Government

Topeka, Kan. – Lawmakers have wrapped up the two major unresolved issues this session: the budget, and how to fund it. Both chambers had passed budgets that largely protected funding for education and social services. But in order to balance that budget, lawmakers needed about 300 million dollars in new revenue. Monday, they identified that money. Lawmakers passed a one-cent sales tax increase to fill the deficit.

Topeka, Kan. – Kansas lawmakers return to the statehouse on Monday with the hopes of wrapping up the 2010 session. Legislators worked over the weekend trying to tie up loose ends of the last few important issues. 

Legislators burned the midnight oil on Friday with house members working until the wee hours of the morning and during the day on Saturday to approve a budget.

A coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans drafted the plan. It would avoid spending cuts to education and social services, but would require a tax increase of more than $300 million to balance.

Kansas City, Mo. – The Kansas City city has tentatively agreed to support Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders' transit plan.

Sanders and TranSystems consultant Jim Terry told the council Thursday that by using existing and abandoned rail routes, the tri-county Missouri side of the metro area can have a 134-mile rail-based transit system for about a billion dollars - 8 million a mile.

The system could be expanded to include Johnson and Wyandotte Counties, and would be based on a Union Station hub.

Kansas City, Mo. – Missouri Highway construction will take a dramatic loss by a redrawn five-year program presented the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission today. It is no more dramatic than seen in the Kansas City revisions.

Topkea, Kan. – The Kansas Senate today failed to override Gov. Mark Parkinson's veto of an abortion bill. It would have required doctors performing late-term abortions to provide more information to the state. It would have also allowed for more lawsuits against abortion providers.

"Someday, I hope the unborn has a voice in these chambers," Senator Ralph Ostmeyer, a Grinnell Republican, said on the Senate floor following the vote. "I'm disappointed that we don't want to talk about it. We will have a change in Governor. We will get this passed."

Kansas City, Mo. – Mayor Mark Funkhouser talked with reporters Wednesday about Kansas City's efforts to save its red light cameras from being banned by an amendment to the transportation bill sponsored by State Senator Jim Lembke.

Kansas City, Mo. – While local election officials around Missouri verify authenticity of signatures on inititative petitions, there is an assumption the movement to repeal the Kansas City-St. Louis Earnings Tax will be on November's ballot. KCUR's Dan Verbeck reports the campaign to repeal will focus much wider than the state's two biggest cities.

Voters in the big metro areas may or may not want the e tax to continue but the thrust will appeal to anti tax sentiments of rural and small town Missourians as well.

Kansas City, Mo. – By unanimous vote the Kansas City Council and mayor will lobby the Missouri governor to keep $3 million in the state budget for the Area Transportation Authority.

The Area Transportation Authority (ATA) has been operating on the edge, pumping in one-time federal stimulus money and drawing two and a half million dollars from reserve funds.