder the state’s ability to make needed investments in education, social services and other critical programs.
“As I was sitting in (legislative) committee hearings pregnant, I was thinking about, ‘What legacy are we leaving for kids that are growing up in Kansas?’” she said.
For her, enhancing that legacy means Kansas officials should be investing more in state services.
“We’re already operating pretty bare bones,” Holliday said. “I think what we have to look at moving forward are ways that we can raise additional revenue through the state.”
She suggests options including new taxes on services and on internet sales.
A complicating factor: school finance
The recent Kansas Supreme Court ruling declaring public school funding inadequate further complicates the state budget picture. That could force Kansas lawmakers to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars more for education.
Republican Rep. Steven Johnson, chairman of the House Tax Committee, was feeling upbeat about the fiscal forecast before the court’s ruling thanks to growing tax collections.
After the ruling, Johnson said he was “much less confident” about the state’s financial situation because positive tax collections alone won’t balance the budget and provide additional money for schools.
“You’ve got to have growth beyond our wildest expectations to be able to even meet a meaningful part of it,” he said.
Rep. Jim Ward of Wichita, the top Democrat in the Kansas House, said it makes sense to expect several years of work to fix the state’s fiscal issues.
“We didn’t get so far underwater overnight,” Ward said. “We’re not getting out immediately, nor should we. That’s too much of a shock to the system.”
Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for Kansas Public Radio, a partner in the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @kprkoranda.
This image shows only a portion of the graffiti Photo courtesy Andrew Hammond
RILEY COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a report of racist graffiti.
Just before 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, the Riley County Police Department received a report of a vehicle defaced with graffiti in the 2200 block of Claflin Road in Manhattan, just a few blocks south of the Kansas State University campus.
According to a media release, the crime occurred sometime between 1:30 a.m. – 3:00 a.m. Wednesday morning and contains racial slurs and a threat.
Officers immediately began investigating and are in the process of filing a criminal report.
Anyone with information on this crime is asked to contact the Riley County Police Department at (785) 537-2112 or Crime Stoppers at (785) 539- 7777. Using the Crime Stoppers service allows you to remain anonymous and could qualify you for a cash reward of up to $1,000.00.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos is calling for the peace process in his county to serve as a beacon of hope while accepting an honorary degree from a U.S. university.
Santos spoke Tuesday at the University of Kansas, where he earned degrees in business and economics in 1973. Santos won last year’s Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end his country’s civil war after five decades of bloodshed.
Santos says that despite differences, people need to coexist in times of conflict, when extremism, radicalism, racism or populism might arise. Santos says we “do not fight evil with evil.”
Santos also says it is always easier to wage war than seek peace and to “go for the emotions rather than for the arguments.”
SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities continue to investigating the report of shots fired at a business in Wichita. Authorities evacuated a building but Police found no shooter. No injuries are reported.
Report of active shooter in the 3300 block of N. Webb is unfounded as of this time. Officers still investigating.
SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a report of shots fired at a business in Wichita.
Just after 8:40 a.m. Wednesday, officers were sent to an active shooter call in the 3300 block of north Webb Road, in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson in a media release.
Police did not confirm a report of shots being fired and there are no victims, according to Davidson.
Check Hutch Post for additional details as they become available.
OXFORD, Neb. (AP) – A competency evaluation has been ordered for a man accused of pulling an emergency brake to stop an Amtrak train in south-central Nebraska.
Court records say the attorney for 25-year-old Taylor Wilson, of St. Charles, Missouri, told a judge Monday that Wilson was incompetent to stand trial. The judge then approved a motion for the evaluation.
Wilson remained in Furnas County Jail on Wednesday. His next court date is Nov. 27.
The eastbound train with about 175 people aboard halted Oct. 21 in Oxford, 40 miles northeast of Norton, Kansas. Court documents say a Furnas County deputy sent to the scene found Amtrak employees holding Wilson. The documents say the deputy found a loaded revolver in Wilson’s waistband and more ammo in one of his pockets.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Latest on the truck attack on a bike path near the World Trade Center (all times local):
8:10 a.m.
President Donald Trump is calling for “Merit Based immigration” following the deadly truck attack in New York City that killed eight people and injured 11.
The terrorist came into our country through what is called the “Diversity Visa Lottery Program,” a Chuck Schumer beauty. I want merit based.
Trump says on Twitter on Wednesday that the driver in Tuesday’s attack “came into our country through what is called the ‘Diversity Visa Lottery Program,’ a Chuck Schumer beauty.”
Officials said the attacker is an immigrant from Uzbekistan who came to the U.S. legally in 2010. They haven’t said whether he came in through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, which covers immigrants from countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S.
Trump tweeted, “We are fighting hard for Merit Based immigration, no more Democrat Lottery Systems. We must get MUCH tougher (and smarter).”
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7:55 a.m.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says investigators probing the deadly truck attack along a popular bike path near the World Trade Center have a note referencing the Islamic State.
Cuomo stressed Wednesday on “CBS This Morning” that the investigation is ongoing.
Law enforcers are working to determine what led the pickup truck driver to plow down people on the bike path on Tuesday afternoon. The driver is in critical condition after police shot him in the abdomen.
Cuomo calls the driver a “depraved coward,” and says the attack “did not instill terror” among hardy New Yorkers.
5a.m.
Investigators are working to determine what led a pickup truck driver to plow down people on a riverfront bike path near the World Trade Center, killing eight.
New York’s mayor called Tuesday’s attack “a particularly cowardly act of terror.”
The driver is in critical condition after police shot him in the abdomen.
Authorities said after crashing the truck, he brandished air guns and yelled what witnesses said was “Allahu Akbar,” which is Arabic for “God is great.”
Officials who weren’t authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity identified the attacker as 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov. They say he came to the U.S. legally from Uzbekistan in 2010.
One of the dead is from Belgium and five others were from Argentina.
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Witnesses have described a chaotic scene of a white pickup truck hitting bicyclists on a path near the World Trade Center and then slamming into a school bus. They say the driver got out of his vehicle brandishing what appeared to be a gun in each hand.
Manhattan restaurant chef Eugene Duffy was crossing a street when he heard something, turned back and saw the pickup truck on the bike path. He says he saw the bodies of two men on the ground, their bikes mangled.
He says he ran south and saw a yellow half-size school bus that appeared to have been T-boned and firefighters trying to get children out.
A law enforcement official says at least six people were killed and at least nine people were injured when a rented van struck them. The case is being investigated as possible terrorism.
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4:45 p.m.
The White House says President Donald Trump has been briefed on the vehicle that drove onto a bike path near the World Trade Center and struck several people.
I have just ordered Homeland Security to step up our already Extreme Vetting Program. Being politically correct is fine, but not for this!
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders says the president and New York native has been briefed by White House chief of staff John Kelly and “will be continually updated as more details are known.”
Sanders says, “Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected.”
A law enforcement official says at least six people were killed and at least nine people were injured when a rented van struck them on Tuesday.
 
The suspect is in custody. This is preliminary, more information to follow.
The New York Police Department posted on its Twitter feed that one person was in custody. The department says it’s unclear whether anyone was shot.
A man who was riding in an Uber along the West Side Highway near Chambers street says he saw several bleeding people on the ground after a truck struck several people.
A witness said the truck had also collided with a small bus and one other vehicle.
LENEXA, Kan. (AP) – Police and court records say an investigation into a man found sleeping with his two children in a Kansas storage unit has led to the discovery of a body in a cooler.
Thirty-five-year-old Justin Rey is jailed on $1 million bond in Johnson County, Kansas, on two counts each of aggravated child endangerment and contributing to a child’s misconduct. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.
Police in the Kansas City suburb of Lenexa say the remains were discovered when officers checked on two small children who had no food or diapers.
A Jackson County, Missouri, search warrant obtained by KCTV says a man taken into custody at the storage facility told authorities his wife killed herself after giving birth to their newborn and that her remains were inside a cooler.
ELLIS COUNTY —A Kansas man was arrested following a lengthy chase with law enforcement Monday in Ellis County.
According to Hays Police Lt. Brandon Wright, 21-year-old Eduardo Chavez-Pacheco was arrested Monday north of Hays after leading law enforcement of a chase that lasted more than 40 minutes.
Chavez-Pacheco, 21, Hays was spotted driving a minivan in the 1500 block of West 27th Street by a Hays Police officer, according to Wright. The officer was aware Chavez-Pacheco had three outstanding warrants in Ellis County and attempted to conduct a traffic stop. Chavez-Pacheco reportedly fled the scene and the chase began at 8:41 p.m.
After exiting the trailer park, Chavez-Pacheco led officers on a chase onto the Highway 183 Alternate. He then turned onto 41st street and led officers back south through Hays. The chase continued to the south end of Main Street and then went south on 240th Avenue. According to Wright, the Hays PD lost sight of minivan in the area of 210th and Mount Pleasant Road due to low visibility from dust.
Shortly after the Hays PD lost sight of the minivan, Kansas Highway Patrol troopers in the area spotted Chavez-Pacheco traveling north on Yocemento from Highway 40. KHP continued pursuit of the vehicle on country roads in northern Ellis County.
Wright said stop sticks were successfully deployed neared Hyacinth Avenue and Locust Grove Road and the vehicle stopped at 9:27 p.m.
Chavez-Pacheco led law enforcement a brief foot chase and, moments later, the Highway Patrol placed him under arrest.
He was arrested on suspicion of felony fleeing and eluding, driving with a suspended or expired license, drug possession and possession of drug paraphernalia and interference with law enforcement. Chavez-Pacheco had a warrant out for failure to appear from the Hays PD with Municipal Court and two probation violations from Ellis County. Chavez-Pacheco also has two previous drug convictions from February of 2017.
TOPEKA– Data from the latest revenue report released Wednesday indicates the state has collected $196.52 million over last fiscal year at this time, totaling $2.02 billion this year, according to a media release from the Kansas Department of Revenue.
