Municipal News & Jobs

A Kansas House committee tested the medical community’s pulse Tuesday on legislation earmarking $10 million in state funding for a new grant program to help financially struggling rural hospitals. The Kansas Hospital Association and Kansas Medical Society offered affirmative testimony on the legislation, which would match every $2 invested by grant applicants with $1 from a new state fund. Under House Bill 2174, donors could specify the recipient county but not dictate what hospital within a county received a grant. … “Many rural hospitals across the country continue to financially struggle,” said Tara Mays, of the Kansas Hospital Association. “Our member hospitals are committed to working on efforts that provide flexibility to rural hospitals as well as opportunities to implement alternative rural health models that sustain health care services in rural communities.”
Source: Kansas Reflector

After the Kansas Department of Health and Environment prevented the Riley County Health Department from rolling out COVID-19 vaccinations according to the county’s specific needs, some state legislators want to minimize the state’s power to intervene in how counties make such decisions. A few weeks ago, Riley County health officials announced they were ready to move into phase three of the vaccine rollout. That would have allowed people in the county with severe underlying conditions, such as cancer and some other illnesses, to get their vaccines ahead of the state’s distribution schedule — and way ahead of what had been predicted for Riley County. But Kansas Department of Health and Environment secretary Lee Norman said the county needed to continue following the state’s plan as approved by the federal government and vaccinate another group in phase two: essential workers. … Sen. Richard Hilderbrand, who chairs the Public Health and Welfare Committee, said Senate Bill 295 would put a stop to what he called KDHE’s “micromanagement” of counties. He said he isn’t happy with how Kansas has prioritized its distribution phases and wants to see local governments have more flexibility in how they distribute vaccines. Hilderbrand indicated his committee would take action Tuesday on the proposed legislation.
Source: Kansas Reflector

Sen. Caryn Tyson urged fellow senators Thursday to endorse “historic” property tax reform and overlook changes made by the House to lump school districts into the reform package for local governments. Tyson, a Republican from Parker, credited the late Sen. Bud Estes, a Dodge City Republican who died last month, with engaging her several years ago in the process of figuring out how to fix property tax problems in Kansas. “We are literally taxing people out of their homes,” she said in a speech on the Senate floor, shortly before the chamber adopted the law by a 30-5 vote. The end product would remove the loathed, state-imposed local property tax lid, exclude normal maintenance from property valuations, allow for payment plans, and require written notices and public hearings before raising taxes by any amount. Tax increases are measured by the dollar, rather than mill levy, to abolish the practice of raising taxes by increasing property valuations. Senate Bill 13 now goes to Gov. Laura Kelly for consideration.
Source: Kansas Reflector