Kansas Municipal News
Analysts slash two-year state revenue projections by $1.3 billion
Locked-down businesses, surging unemployment and consternation about a possible coronavirus recession Monday prompted downgrading of Kansas’ tax revenue projections in the next two years by $1.3 billion to force state lawmakers into the position of contemplating cataclysmic budget cuts.
The group of economists and analysts responsible for revising state revenue estimates predicted tax collections in the fiscal year ending June 30 would be down by $815 million. In the fiscal year starting July 1, tax revenue was expected to drop off $549 million because of damage caused by COVID-19 in Kansas.
(Read more: State Government – The Topeka Capital-Journal)
10-year yield hits lowest level since March as historic oil plunge stokes fears about the economy
U.S. government debt prices were higher Tuesday morning, after a historic oil price plunge stunned market participants in the previous session.
At 2:45 a.m. ET, the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to price, was lower at around 0.6130%, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was also lower at around 1.2152%.
It comes after U.S. oil prices tumbled below zero for the first time on record, with crude storage facilities filling rapidly and as the coronavirus crisis ravages demand.
(Read more: Bonds)
Fort Scott residents create fundraiser to help laid off workers
Southeast Kansas residents are getting creative in an effort to support local businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.
Fort Scott residents have created a fundraiser on Facebook to help keep local workers who’ve been laid off, paid.
Anyone can donate then, organizers purchase gift cards from businesses that have been closed.
(Read more: KSNF/KODE – FourStatesHomepage.com)
Municipal Bond Trends for April 20, 2020
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 and Beth Warren.
New LED streetlights coming to east Lenexa
A pair of streetlight improvement projects will bring brighter, more efficient lighting to areas of east Lenexa.
The City of Lenexa has begun replacing some of the streetlights in Old Town and in the area around Rosehill Road and 103rd Street. See maps of the Old Town project and the Rosehill Road/103rd Street project for impacted streets.
The City currently leases streetlights on the wood power poles from Every, while the remaining streetlights were purchased from KCP&L (Evergy) in 2009. All of these lights will be replaced with City-owned streetlight poles with energy-efficient LED fixtures.
(Read more: Lenexa)
Peabody Foundation activates community relief fund
Donors in Peabody have committed over $5000 to the Peabody Community Foundation (PCF) Community Relief Fund in support of the COVID-19 relief efforts. As a result of incoming donations and anticipated needs, the PCF board took action to open The Peabody Community Relief Fund.
“I was contacted two weeks ago by a supporter of PCF wondering what we were going to do in the face of economic hardship brought on by the pandemic,” said Becky Nickel, PCF Director. “The board took action so that funds can be granted locally.”
The Peabody Community Relief Fund is not a traditional endowment, but rather a pass-through fund. This type of fund maintains liquidity and allows the PCF review committee to mobilize grants to charities very quickly.
(Read more: Hillsboro Free Press)
Wichita USD 259 moving forward with graduation plans
Wichita USD 259 is moving forward with plans for in-person graduation ceremonies, if COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. USD 259 Superintendent Alicia Thompson updated school board members during a meeting Monday.
Members of the Student Advisory Council told administrators they wanted to have events where they could wear their caps and gowns. Dr. Thompson said events like this could take place before the end of July if restrictions on large gatherings are lifted.
Dr. Thompson said plans are underway for televised graduation-style events for each USD 259 high school. Those events are expected in May.
(Read more: KAKE – News)
Contact Tracing happening on “limited basis” in Sedgwick County.
Contact tracing is a research method used to find most or all contacts a COVID19 positive person has before, during and after a diagnosis.
It is happening on a limited basis in Sedgwick County.
KU School of Medicine-Wichita says Dr. Garold Minns has been doing contact tracing by himself and with current county staff.
Dr. Minns is the Sedgwick County health officer.
(Read more: KSN-TV)
Kansas beefs up testing at infection clusters linked to meat processing plants
The state rushed newly acquired testing supplies and personal protection gear into southwest Kansas to bolster the response to expanding clusters of coronavirus infection linked to the region’s large meat processing facilities, officials said Monday.
Mike Beam, secretary of the Kansas Department of Agriculture, said Ford, Seward and Finney counties in southwest Kansas and Lyon County all host processing facilities that have been challenged by spread of the virus. COVID-19 has killed 100 Kansans and infected nearly 2,000 people during the past two months.
“This is not a food safety issue,” Beam said. “There is no evidence of food-to-food packaging being associated with transmission of COVID-19.
(Read more: Local – The Hutchinson News)
Ascension Via Christi talks with city about providing ER service
The Wellington City Council voted unanimously to enter into a non-disclosure agreement with Ascension Via Christi, of Wichita, which has expressed an interest in providing emergency room services in the closed Sumner Community Hospital building.
“The city has been contacted by a couple of other groups with an interest in providing health care services,” City Manager Shane Shields told the council, during the Tuesday meeting. “The interest by Via Christi in providing full emergency room services appears to be the most positive possibility at this time.”
Ascension Via Christi reopened emergency services at the Fort Scott Hospital after it closed a year ago. Shields said he talked to the Fort Scott City Manager, who had spoken highly of Ascension and what it had accomplished in continuing emergency care for the city.
(Read more: Local – The Topeka Capital-Journal)
Clearwater nursing home has 42 COVID-19 cases, 2 deaths as coronavirus testing continues
A Wichita-area nursing home with an outbreak of the novel coronavirus now has 42 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and two deaths as testing continues.
The Clearwater Nursing and Rehabilitation Center coronavirus cluster had 29 additional residents test positive as of Monday, the Sedgwick County Health Department said in a news release.
All 53 residents of the nursing home have been tested for COVID-19, though not all test results have been returned. An undisclosed number of staff who have worked at the facility members have also tested positive and some have quit.
(Read more: Local News |)
Oil price goes negative as demand collapses; stocks dip
Oil futures plunged below zero on Monday, the latest never-before-seen number to come out of the economic coma caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Stocks and Treasury yields also dropped on Wall Street, with the S&P 500 down 1.8%, but the market’s most dramatic action by far was in oil, where the cost to have a barrel of U.S. crude delivered in May plummeted to negative $37.63. It was at roughly $60 at the start of the year.
Traders are still paying $20.43 for a barrel of U.S. oil to be delivered in June, which analysts consider to be closer to the “true” price of oil. Crude to be delivered next month, meanwhile, is running up against a stark problem: traders are running out of places to keep it, with storage tanks close to full amid a collapse in demand as factories, automobiles and airplanes sit idled around the world
(Read more: McPherson Sentinel)
Pandemic costs are ‘blowing massive holes’ in cities’ budgets
The U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) and the National League of Cities (NLC) conducted a survey of more than 2,400 local officials, of which 88% of respondents said they anticipate the novel coronavirus pandemic will lead to “painful reductions in revenue this year.” Of these respondents, 1,968 represent cities with populations of less than 500,000, which did not receive support from the recent Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) stimulus package.
(Read more: Smart Cities Dive – Latest News)
Municipal bonds settle into steady after whirlwind weeks
The municipal market was mostly quiet Friday as participants came off a week of a strong rally, an awakened new-issue market and the first fund inflows since February as they cautiously await another week with more deals on tap and continued questions of support out of Washington.
Triple A benchmarks showed slight weakness with most off a basis point or two.
While many new-issues are still on the day-to-day calendar for next week, more are being slated to price on specific days, signaling that dealers and issuers are ready to again test the primary.
(Read more: The Bond Buyer)
The Case for Rental Assistance: Why It is Necessary and How Cities Can Fund It
Housing instability plagued many Americans long before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the global health crisis has recently pushed it to the forefront of many policymakers’ minds as more families are urged to shelter in place. With orders to stay-at-home to help curb the spread of the virus, the question of who has a home to stay in, and how long they can afford it, is increasingly pertinent in light of the millions of individuals filing for unemployment or having their work hours significantly reduced. Given that nearly half of renters spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities and almost 11 million are severely cost burdened by spending more than half their income on rent, the housing affordability crisis is threatening to quickly become a public health crisis.
(Read more: CitiesSpeak)
Derby Public Library becomes temporary manufacturer
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) has become part of the common vernacular during the coronavirus pandemic, as the need for that gear among medical professionals continues to rise.
Recently, the Derby Public Library jumped in to help address the current PPE needs – starting the 3-D printing of ear guards for health care workers about two weeks ago.
DPL Technology Coordinator Justin Ball said the ear guards are intended to create support/relief in regards to the face masks (with elastic bands) medical personnel are required to wear.
(Read more: Derby News | derbyinformer.com)
Caution advised in buying protective equipment
Reno County’s EMS director offered a warning to participants in a daily conference call on Friday about the purchase of protective equipment during the novel coronavirus outbreak.
“We were contacted by a local vendor who gained access to what he believed was a large quantity of N-95 masks and was wanting to sell those to us,” said Dave Johnston. “They appear to be KN-95s out of China.”
“We’ve done additional follow up and they are nowhere close to the standard we need for N-95 masks,” he said. “They would work fine as a simple mask, but they would not work as a respirator. They do not meet the standards we need.”
(Read more: Local – The Hutchinson News)
Western Kansas records massive spike in COVID-19 cases
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases rocketed up in western Kansas this week from infection clusters involving at least six private businesses, state health officials said.
The most dramatic increase was in Ford County, where the number shot up from just two cases on April 9 to 84 cases on Friday, accounting for nearly a quarter of all new cases in the state for the past two days.
The increase moved Ford County into the fifth-highest case count in the state, behind Wyandotte, Johnson, Sedgwick, Leavenworth and Shawnee counties.
More than two dozen cases are also now confirmed in Finney and Seward counties, putting them 11th and 12th, respectively, on the state’s case count list.
(Read more: Local – The Hutchinson News)
Shawnee County to take ’step-wise approach’ to eventual easing of COVID-19 restrictions
Shawnee County health officer Gianfranco Pezzino shared several nuggets of good news — at least, relatively speaking — at the health department’s weekly COVID-19 news conference Friday.
But Pezzino added an important backdrop to his hopeful update: Now is not the time to get complacent.
“I want to warn you: I decided to share these somewhat positive numbers with you, but also with some concern that they could be misinterpreted,” Pezzino said, “and could lead to people to lower their guard and think, ‘Oh, we are done. We don’t need to stay home anymore. We can just go out and get with our friends.’ We are not at that point yet. Those numbers can turn around in a matter of hours or a few days. It’s important that we keep monitoring those numbers in the next few weeks.”
Shawnee County announced 90 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among its residents, up eight from Thursday’s total. Of those individuals who tested positive, 43 remain active cases, 42 have recovered and five have died.
(Read more: Local – The Topeka Capital-Journal)
Police, firefighter unions challenge city of Topeka on pay cuts
The unions representing Topeka’s police officers and firefighters are at odds with the city over a 3% pay cut announced last week.
The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 3 and the International Association of Firefighters Local No. 83 sent letters on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, to city manager Brent Trout requesting additional information about the pay cuts and questioning how the city concluded that action was the most appropriate to address potential budget shortfalls stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.
(Read more: Local – The Topeka Capital-Journal)