info, Author at Ranson Financial Group LLC

Johnson County $4 billion Panasonic plant may get $8 billion in taxpayer incentives: report

info2023-07-14T11:56:34-05:00July 14th, 2023|

Panasonic is expected to invest some $4 billion in a new De Soto battery plant, but it could receive twice that amount in taxpayer incentives. The Japanese electronics giant is poised to get as much as $6.8 billion from provisions in last year’s federal Inflation Reduction Act. That’s according to incentive watchdog group Good Jobs First, which analyzed the potential windfalls five electric vehicle battery plants could receive from a new tax credit program. Good Jobs First says the 45X Advanced Manufacturing Tax Credit, which aims at increasing production of electric vehicles, could cost American taxpayers $200 billion over the next [...]

Park City to see changes after license approved for historic horse racing facility

info2023-07-14T11:55:36-05:00July 14th, 2023|

The Wichita Greyhound Park will now be transformed into the Golden Circle Historic Horse Racing Facility. Being the only one in Kansas, many expect the new attraction — home to 1,000 historic horse racing machines — to bring in people from all across the region. "You have a large building on almost 80 acres up in Park City. It's a three-story building. The bones of the building are in great shape, but obviously, it hasn't been in use for a decade and a half," said Jason Watkins with Ruffin Holdings, Inc. ... The facility adds another piece of economic development for [...]

After school shutdown, rural Kansas community tries to divorce district

info2023-07-14T11:47:00-05:00July 14th, 2023|

Barton County residents will decide whether to break up with their school district and “start fresh” following heartbreak and anger over the closure of a rural community’s high school. The change could result in hundreds of students displaced and three more schools shut down. The Aug. 1 disorganization vote is a test case for rural communities that increasingly have to make decisions to shut down or consolidate as populations dwindle and schools face financial strain. “This is brand new territory for the Department of Education, for the State Board of Education and basically every district in the state of Kansas,” said KSDE [...]

Overland Park tourists spend $850M, helping pandemic rebound

info2023-07-14T11:39:45-05:00July 14th, 2023|

Overland Park's tourism is bouncing back after a dive in 2020, when visitor spending declined 40.4% from the year before. In 2021, Overland Park saw a 42.1% increase in visitor spending, as well as a 19.5% increase in 2022. The data comes from a recent report from Tourism Economics. “Overland Park’s visitor economy has rebounded beyond pre-pandemic levels,” Warren Wilkinson, president of Visit Overland Park, the city's marketing organization, said in a release. Source: Kansas City Business Journal

This poisonous weed is growing in Wichita yards this summer. How you can identify it

info2023-07-14T11:39:17-05:00July 14th, 2023|

A poisonous plant that bloomed in great numbers in the Wichita area last year has recently caught the attention of the public on online forums like Nextdoor. Poison hemlock is an invasive plant found throughout North America since its introduction in the 1800s. With a two-year life cycle, the noxious weed is usually not noticed until the second year, when they can reach 4 to 10 feet tall. Because of the number of poison hemlock plants in bloom last year, Matthew McKernan, horticulture agent with the Sedgwick County Extension Office, expects most in the area this year to be in their [...]

From HEAL Award to Rural Champion Playbook: Lincoln County is one to Follow!

info2023-07-14T11:38:34-05:00July 14th, 2023|

With the recent announcement of the Spring 2023 HEAL awardees, we thought we would first highlight Post Rock Fitness LLC. This project was part of our first round of HEAL grants in February 2022 and finished in December 2022. This is an amazing example of what the HEAL grant can help with when rehabbing a downtown building. When the property owner purchased the building in 2019, the building had no functional bathroom or plumbing, a nearly 40-year-old marginally operational heating and air conditioning system, and a leaking roof on the back addition. At the time they applied for the HEAL grant, [...]

‘We got it done’: Kansas OKs gaming license for Golden Circle casino outside Wichita

info2023-07-14T11:36:26-05:00July 14th, 2023|

The Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission cleared the way Thursday for Phil Ruffin to open a casino in the Wichita area, granting the billionaire casino mogul and Wichita native a major victory in a nearly two decade battle to put gambling machines inside the Wichita Greyhound Park. The gaming commission on Thursday granted Ruffin’s Golden Circle casino the state’s only license to operate 1,000 historical horse racing machines. The HHR machines look and play like slot machines — which voters rejected in Sedgwick County by a narrow margin a few months before Ruffin decided to close the greyhound park — but [...]

Allen County: Finding workers comes with a cost

info2023-07-14T11:35:37-05:00July 14th, 2023|

Most county departments are facing increased costs, primarily due to more pay to attract and retain personnel. ... Chairman David Lee said most of the requests were due to wages and benefits. Department heads requested 5% wage increases. Commissioners may ask them to reduce that number to 3% or 4%. “We’re going to have to see how finances are looking and if we can support those requests,” Lee said. “The resounding theme from department heads is that the cost of doing business has gone up over the past two or three years.” Lee said his priority is to attract and retain [...]

Economist says there’s no need for the Fed to keep hiking interest rates

info2023-07-14T11:34:03-05:00July 14th, 2023|

Nobel Prize-winning economist Christopher Pissarides believes there's no need for the Federal Reserve to keep raising interest rates in the coming months, saying policymakers at the U.S. central bank should instead look to take a breather in the battle against inflation. His comments come shortly after data on Wednesday showed U.S. inflation fell sharply to a two-year low of 3% in June. The reading appeared to underscore the Fed's relative success in containing price rises following a rapid increase in interest rates. The Fed has previously signaled its intent on pushing ahead with additional monetary policy tightening. ... The U.S. central [...]

Ellinwood increases recycling commitment

info2023-07-12T23:29:34-05:00July 12th, 2023|

As a show of support to local participating businesses, the City of Ellinwood agreed on Tuesday to pick up half the tab for future recycling services to the community. At Tuesday’s meeting of the Ellinwood City Council, Shelby Zuniga, executive director of Sunflower Diversified Services in Great Bend, told council members present that their organization had experienced increased costs over the past few years, resulting in the development of a direct-pay rate structure for participating businesses in the area. “We started to charge a fee in Great Bend in the middle of 2021,” Zuniga said. “We’ve had to increase the rates.” [...]

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