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.
A new problem popping up in several towns across Kansas, including Wichita and Topeka, is faulty streetlights that are turning blue and purple. An eerie scene on the streets of some northwest Wichita neighborhoods. “They’ve been popping up down the streets around here for about the past one to two months,” said April Vu. April Vu, who’s lived in west Wichita the past three years, said the blue and purple lights in her area are really distracting and she worries they might cause problems for drivers.
Source: KAKE – News
City of Winfield officials are still working to lower energy costs accrued during several days of record-breaking cold in February, even as state aid becomes available to assist municipal energy providers. Senate Bill 88, passed by both legislative chambers on Wednesday and signed into law later that day by Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, establishes a $100 million low-interest loan program to help municipal utility providers facing high bills after last month’s record-breaking cold snap. The loan program will be administered by the Kansas State Treasurer’s Office using Pooled Money Investment Board (PMIB) funds. “This loan program was absolutely necessary for our cities to manage the surging utility costs,” Kelly said in a press release. “It gives cities the immediate relief they need to avoid dire financial decisions while we pursue other, long-term solutions.”
Source: The Arkansas City Traveler
Help is on the way. A bill signed by Gov. Laura Kelly Wednesday could ease the immediate burden Humboldt faces from its utilities-based financial crisis. Recall, rate increases on natural gas during the recent cold snap slammed cities across Kansas, including Ellinwood, Pratt, Altamont, Winfield, Lyons, Burlingame and Humboldt, with unmanageable utility costs. Humboldt’s total bill was $1.6 million, a wallop to both the city and residents. City administrator Cole Herder said, “I have an example of one family whose bill is typically under $200 a month. Their bill for this month would have been $5,400. That’s an exceptional case, but I just know our residents can’t stand that. … And our major manufacturers, it’s just astronomical the amount they’d have to pay,” he added.
Source: The Iola Register
Dared and Renee Price are husband-and-wife pharmacists in south-central Kansas, and have spent tens of thousands of dollars and several months getting their six independent outlets in five small towns ready to deliver the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. They’ve had to buy freezers, temperature monitors and a mobile refrigerator. They’d like to break even. At first, they received just 100 doses through the federal retail pharmacy program, though they’ve since gotten more. It’s unlikely to be a big money-maker — in Kansas, they’ll be reimbursed about $24 for fully vaccinating someone with two doses — yet they see it as part of the service they provide to customers who live far from big hospitals and mass immunization sites. “We were just begging for vaccine,” said Dared Price. “Because we’ve done all this preparation, we had all the processes in place. Our waiting list was thousands of people long.”
Source: Wichita News
The Net Positive Studio was started in 2018 by Michael Gibson, a licensed architect and associate professor of architecture at Kansas State University, who teaches students to design and build homes for demonstration and partners with nonprofits to help fund the projects and get them built. “K-state is not gonna build 50 houses a year, but what we can do is we can show a different approach to doing this,” Gibson said. “We can show a type of house and the type of construction that you don’t see very much in Kansas.” In the U.S., median home prices have risen four times the rate of household incomes, and part of the reason is that the average size of houses has gotten larger and larger.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle
The U.S. Federal Reserve won’t step in to temper rising inflation any time soon, market watchers have said, despite surging yields that have roiled global stock markets. Stocks have been tethered over the past week to rising Treasury yields and the possibility that the Fed will tighten monetary policy to tackle an expected rise in inflation. On Thursday, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged that “some upward pressure on prices” could occur as the economy reopens, noting that he expects the central bank to be “patient” on policy action even if the economy sees “transitory increases in inflation.”
Source: CNBC
Growing up in Wamego, Clint Stueve saw how a group of people rallied around an old, crumbling theater to save the community landmark for future generations. It’s that kind of passion Stueve is relying on to get the theater through its next 125 years. Officially, The Columbian Theater turned 125 in 2020. But in a year marred by cancelled public gatherings and anxiety over the coronavirus, the theater’s plans to celebrate the milestone were tamped down. Some of them have even been postponed to the next notable year, the theater’s 130th anniversary in 2025.
Source: CJonline.com.
The City Utility Low-Interest Loan Program became law on March 4, 2021 after the publication of House Substitute for Senate Bill 88 in the Kansas Register. This program grants the State Treasurer’s Office the ability to issue loans to the cities in Kansas who have incurred extraordinary electric and/or natural gas costs during the extreme weather event of February, 2021. These loans will be issued at a rate that is 2.00% below the market rate as provided in K.S.A. 75-4237 with a minimum interest rate of 0.25%.
The State Treasurer has opened the application process. Cities can learn more and apply for loans using the application available here.
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.
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