Kansas News Service, August 2, 2019

State line blues It’s fair for much of Kansas to watch the news out of Johnson County with a little resentment. All those people, all that wealth, all that resulting power tucked into the suburban eastern edge of the state. But ignore what’s happening in that vast sprawl of beige homes, clogged highways and character-free strip malls, and you risk missing out on developments that can ripple out across Kansas. Consider first, the ongoing bidding war tugging businesses to one side or the other of the Kansas-Missouri line. There’s fresh talk of a truce, a promise not to toss out tax breaks to firms just for moving a few miles east or west. Missouri lawmakers have passed a measure that aims to cut off tax incentives for cross-border moves in the Kansas City area. On Friday, Gov. Laura Kelly joined Kansas in the peace talks with an executive order. But it’ll be easy and oh-so-tempting to bust any compact the next time a sizable employer comes asking for a tax break. Meanwhile, Johnson County’s also Ground Zero for big box stores challenginghow to value their property for tax purposes — arguing their assessmentsshould consider the worth of an empty building, not a bustling business. That could have ramifications across the state, effectively shrinking tax bases across the state for cities, schools, libraries and a host of other local jurisdictions. Chip away enough at a local tax base and pressure will mount for the state to help out. Toss around enough state tax abatements in a border war, and Topeka will be less able to come up with the money. So abhor or adore Johnson County. Just watch what’s going on there. — Scott Canon, Kansas News Service managing editor

"The hemp industry is like the Wild West and Wall Street had a baby." — Chris Brunin of Quiet Trees, a Lawrence-based CBD company

A green line Kansas legalized CBD, the cannabis extract without the marijuana high, last summer. That’s brought a fast-growing industry to strip malls and grocery shelves across the state. It’s also introduced Kansas to products that can offer less CBD than advertised, ones that contain heavy metals and butane, or ones that make you fail drug tests. And marketing claims regularly go well beyond CBD’s proven medicinal powers. It’s confusing. Buyers should approach mindfully, and carefully. Catch up here.

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In line for help Much of what domestic violence shelters in Kansas offer is a haven during crises, a safe place for women and their children. Now a pilot program tests the power for something more — adult mentors striving to bring a respite of fun to older kids and teenagers at some of the worst moments in their lives. The program, called Empowered Families Kansas Project, serves older kids and teens suffering violence at the hands of their parents or people they’re dating. It’s in its early stages and scattered just a few places across the state. But the people behind it hope it might get bigger and bring some joy into lives tossed into chaos. Read about it.

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Coming down the line Where would we be if we couldn’t stream movies or music? Far-eastern Kansas counties and a broad swath of western Kansas. The newly released statewide broadband map shows in greater detail than ever before where 3.5% of Kansas residents don’t have adequate access to the internet. You can even search by your address … if you have internet, that is. Telecom experts know it’s expensive to get service out to those areas, but advocates say it’s crucial to make up for the gap that’s been left in the wake of rural hospitals closing. Are you connected?

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Kansas News Service: "THE INSIDER" May 17, 2019

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A degree of inflation For those of us lucky enough to even imagine college, the cost looms seemingly forever. When you’re a student and the bills keep coming. When you’re a graduate and the debt payments hound you. When you’re a parent saving for a child’s tuition, fee, room and board (and when debts from your own schooling might still hover). In one recent 20-year stretch, tuition and fees alone shot up by 110 percent. In the most recent decade, those costs topped ordinary inflation by more than 3% per year. Even the big shots at the Kansas Board of Regents get it. This week, the ruling body for public higher education looked at tuition increases on the table for state schools and said, whoa. Really? Must you? Even though the proposed tuition rates run behind the hikes of recent years, the regents pushed campus bosses to see if something less might work. The higher ed crowd didn’t get as much as it wanted from the Legislature — does it ever? — but taxpayers will be sending $30 million more. The regents had promised to keep tuition hikes at bay if they’d gotten the $50 million extra they asked for. The latest hikes offer reminders about rethinking the whole four-year college scenario. And surely tempts more people to start at a community college (but collect those cheaper credit hours carefully and make sure they’ll transfer to the right places) or pile up some college classes while still in high school. The knee-buckling costs of school also suggest more of us might want to look at whether tech school makes more sense. Taxpayer subsidies for public colleges run north of a half-billion dollars. State spending shrunk over the last decade — partly because of damage done by the Great Recession, and partly because of budget-and-tax cuts during Sam Brownback’s time as governor. University brass contend their costs have only gone up, much just to keep pace with the expense of giving university employees ever-more-expensive health insurance. Cashing in the extra money from the Legislature whileraising tuition won’t likely go over well in Topeka. That, in turn, could make lawmakers less generous in the future and make the tuition algebra all the more difficult.          — Scott Canon, Kansas News Service managing editor "Maybe Kansas will come around." — Former prosecutor Brian Leininger on marijuana legalization   A matter of representation Through our Kansas Matters forum (do you have a question that might launch a story?), a reader asked: “With so much diversity in Southwest Kansas, why is local government not representative of the population?” Our reporter in Garden City took a look and confirmed that even though Hispanic residents make up the majority in the southwest corner of Kansas, they’re mostly absent from public office. The reasons are myriad. Share Tweet Forward A state surrounded Kansas finds itself increasingly surrounded by states that have loosened their marijuana laws. Colorado notably made recreational cannabis legal five years ago. Missouri and Oklahoma have begun to make it legal for medical use. But here, a push for legalizing medical marijuana lacks any serious momentum. The Legislature gave one proposal a committee hearing this year, but no vote. The main opposition: law enforcement. Yet police in the state don’t collect much data on problems they attribute to cannabis. Here’s the situation. Share Tweet Forward A deal that wasn't The sort-of deal to grease the skids for Medicaid expansion in Kansas nextyear appears to have crumbled apart. Or maybe it never existed. Some lawmakers thought they’d left Topeka with a bargain to get Republican and Democratic legislators in the House, where an expansion plan passed this year, together with those in the Senate who’d blocked a vote. Now a key Senate player insists no such promise existed. Here’s an explanation of the busted backroom bargain. Share Tweet

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