Kansas Municipal News
Changes to competition bill would lessen impact locally
A bill that would provide private businesses that compete with governmental entities tax exemptions of property and sales taxes has advanced out of committee in the Kansas Senate. County Administrator Anthony Swartzendruber, who previously raised concerns with county commissioners about the bill, gave them an update Tuesday morning. He said the current version of the bill no longer had the words “ambulance service” or “city” in it, the latter of which would remove any concerns of the county being in competition with a private business since the county operates a bait shop. The bill now proposes to give tax exemptions to businesses that use their property for things like child care, health and recreation, entertainment or a restaurant if they are located in a city where at least one facility operated by a governmental entity competes with the business.
Source: Harvey County Now
Halstead businesses profit from the MAYB tournaments
About 40 teams participated in the MAYB (Mid-American Youth Basketball) tournament in Halstead last Saturday, according to MAYB Executive Director Matt Flaming. He estimated that 40-50 people (including the players and coaches) from each team attend the tournaments, which means that Halstead likely saw between 1,600 and 2,000 visitors on Saturday. That’s good news for local businesses. Alan Weber, who owns two of those businesses—D’Angelo’s Pizza and Pepper’s Mexican Bar & Grill—said it helps all of the businesses on Main Street. “I’m sure people go to the grocery store to get snacks and the gas station and they come to get pizza and Mexican food, sandwiches at Subway,” Weber said. “It’s definitely nice to have the extra business and see people walk up and down Main Street and check things out.”
Source: Harvey County Now
Fire departments to get new teaching tool
County fire departments soon will give fire safety presentations using an inflatable house that teaches children how to escape, how to use extinguishers, and kitchen and fireplace safety. The house, made by a Dallas company, costs $12,655 and will be used by all departments in the county. A donation from Sunflower Wind will pay for the house. It comes complete with instructions for exit drills and other safety procedures. It can be used indoors or outdoors and has non-toxic, water-based “smoke” to simulate burning. Children crawl through the house, locate an escape route, and crawl to assigned safety locations. Marion assistant fire chief Eric Hardey said he’d been looking for a new way to do safety presentations at Marion Elementary School.
[HILLSBORO Star-Journal
How long until Hutchinson has its new firehouse ready?
Not only will Hutchinson’s newest fire station be ready on time, it will have a new way to ‘hose’ off for firefighters. Because of the higher incidence of lead, smoke and toxic fumes that firefighters face, the new fire station will have showers located on the outer rim of the building, so firefighters will not bring the contaminants inside the station after a call. There will also be a special washing machine, an extractor, that washes their bunker gear. “They take a shower, get out of their dirty clothes that they wear, and then they’ll put on hospital scrubs, and so they’ll be clean, and that’s when they will actually enter inside the fire station to put on a different uniform,” said Doug Hanen, the division chief of operations for HFD. “So they should never be taking their contaminants inside the fire station where they’re living.”
Source: Hutch News
McKee to retire as Holton city manager
With Holton City Manager Kerwin McKee’s announcement of his upcoming retirement, the Holton City Commission will be looking for someone to fill his position. During the commission’s regular meeting last night — held a day later than normal due to the Presidents Day observance on Monday — McKee, who has worked for the city since 1996 and has served as city manager since July 2016, formally announced that he would be retiring as a city employee, effective May 1. “It was a very hard decision to make, and it took a long time to make it,” McKee said. “There’s a lot of things that weighed into this decision.”
Source: Holton Recorder
Historical horse racing proposed at Towne West, Greyhound Park
The Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission (KRGC) said Wednesday it has received three applications from companies to open historical horse racing (HHR) facilities in Wichita. Boyd Gaming Corporation on Tuesday submitted its application to open a casino in Park City, which would feature 1,000 HHR units, meaning gamblers would bet on races that have already finished. On Wednesday, an application was submitted by Flint Hills Entertainment, proposing a facility at Towne West Square. It also applied to open “Eureka Downs Horse Racing Track,” which would feature live racing in Eureka, Kansas.
Source: KSN-TV
Kansas City’s new airport is finally open
Kansas City’s new airport terminal has officially opened to the public, with the inaugural flight arriving from Chicago early Tuesday morning — and many more following. KCUR’s Frank Morris was there as the first passengers arrived and he spoke with Steve Kraske on Up To Date about how the big day went. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner saw some of her political support collapse last week when a man who repeatedly violated house arrest seriously injured a teenage athlete. She’s now facing an effort from Missouri’s attorney general to remove her from office. St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum looks at why the outcome of the judicial bid to oust Gardner could have larger implications than just whether she stays in office.
Source: KCUR News
Lawrence to create pallet shelter village to help homeless
The City of Lawrence, Kansas continues to work on options to help those homelessness in the community. On Wednesday, the city said it is preparing to create a pallet shelter village, which will serve as an emergency shelter option for those currently experiencing homelessness. The idea is to build dozens of shelter homes out of pallets to provide a transition to permanent housing. The modular homes include heating and cooling. They are set up to include restrooms, laundry, shower and gathering space for a group of people to use.
Source: KSNT 27 News
Rent keeps increasing in Wichita. Here’s what experts say is behind rising housing costs
Monthly rent costs in Wichita are steadily increasing each year, but are still low compared to markets across the country, according to local real estate experts. According to a report released by NAI Martens, an area commercial real estate agency, late last year, rent rates in Wichita increased 1.8% in 2022 and 9.4% in 2021, which was the biggest jump in the last five years. In 2020, rent rates only saw an increase of 0.4% due to the coronavirus pandemic. The big jump the following year was to “catch up” from the lower increase the year before, Jeff Englert, senior vice president of NAI Martens, said.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle
Google Fiber is coming to Leawood after 10-year wait
Internet provider Google Fiber has started building a network for Leawood residents and businesses. Utility work began in the northern part of the city for the new network this week, which will serve both residential neighborhoods and small businesses in Leawood. Debuting in 2010, Google Fiber already serves several communities surrounding Leawood. According to the company’s FAQ page, Google Fiber is already up and running in Overland Park, Olathe, Shawnee, Roeland Park, Lenexa and Prairie Village. Customers can opt for plans ranging from $70 to $120 a month, depending on which speeds they opt for and if they include cable television in their plan.
Source: Prairie Village Post
Overland Park exploring sales tax increase to limit chip seal use
Following years of resident complaints about its chip seal method for road repairs, Overland Park is exploring a possible solution: a sales tax increase. Residents have voiced long-standing concerns about chip seal, arguing that the finely crushed rock used as a top-layer surface often gets tracked around residential streets and can prove hazardous to children and cyclists. Increasing city sales taxes could cover costs for a different but more expensive kind of road resurfacing, allowing the city to gradually lessen its reliance on chip seal.
Source: Prairie Village Post
Wind farms are transforming the Kansas landscape. Here’s an effort to tone down their lights
Wind farms continue to spread across Kansas — but with new features that will tone down the way they interrupt wide open skies with red, blinking lights visible for miles and resented by many rural residents. This year, Kansas will get its first two wind farms designed to produce less light pollution — High Banks north of Concordia and Sunflower Wind Farm about an hour west of Emporia. Meanwhile, state lawmakers are considering a law to make other wind farms follow suit. A few states, such as North Dakota and Colorado, blazed the trail in recent years by adopting similar rules. But Kansas, which ranks fourth in the U.S. for wind power, would be the biggest windenergy-producing state to mandate light mitigation.
Source: The Lawrence Times
Did Wichita settle with its newest $400M riverfront plan for Century II?
Wichitans got their first look Tuesday at a new plan to reimagine Wichita’s downtown riverfront, including what to do with Century II, Bob Brown Expo Hall and the former central library. The new plan, though, has begged the age-old question in this city: Did Wichita settle? The preliminary concept, presented to Wichita’s City Council by international design firm Populous, comes with a $400 million price tag — significantly less than the $1.2 billion Riverfront Legacy Master Plan, which had momentum in early 2020 until it was derailed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Source: Wichita Business Journal
Municipal Bond Trends for March 1, 2023
The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of MBIS “investment grade” yields. Every issuer’s credit is different. For rates that may be applicable to your municipality, contact our Municipal Bond Advisors, Larry Kleeman, Beth Warren and Henry Schmidt.
Who let the dogs in? Kansas breweries and health officials clash over indoors pet ban
From 2019 to 2022, Transport Brewery was a dog lover’s paradise, with dogs allowed in the taprooms and patios, pet adoption events and even a dog picture calendar. Then came the Kansas Department of Agriculture inspector, who informed the Shawnee brewery that the state no longer allowed dogs inside the taproom. Gone were the days of dogs dressed in holiday sweaters, or miniature sports gear. Signs had to be put up telling customers that dogs were no longer allowed. Brewery owner Mike McVey said the dog ban damaged his business, testifying in support of legislation that would allow dogs in microbreweries during a House Committee on Commerce, Labor and Economic Development hearing.
Source: The Lawrence Times
2-year Treasury yield reaches highs not seen in more than a decade
U.S. Treasurys climbed on Thursday as investors considered the prospect of further interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve and awaited fresh economic data. At 5:46 a.m. ET, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury was up by 2.6 basis points to 4.022%, trading above the 4% mark at levels last seen in early November. The 2-year Treasury yield was last trading at 4.887%. Earlier in the session it had risen as high as 4.937%, a level last seen in mid-2006 according to CNBC calculations based on Refinitiv data. Yields and prices have an inverted relationship and one basis point equals 0.01%.
Source: CNBC – Bonds
A year later, the Fed still has a long way to go in the fight against inflation
It was a year ago this month that the Federal Reserve launched its first attack against inflation that had been percolating in the U.S. economy for at least the previous year. That first strike, in retrospect, would seem timid: Just a quarter percentage point increase to tackle price surges which in just a few months would peak at their highest annual rate since late 1981. It wouldn’t be long before policymakers knew that initial step wouldn’t be enough. Subsequent months saw much larger hikes, enough to raise the Fed’s benchmark borrowing rate by 4.5 percentage points to its highest since 2007. So after a year of inflation fighting, how are things going? In short, OK, but not a whole lot more. The rate hikes appeared to have quelled some of the inflation surge that inspired the policy tightening. But the notion that the Fed was too late to get started lingers, and questions are increasing over how long it will take the central bank to get back to its 2% inflation standard.
Source: CNBC
Fed’s Bostic urges 5% to 5.25% rates into 2024 to curb inflation
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic called for continued interest-rate hikes to above 5% ensure that inflation returns to the central bank’s target and doesn’t reaccelerate in a pattern similar to the 1970s. “I think we will need to raise the federal funds rate to between 5% and 5.25% and leave it there until well into 2024,” Bostic said in an online essay. “This will allow tighter policy to filter through the economy and ultimately bring aggregate supply and aggregate demand into better balance and thus lower inflation.” U.S. central bankers are waging their most aggressive action against inflation in a generation. Officials lifted their benchmark lending rate by a quarter of a percentage point at the start of February, bringing the target to a range of 4.5% to 4.75%. That was a step down from the half percentage-point increase at their December meeting, which followed four consecutive jumbo-sized 75 basis-point hikes.
Source: The Bond Buyer
Arbor Day Foundation Names City of Phillpsburg- Tree City USA
Phillipsburg, KS was named a 2022Tree City USA by the Arbor Day Foundation in honor of its commitment to effective urban forest management. The Tree City USA program is sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters. Phillipsburg achieved Tree City USA recognition by meeting the program’s four requirements: a tree board or department, a tree-care ordinance, an annual community forestry budget of at least $2 per capita and an Arbor Day observance and proclamation.
Source: Phillipsburg, KS
Derby bringing back water conservation rebate program
The city of Derby will once again offer a water conservation rebate program in 2023, thanks to funding through the city of Wichita. The purpose of the rebate program is to encourage Derby residents to reduce water consumption. A $25,000 rebate allowance will be shared amongst Wichita’s wholesale customers, including Derby. Rebates will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis until funds are depleted. Funds will be credited to the Derby utility customer’s account. Rebates are available to all Derby utility customers, including residential and commercial, owner-occupied, and rentals. Any qualifying device purchased between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2023, is eligible for the program while funds are available.
Source: Derby Informer | News