Municipal News & Jobs

Kansas Municipal News

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

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 decade — far higher than previous estimates. State and local taxpayers have already heavily subsidized Panasonic’s battery plant, which crews are currently building on a portion of the former Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant.
Source: Kansas City Star

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

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 the Park City area. “We hope as the star bond project progresses, that we’ll have an aquarium, more hotels, we have ball facilities. There’s a lot of things in the pipeline,” said Park City Mayor John Lehnherr.
Source: KSN-TV

After school shutdown, rural Kansas community tries to divorce district

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 general counsel Scott Gordon during a June 27 meeting in Claflin. Dissolving the district is likely to have widespread consequences for all district schools and likely will increase residents’ taxes, according to opponents of disorganization.
Source: The Lawrence Times

Overland Park tourists spend $850M, helping pandemic rebound

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

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 ground-level phase.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle

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

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, the building had been vacant since 2015. Known as the C.R. Building/Hundertmark’s Variety, the building is a contributing resource in Lincoln’s National Register-designated downtown historic district and individually listed on the Register of Historic Kansas Places (RHKP). All historic character on the interior was hidden underneath a drop ceiling installed in 1981, and the basement was full of 100-years’ worth of accumulated junk. The rehab resulted in the restoration of historical details (such as the original ceiling and plaster walls) along with structural enhancements, new bathrooms, new mechanical systems (heating/air conditioning, plumbing, electrical), new flooring, and a new roof on a portion of the building.
Source: Kansas Department of Commerce

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

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 outcomes are based on random past horse races instead of randomly generated numbers. “We are ecstatic with the news,” said Phil Ruffin Jr., who lives in Wichita and will be the general manager of Golden Circle when it opens. “We’ve been working to try to renovate and reopen Wichita Greyhound Park.” The greyhound park near 77th Street North and Hydraulic has been closed since 2007. Under Ruffin’s plan, he will spend $128 million to renovate it into a three-floor casino called Golden Circle.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle

Allen County: Finding workers comes with a cost

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 employees, and that could mean taking a comparative look at wages in nearby counties. “We need to make sure our wages are competitive with counties, cities and industries around us,” he said.
Source: The Iola Register

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

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 bank held its key borrowing rate steady in a target range of 5% to 5.25% last month, but policymakers at the meeting indicated the likelihood of half a percentage point more of additional tightening before the end of 2023.
Source: CNBC – Bonds

Municipal Bond Trends for July 13, 2023

The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of MBIS “investment grade” yields. Every issuer’s credit is different, and other financing sources may be available. To obtain comprehensive Financial Advisory services for your local government, contact your Ranson Financial Municipal Advisor, Larry Kleeman, or Henry Schmidt.

Municipal Bond Trends for July 12, 2023

Ellinwood increases recycling commitment

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.”
Source: Great Bend Tribune

Planners to consider container homes

More than a year after Hillsboro developed a district north of 3rd St. for potential placement of container homes, city planners will have a July 27 hearing on an application to place the first container home in the district. Developer Felix Ramirez and then-partner Crystal Leatherman initially planned to install container homes on land purchased from developer Russell Groves. Reluctant to allow container homes to be installed without meeting city requirements, city planners and council members drew up an overlay for the proposed area. The overlay set standards not just for homes made from shipping containers, but for other alternative housing construction.
Source: HILLSBORO Star-Journal

Hugoton’s Park Day big success, winners announced

Hugoton celebrated Independence Day with Park Day Tuesday, July 4. Boy Scout Troop 189 presented the Colors and the Hugoton High School Show Choir sang the National Anthem. Winners with vouchers need to go to the Hugoton Area Chamber of Commerce to pick up your winnings. The winners in the Little Miss / Mr. Hugoton contest sponsored by Flatlanders Farm and Home were: birth to six months Little Miss first place Juliette Turner, second Thalia Ordonez and third Wrenley Maravilla; Little Mr. winner was Kord Luke Kallenbach.
Source: Hugoton Hermes News

Wyandotte nation looks to expand casino, hotel in Park City after court ruling

It’s Wednesday afternoon and dozen of people are testing their luck inside the Crosswinds casino in Park City. The small casino was opened by the Wyandotte nation back in 2021, and originally the building was only supposed to be a temporary site before the tribe launched a bigger operation. “You know our plans are to build a casino resort,” says Wyandotte nation Chief Billy Friend. “We have 10 and a half acres that has been taken in trust for gaming. and then we also have another 100, approximately 125 acres.” Those plans had been on hold while the state of Kansas was challenging a ruling from the US Department of the Interior back in 2020 that granted the tribe the ability to have gaming on part of its land.
Source: KAKE – News

Kansas plumbing company penalized more than $300K after trench collapse

An investigation into a Salina trench wall collapse determined Precision Plumbing LLC willfully violated federal trench safety regulations, resulting in proposed penalties of more than $300,000. In January 2023, a worker from Precision Plumbing, a Cheney plumbing company, was connecting a plumbing line to a Salina municipal sewer in a trench nine feet below the surface when he was buried due to a wall collapse, according to Monday’s U.S. Department of labor news release. The company foreman entered the trench to dig out the buried worker when the trench collapsed further, burying him to the knees.
Source: Kansas Reflector

Topeka metro cuts back on bus services, here’s why

Local transportation officials made several changes to existing bus routes in Topeka following a special meeting earlier this month. Keri Renner with the Topeka Metro said in a press release that on Friday, July 7 the Topeka Metro board of directors came together at the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library to cast votes on proposed service changes. These changes will take effect starting Sept. 3, 2023. This meeting came after three other previous meetings on the same topic and after taking comments from the public.
Source: KSNT 27 News

USD 252 Southern Lyon County to fund portion of Olpe Fitness Park project

USD 252 Southern Lyon County will fund a portion of the Olpe Fitness Park project. Board members voted 4-3 to have the district contribute $600,000 to the project as a part of their board meeting Wednesday night in Hartford. The fitness park is a three-stage project, which will see the district distribute $200,000 immediately, $200,000 in July 2024, and the final $200,000 in July 2025. New USD 252 Superintendent Ryan Muhlig said the project is beneficial to the district. The district might be tight on funds, but community members are raising 70 percent of the funds.
Source: KVOE Emporia Radio

‘Urban Cowboy’ nightclub with $128M Golden Circle casino pitched for old greyhound park

Billionaire casino mogul Phil Ruffin wants to build a massive nightclub that will be familiar to fans of the 1980 hit movie “Urban Cowboy,” a film that brought cowboy hats, line dancing, mechanical bulls and pearl-snap shirts to the mainstream. Gilley’s Dance Hall and Saloon, a replica of the popular Texas honky-tonk featured in “Urban Cowboy,” would open as early as fall 2024 as part of a $128 million Golden Circle casino redevelopment at the defunct Wichita Greyhound Park, which has been closed since 2007 after voters rejected a plan to allow slot machines at the track. Ruffin also would build a 110-room hotel near the casino and dance hall after renovations were completed. The plan hinges on a decision expected Thursday from the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission. Ruffin is seeking approval for a license to operate 1,000 historical horse racing machines to make the rest of the project economically viable. Ruffin is the last remaining applicant after one dropped out and another was disqualified.
Source: Wichita Eagle

Businesses looking to move to Hutchinson

Although many in Hutchinson are not seeing the day-to-day progress, there are large investors looking at heading to the Salt City. The Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce is taking phone calls, giving tours and fixing prospective business leaders up with options. Several businesses are looking at locating in the Kansas Enterprise Industrial Park as well as the recently closed Sonoco Hutchinson Paper Mill, although the building has not come on the market yet.
Source: Hutch News