Author: Dave Trabert
Senator Sykes misleads on Kansas Medicaid expansion
Senator Dinah Sykes (D-Lenexa) took time out during last week’s legislative session to send a very misleading fundraising email about…
Property tax reform survives efforts to scuttle the bill
Local elected officials will have to be honest about the entire property tax increase they impose starting next year. The…
Legislature restricts Gov. Kelly’s power, adds liability protection
A 24-hour marathon legislative session last week added legislative and local government oversight to Kansas Governor Laura Kelly’s emergency management…
April jobs: private sector down 10.5% , state gov’t. steady
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly’s mandatory shutdown order caused the loss of almost 122,000 private-sector jobs in April, but state government…
Average daily COVID increase down to 2% in Kansas
As of May 20, the 7-day moving average of the daily increase in COVID cases is down to 2%. That’s…
Gov. Kelly withholds federal COVID funds from localities
The National League of Cities reported this week that Kansas is one of thirty-two states that are withholding federal COVID…
States not shut down have a lower COVID mortality rate
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly said her statewide shutdown order was necessary to “slow the spread” of COVID-19, but data from…
House tax committee chooses government interests over taxpayers
At Tuesday’s House Taxation Committee, Rep. Ken Corbet (R-Topeka) expressed frustration that the committee seems to favor government interests over…
COVID cases trending down but Kelly extends shutdown order
Legislators and others feared Kansas Governor Laura Kelly would drag out her economic shutdown when she wouldn’t identify specific criteria…
Senate tax committee tees up property tax reform
Kansans are another step closer to major property tax reform, thanks to bipartisan efforts of the Senate tax committee. The…
House committee discusses property tax transparency
The House Taxation Committee held met virtually this afternoon to discuss Senate Bill 294, a property tax transparency bill, and…
COVID update: states not locked down have better outcomes
As citizens are becoming increasingly frustrated with lingering shutdown orders, residents of the eight states whose governors didn’t shut them…
COVID mortality rate just 1% aside from nursing homes
As of Friday, May 8, the Kansas Department of Health & Environment (KDHE) said 85 of the state’s 152 COVID…
Sharice Davids silent on federal bailout for McClatchy pension plan
Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kansas, representing the state’s 3rd Congressional District, says she wants transparency on companies receiving aid through the…
County health officers issue conflicting stay-at-home orders
The extension of stay-at-home orders in Johnson and Wyandotte counties are causing quite a bit of online backlash from business…
COVID-19 cases continue trending down across Kansas
Aside from a few ‘hot spots,’ the 7-day moving average of new COVID-19 cases continues trending down in Kansas. Those hot…
Activist falsely accuses Open Up Kansas! ralliers of harassing nurses
Hundreds of people gathered in Topeka yesterday at the Open Up Kansas! rally in opposition to the economic impact of…
Kansas Justice Institute convinces Osage County to rescind parade ban
The residents of Osage County, Kansas, were planning to attend an Easter car parade when it was canceled by the…
Kansas tax revenue likely much worse than estimated
The Consensus Revenue Estimate (CRE) released Monday predicts a very modest two-year decline of just $88 million for the State…
Kansas businesses ready to safely reopen economy
The Kansas Chamber today released survey results that show a major shift among the Kansas business community and its desire…
JoCo business reopening task force lacks business experience
Johnson County Commission Chairman Ed Eilert appointed a task force to “strategize and implement a phased approach to reopening the…
COVID testing levels have little relationship with positive cases
A statistical analysis of COVID testing and cases by Kansas Policy Institute shows one positive case for roughly every ten…
COVID cases trending down in many counties but Kelly extends lockdown
Kanas Governor Laura Kelly yesterday extended her statewide lockdown order through May 3, even though many counties have decidedly downward…
COVID cases trending down, states without lockdowns do better
COVID-19 cases are trending downward in Kansas and the states that aren’t on mandatory lockdowns have fewer cases and deaths…