HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Arconic may have a new owner in the near future. The private-equity firm Apollo Global Management LLC is nearing a deal to buy the aluminum products company for more than $10 billion, ending months of negotiation over what would be one of the largest leveraged buyouts in recent years.
Apollo would pay between $21 and $22 per share in a deal that’s likely to be announced this week, people familiar with the matter said.
Arconic, which had a market value of about $9.3 billion Tuesday morning, has been an embattled entity ever since it spun off from Alcoa two years ago. Since then, the company has been under a continuous power struggle and several investment groups have expressed interest in buying the company.
Arconic employs about 75 workers at its metals finishing plant in Hutchinson. The plant provides aluminum and alloys for the aerospace market.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — They spearheaded the Wiley Building renovation and The Link apartment complex that’s nearing completion at Sherman and Washington.
A third major apartment complex may now be in the works for Manske and Associates.
The Wichita developer announced its intentions to apply for federal housing tax credits from the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation for what would be the St. Elizabeth Apartments. Manske is being joined by Interfaith Housing and Community Services for the project.
Plans are to take the old hospital located along 20th Avenue and convert it into 47 apartment units. The layout would consist of 13 one-bedroom units; 26 two- bedroom units and eight three-bedroom apartments. The apartments would be based on income similar to the Wiley project.
The apartments would be energy efficient and include all the amenities and grounds service.
The matter will be taken up by the Hutchinson Housing Commission during the regular monthly meeting on Tuesday.
In her first budget as governor, Democrat Laura Kelly aims to inject cash into what she calls critical state services.
The proposal unveiled Thursday also would start to wean the state off money diverted for years from highway construction and upkeep.
But the bill met a predictably harsh reception from some Republicans. They argued the spending plan would lead to budget deficits.
To invest in services, while preserving a savings account, the budget would stretch out payments intended to fill a deficit in the state pension plan. It also continues transfers from the highway fund, although it would take less money from roads than in recent years.
That would let Kansas plow money into schools, child welfare and an expanded Medicaid program that would offer health coverage to an added 150,000 or so Kansans.
Kelly’s budget also shoots to end a years-long school funding lawsuit. It would add $92 million a year more for schools to comply with a court decision from last year.
The budget follows a theme Kelly has repeated, that she inherited problems from her Republican predecessors and that she can’t restore state services in a single year.
“It’s going to take time for Kansas to heal from the damage inflicted over the last eight years,” Kelly said in a statement, “so we don’t have a moment to lose.”
Larry Campbell, the budget director for Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, laid out the administration’s spending plan to lawmakers on Thursday. CREDIT STEPHEN KORANDA / KANSAS NEWS SERVCIE
Kelly’s budget director, Larry Campbell, told lawmakers in a budget briefing that the spending plan invests in services while allowing Kansas to weather economic uncertainty that, he said, could include a possible recession in the coming months or years.
“We need a cushion, and we need tools back in the toolbox to address the unforeseen economic challenges coming,” Campbell said.
At the end of fiscal year 2020, Kelly’s budget would leave Kansas with a $686 million reserve. That’s 9 percent of state spending and a decrease from the $761 million the state had banked at the end of fiscal year 2018.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning said lawmakers don’t want to extend the payoff schedule in the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System, or KPERS. Without the restructured pension payments, he said, the numbers in the budget don’t work.
“This whole budget is built on a house of cards,” Denning said after the meeting.
Kelly’s also pushing to expand the health care program Medicaid. She’s budgeted $14 million, although the administration says the cost would rise in the following year.
That is an underestimate of the true cost, Denning said.
“We know that it’s impossible,” Denning said.
Yet Denning applauded the proposal to reduce transfers from the highway fund.
Medicaid expansion will likely have bipartisan support in the Legislature. A bill passed both chambers in 2017 but was vetoed by then-Gov. Sam Brownback.
Democratic Rep. Kathy Wolfe Moore said even if the cost estimate isn’t exact, Medicaid expansion is something lawmakers need to do because of the benefit it could offer to Kansans and struggling rural hospitals.
“I absolutely believe we have to invest in that,” Wolfe Moore said.
The spending plan also makes investments in a variety of other services.
It would spend $22 million to give state employees a 2.5 percent raise.
The plan would reverse a funding cut universities absorbed in 2016. Those cuts had already been partially restored and finishing the job will cost almost $9 million.
To tackle problems in the state’s troubled child welfare system, the budget proposes hiring 55 more social workers at a cost of $4 million. The plan would also spend more than $7 million on services aimed at keeping children in their homes so they never enter the foster care system in the first place.
The governor’s spending plan serves as a template for state lawmakers. Now, budget writers from the House and Senate will begin digging deeper into the bill and developing their own spending priorities.
“It’s kind of a rosy picture,” said Republican Rep. Troy Waymaster, the top budget writer in the House. “We have to go back and do a complete analysis.”
The cast of characters may be new, but the script taking shape at the outset of the Kansas Legislature’s 2019 session rings familiar.
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly delivers her first State of the State speech on Wednesday night, flanked by Republicans House Speaker Ron Ryckman and Senate President Susan Wagle. JIM MCLEAN / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
The new governor — Democrat Laura Kelly — proposes a budget that pays for her priorities. It highlights things that she believes her election shows that voters also want. Republican legislative leaders respond with what amounts to, Thanks, but we’ve got a better handle on what Kansans want.
Such give and take is typical at the start of a session, but this year’s is sharper because Kelly is a Democrat and the leaders of the Legislature are virtually all conservative Republicans.
The sharpness of those differences is evident when comparing the State of the State speech that Kelly delivered to lawmakers Wednesday to the Republican response given by Senate President Susan Wagle.
Kelly called on lawmakers to fully fund the state’s public schools by complying with a Kansas Supreme Court order and boosting the funding package passed last year to cover inflation. It’s estimated that would cost an additional $364 million over the next four years.
● Kelly: “The days of doing the bare minimum to fund our schools are over. It stops now. We are going to properly fund our schools this year. And next year. And the year after that. Every year, every month, every day that I’m governor.”
● Wagle: “(Kelly) would have us surrender to the edict of an unelected Supreme Court spending even more than the $1 billion increase already approved for public education through the year 2023.”
On Medicaid expansion
The governor said the budget she’s proposing will “pave the way” for expanding KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program, to cover an additional 150,000 low-income, disabled and elderly Kansans.
She argues that the rejection of expansion by former Republican governors Sam Brownback and Jeff Colyer cost the state billions and put rural hospitals at risk. So she’s forming a bipartisan working group to “finalize a path forward.”
● Kelly: “To date, our failure to act has cost Kansas over $3 billion in federal funding. That’s 3 billion of our taxpayer dollars we’ve sent to the federal government that has gone to benefit other states. It’s $3 billion that could have helped save Kansas lives, Kansas hospitals, and Kansas communities.”
● Wagle: “Governor Kelly has proposed expanding Medicaid under a broken Obamacare system while many Kansans are already suffering from skyrocketing premiums in the individual marketplace. Now is not the time to spend money we don’t have on programs we can’t afford.”
The Affordable Care Act, often referred to as Obamacare, requires the federal government to cover no less than 90 percent of a state’s expansion costs.
Competing priorities
One of the top priorities for Republicans is the return of what they’ve labeled “the federal windfall.” That’s money that flowed into the state treasury because of changes Congress made in the federal tax code in 2017.
GOP leaders appear determined to quickly restore state tax deductions that some Kansans can no longer claim because of the federal changes. Not doing so, they say, would amount to a tax increase.
● Wagle: “The windfall from the Trump tax cuts belongs to Kansas taxpayers, not government. Gov. Kelly has vowed to fight the decoupling of federal and state tax deductions, but we are not backing down.”
Kelly isn’t spoiling for a fight. But she’s urging caution because of the bill’s estimated $90 million annual cost. She argues it would be more prudent to get a firmer grip on the state’s revenue situation before passing what she sees as a tax cut.
● Kelly: “We must be cautious, conservative and fiscally responsible. We must live within our means. Prioritize what matters most. Always look for ways to save. And always make sure our children come first.”
Kelly saved her strongest language for what she called the “reprehensible crisis” in the state’s foster care system. She pledged to restructure the Department of Children and Families to address chronic problems that resulted in the agency losing track of some children while failing to protect others from abuse. She called it a matter of “life and death.”
● Kelly: “In the last few years, nothing has made me more angry than the callous disregard some agency leaders demonstrated towards our vulnerable children and their families. The incompetence and lack of transparency we witnessed … put a spotlight on this reprehensible crisis. This is an emergency. These are our children in our communities facing abuse, neglect and worse.”
Kelly’s call for overhauling the foster care system brought both Democrats and Republicans to their feet in applause. Wagle and other GOP leaders say they’re willing to work with the governor to address the problems. But they warn that the money needed to fix them, when combined with Kelly’s other spending priorities, could put the state back in the red.
● Wagle: “The Republican majority in the Kansas Senate stands ready to work with our former Senate colleague, but not at the expense of Kansas families. Unfortunately, Governor Kelly’s first budget would squander our fiscal recovery with a massive spending increase.”
Reminding lawmakers of the “breathtaking years of crisis” caused by Brownback’s 2012 income tax cuts, Kelly said she was elected to “rebuild our state.” But, she said, she has no intention of spending down the state’s recovering balances or breaking her “no tax increase” pledge.
Reconciling her priorities with those of the Republican-led Legislature, Kelly said, will require a kind of bipartisan cooperation that has recently been in short supply at the Statehouse.
● Kelly: “While the time for fingerpointing is over, we’re not off the hook for the long-term consequences of past policy decisions. If we are going to succeed, I need your help to protect both sides of the budget equation until our fiscal health stabilizes. As many of you have already said, we must show restraint. Because, ultimately, we do not know what lies ahead.”
Jim McLean is the senior correspondent for the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — New Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly told Kansas legislators Wednesday that the state faces an emergency in its child welfare system and is “completely unprepared” for the next national economic downturn.
Governor Laura Kelly delivers her first State of the State address Wednesday
Kelly outlined an agenda for the Republican-dominated Legislature that includes increased spending on public schools and expanding the state’s Medicaid health coverage for the needy. Yet she also told lawmakers that she will honor her pledge to balance the budget without raising taxes.
Her first State of the State address , two days after taking office, sets up a clash with top Republicans. She did not mention their top priority — income tax relief — and appeared to try to dampen enthusiasm for it by declaring the state’s recovery “fragile” and saying, “We must be cautious.”
But Kelly’s tough tone was the most notable element of her address to a joint session of the House and Senate. Governors have routinely declared in their addresses that the state is sound or strong. Kelly described it as “improving” and declared, “I was elected to rebuild our state.”
“It won’t be easy. We all know we have a very, long, challenging road ahead of us,” Kelly said near the end of her 37-minute address. “These past eight years have been a hardship, no doubt about it.”
The address continued the scathing criticism of her Republican predecessors that marked her successful campaign for governor last year. Former conservative GOP Gov. Sam Brownback successfully pushed Republican lawmakers to slash income taxes in 2012 and 2013 as an economic stimulus — and persistent budget problems followed.
Kelly was a veteran state senator from Topeka and was a key player in a bipartisan effort in 2017 to reverse most of the Brownback tax cuts. She told legislators Wednesday evening that the tax cuts resulted in a “self-inflicted budget catastrophe” and, along with the Great Recession, “a “decade of crisis” in state government.
“Another recession will soon be upon us. It’s not a question of ‘if.’ It’s a question of ‘when’ and ‘how bad,'” Kelly said. “Kansas finds itself now completely unprepared. We have no margin for error.”
Top Republicans shrugged off her slashing assessment of the past eight years and noted that Kansas expects to finish its budget year on June 30 with about $900 million in cash reserves, equal to 12.6 percent of the spending with general tax revenues.
But the same projections from legislative researchers also show that even without the new spending proposed by Kelly, those reserves dwindle and disappear within three years. In the official GOP response , prepared before the governor’s speech, Senate President Susan Wagle, a conservative Wichita Republican, argued that the Democratic governor is setting a course to “squander our recovery” with excessive spending.
“She just whipped out the credit card,” Wagle said after the address.
Kelly reserved some of her toughest remarks for the foster care system for abused and neglected children and the state Department for Children and Families. She said the department had been “decimated by ideology and mismanagement.”
The governor said her budget proposals, to be outlined for legislators Thursday, will include millions of dollars more for programs aimed at helping troubled families and for the department to hire additional social workers. She read the names of three children who died in recent years in abusive homes despite reports about them to the state.
“These were our children, in our communities,” she said. “And I refuse to forget them.”
But House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins, a conservative Wichita Republican, said former GOP Gov. Jeff Colyer’s administration, which followed Brownback’s, deserves some credit for improvements at the department in the past year.
Kelly made a pledge to increase spending on public schools a key part of her campaign. Legislators last year enacted a law to phase in a $548 million increase in education funding over five years to meet a Kansas Supreme Court mandate in an ongoing lawsuit. But the court said it wasn’t enough because it didn’t account for years of inflation.
While the governor promised “we’re going to properly fund our schools” and pushed lawmakers to act quickly, she and her staff did not provide a figure. The State Board of Education has proposed phasing in another $364 million increase over four years.
Top Republicans are resisting the idea.
“We also know that there’s a lot of other needs across the state,” said House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr., a conservative Kansas City-area Republican who joked in a toast at Kelly’s inaugural ball Monday night that to fund schools, Kelly would “have Mexico pay for it.”
GOP leaders also oppose Medicaid expansion , arguing that it is potentially costly even if the federal government promises to pick up most of the expense. Kelly argued that it would help both needy families and rural hospitals, but even though she devoted nearly six minutes of her address to her pitch, Republican leaders were unmoved.
Top Republicans want to adjust state income laws to prevent some Kansas residents from paying more to the state because of federal tax changes at the end of 2017 championed by President Donald Trump. The Senate tax committee could vote on a plan as early as Thursday.
Wagle said in the GOP response that the “windfall” belongs to taxpayers, “not government.” But House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer, a Wichita Democrat, said uncertainty about the windfall’s size makes it “way too early” to consider tax legislation.
TOPEKA —New Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly is expected to make a pitch to the Republican-dominated Kansas Legislature for boosting spending on public schools and expanding Medicaid.
Watch her deliver her first State of the State address to to a joint session of the Legislature here.
HUTCHINSON, Kan — Fire Chief Steven Beer announced during a news conference Tuesday that the fire rating classification for the city of Hutchinson is changing from a Class Three to a Class One and that Fire District 2 is going from a Class Six to a Class Four.
Classes are scored on a scale of one to 10, one being the best while 10 is the worst.
Currently, there are only six Class One cities in the state of Kansas and only 329 nationwide out of 47,500 fire departments.
He says with being a Class One city, it’s good news for homeowners and businesses when it comes to insurance:
Beer states that the Insurance Service Office Public Protection Classification program provides important up-to-date information about municipal fire protection services in each community.
He says there are four things they look at when coming up with a communities classification – Emergency Communications, the Fire Department itself, the Water Supply and the Community Risk Reduction.
So what investment did the department make to get to this point? Chief Beer explains:
He says the city’s investment in infrastructure is also a factor and is helping them when fighting fires in the city:
Chief Beer believes this change in classification will help the city attract new business. However, the change in classification will not officially take effect until May 1, so everyone will have to wait to see any savings on insurance for homes or businesses after that date.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson USD 308 has its new superintendent. During Monday’s School Board meeting the board approved on a 7-0 vote to hire Clay County School District Superintendent Mike Folks. Folks is the district’s 33rd superintendent in its 147-year history. He will begin his new job on July 1 and replaces Gary Price, who has been superintendent for the past two years. Price is on his second tenure in the district and did not desire the position on a long-term basis.
Folks has been superintendent at Clay County Schools, in Clay Center, since July 1, 2005. Clay County Schools has high schools in Clay Center and Wakefield in north central Kansas. Prior to that, he was superintendent at Central Heights USD 288 in Richmond, Kan.
He received a masters from Pittsburg State University in educational leadership and administration in 2000 and a masters in higher education/high education administration from Fort Hays State University in 1997.
Board President Kail Denison was pleased to have Folks as the next superintendent.
“We had an excellent candidate pool,” Denison said. “After listening to what the community said they wanted in a superintendent, we feel that Mike is a great match with what the community has asked for.”
He received a masters from Pittsburg State University in educational leadership and administration in 2000 and a masters in higher education/higher education administration from Fort Hays State University in 1997.
“My wife and I are excited to be part of the USD 308 team,” Folks said Monday. “There clearly is a lot of passion in the district. The educational opportunities in Hutchinson are excellent, and we will work together to showcase those opportunities to the community.”
Folks won out over local Haven Superintendent Clark Wedel, Moundridge Superintendent George Leary and Cheney Superintendent David Grover.
The latest on the swearing in of Democratic Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (all times local):.
Laura Kelly takes the oath of office Monday morning on the steps of the Kansas Statehouse-image courtesy office of Kansas Governor
Democrat Laura Kelly has been sworn in as the new governor in Republican-leaning Kansas.
Kelly took the oath of office Monday on the south steps of the Statehouse in front of banners that declared, “Equality,” ”Education” and “Opportunity.”
She was a veteran state senator from Topeka who pitched herself to voters as a no-nonsense problem-solver who could work with Republicans. The GOP has supermajorities in the Legislature.
Her victory last year drew national attention partly because she defeated Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. He’s a staunch conservative who touted an endorsement from President Donald Trump.
Kelly is the state’s 48th governor.
Her swearing-in followed those of Lt. Gov. Lynn Rogers, Attorney General Derek Schmidt, Secretary of State Scott Schwab, Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt and State Treasurer Jake LaTurner.
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By JOHN HANNA
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ new Democratic governor is expected to take office promising a bipartisan administration even as she and her supporters celebrate a sharp break with her conservative Republican predecessors.
Gov.-elect Laura Kelly was scheduled to be sworn in as the state’s 48th governor Monday, with her inaugural address likely to stress the broad themes that underpinned her successful campaign last year. A veteran state senator from Topeka, Kelly pitched herself to voters as a no-nonsense problem-solver who could work with Republicans, who control the Legislature.
“I’m hoping to hear that we’re going to have change, that we’re hopeful for the future, to get Kansas back on track,” said Kansas House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer, a Wichita Democrat. “Her tone so far has been bipartisanship, and I think she’ll continue that.”
Kelly’s victory drew national attention because Kansas is a Republican-leaning state and her opponent, departing Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, touted his history of advising President Donald Trump. Kobach won a narrow victory over Gov. Jeff Colyer in the GOP primary after Trump endorsed Kobach.
But Kelly made the race more about whether Kobach’s fiscal policies would align with those of former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, who pushed legislators to slash state income taxes as an economic stimulus. Most voters deemed Brownback’s experiment a failure because of the budget woes that followed, and legislators reversed most of the cuts in 2017.
The new governor has little choice but to work with Republicans, given their large majorities in the Legislature, which was set to open its annual session Monday afternoon. Even as voters were electing Kelly, in more local Statehouse races, GOP conservatives gained seats.
Top Republicans have said they will hold Kelly to a campaign promise not to increase taxes to pay for additional state spending. They will learn more about Kelly’s budget proposals later in the week, after she gives the annual State of the State address Wednesday evening.
“Any areas that we have common agreement or we can compromise and work on, we’ll do it,” said Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, a Kansas City-area Republican.
As in she needs to fix what, by most accounts, is a state government in desperate need of repair.
For the first year or two of her administration, her biggest job will be restoring the capacity of state agencies crippled by budget cuts and the exodus of employees with the skills and institutional knowledge needed to keep the trains running on time.
Or, more to the point, balance the state budget, adequately fund schools and ensure that foster kids are placed in safe and stable homes.
She may want to start with high-profile initiatives to reduce the sales tax on food, restore the budget cuts suffered by universities and reboot the multi-billion-dollar highway-building program that former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback abandoned because of self-inflicted money problems.
Reality demands a more cautious approach. Kelly must closely monitor spending while triaging needs and addressing the most urgent problems. Ensuring the safety of foster children in the custody of the Department for Children and Families is likely at the top of that list.
Expectations for a new road program run high, but Kelly needs to first give new secretary of the Kansas Department of Transportation Julie Lorenz time to rebuild the agency so that it can do the basics — plow snow and mend potholes without borrowing money from the bond market.
At the Kansas Department of Commerce, incoming Secretary David Toland must rebuild the rudderless agency’s presence in the eco-devo world. It’s one that’s been systematically diminished by understaffed programs and the closing of most of the state’s trade offices around the world.
Some might argue that restoring a basic level of competency to Kansas government sets a low bar for Kelly. But given the work that needs to be done, it seems a fair measuring stick.
Let’s remember, Kelly was a reluctant candidate. Former Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, among others, had to talk her into running. Perhaps that was because as a longtime member of the Senate’s budget-writing committee, she had a notion of how difficult the job would be.
Still, after some coercion and a lot of contemplation — done during long walks along the wooded bluffs overlooking the Kansas River and Cedar Crest, the governor’s residence — Kelly concluded she could handle the job.
Then she got elected. Sitting through her first budget briefings, she said, it became apparent that the “devastation” was “even worse than I thought.”
Regardless, it’s now Kelly’s job to fix things.
Our first indication of how she plans to do that comes next week when she lays out her budget priorities in a speech to a joint session of the Legislature.
We should all be paying attention.
Jim McLean is the chief political reporter for the Kansas News Service. He’s covered politics and state government for more than 35 years. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks.
TOPEKA —New Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly is expected to make a pitch to the Republican-dominated Kansas Legislature for boosting spending on public schools and expanding Medicaid.
