Topeka, KS offers $10K for remote workers to relocate

GO Topeka, an economic development group in the Topeka, KS area, is the latest to establish a remote work incentive program dubbed the Choose Topeka Relocation Initiative. The initiative will offer remote employees nationally up to $10,000 toward the purchase of a home in Topeka or Shawnee County or $5,000 toward a one-year lease in the region, in an effort to grow the Topeka-area community. The program is prepared to accept about 10 to 20 applicants, said Barbara Stapleton with the Greater Topeka Partnership. The effort is an expansion of a 2019 job relocation program that required candidates take a job with a Topeka-based company.
Source: Smart Cities Dive – Latest News

Ranson Financial2020-09-16T07:37:15-05:00September 15, 2020|News|

Wichita police issue tickets for violating city’s mask mandate

The Wichita Police Department is now issuing tickets for violations of the city’s mask ordinance that requires most people to wear protective face masks in public to fight the coronavirus. The ordinance passed July 3, but was not enforced until Saturday, when four tickets were issued at bars that were operating after the county’s 11 p.m. curfew. City officials say the tickets were issued only after education attempts failed and some bars and nightclubs across Wichita rebelled against COVID-19 restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle

Ranson Financial2020-09-16T07:37:25-05:00September 15, 2020|News|

Municipal Bond Trends for September 14, 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.

Ranson Financial2020-09-15T07:46:15-05:00September 15, 2020|News|

Compliance with face mask and bar curfew order is no longer voluntary in Sedgwick County

Compliance with the coronavirus public health order on face masks and a bar curfew is no longer voluntary in Sedgwick County. Health officer Dr. Garold Minns signed a new emergency public health order on Monday, removing the phrase “voluntary compliance” from the existing COVID-19 order. The mandatory health order goes into effect first thing Tuesday morning and runs through the end of day Oct. 21. “Any persons or organizations within Sedgwick County must comply with the order,” county officials wrote in a news release. “Minns will continue to review and monitor COVID-19 trends in the community and will consider lifting restrictions as trends move in a positive direction.”
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle

Ranson Financial2020-09-15T07:45:09-05:00September 15, 2020|News|

Pretty Prairie wind farm lawsuit dismissed, allowing it to be appealed

The Pretty Prairie Wind lawsuit was dismissed by a Reno County judge on Monday after attorneys for the developer filed a motion asking to dismiss all claims in the suit except on an issue the district court already ruled on. The action effectively allows the corporation to appeal to a higher court an earlier ruling by District Judge Tim Chambers on a motion for summary judgment. It has 10 days to file a notice of appeal. Pretty Prairie Wind LLC, a subsidiary formed by NextEra Energy to develop an 82-turbine wind farm in the southeast quadrant of the county, filed the suit in July 2019 after it failed to obtain a conditional use permit to build the project. That after landowners in the development area who opposed the project successfully filed a protest petition which forced a unanimous county commission vote to grant the permit, but the vote was split 2-1 in favor of the permit.
Source: Local – The Hutchinson News

Ranson Financial2020-09-15T07:43:39-05:00September 15, 2020|News|

Manhattan City Commission looking at giving city staff power to raise Parks & Rec fees

The Manhattan City Commission is looking into giving city administrators the power to set Parks & Recreation fees without seeking commission approval first. Deputy City Manager Jason Hilgers said city staff already have the ability to do this with new Parks & Rec programs, but the laws are inconsistent. Hilgers said older programs, like youth baseball and basketball, are wrapped up in another city ordinance. “We’ll have administration evaluate these programs,” Hilgers said. “Look at the cost to bring the program to bear and then correspondently charge the participants basically a cost recovery rate to try to pay for that program.”
Source: KSNT News

Ranson Financial2020-09-15T07:42:39-05:00September 15, 2020|News|

“It will be drastic and very harmful,” Governor Kelly warns of possible budget cuts

The SPARK Task Force was assembled to distribute millions of dollars in federal CARES Act funding in three rounds. The task force is working to finalize and send out the final $290 million to communities. Governor Kelly said some of that final round money will go to additional testing in the state; including the testing of asymptomatic individuals. But that money was not permitted to be used to pay off state debt or backfill state revenue loss. Governor Kelly said the federal government must send additional funding to help the state’s work their way out of the economic impact of the virus. She said, without this help, Kansas will likely see major budget cuts in fiscal year 2022.
Source: KSNT News

Ranson Financial2020-09-15T07:42:06-05:00September 15, 2020|News|

Muni-Bond Downgrades Rare Even With Few Spared Pandemic’s Blows

Even as America’s states and cities brace for hundreds of billions of dollars tax collections to disappear, the two biggest credit-rating companies have been slow to downgrade municipal debt amid increasing risk for the $3.9 trillion market. Since the pandemic raced through the U.S., S&P Global Ratings Inc. and Moody’s Investors Service have downgraded about 1% of the municipal borrowers they rate, even as sports stadiums close, college towns and dormitories are emptied after some campuses canceled in-person classes, and the steep drop in travel batters airports and tourism-driven cities. Halfway through September, Moody’s has cut the ratings of about 125 of the approximately 12,000 public finance entities it tracks, 90 fewer than the second and third quarters of 2018, when the economy was eight years into a record expansion. S&P lowered those on 175 of about 20,000 borrowers since late March.
Source: Bloomberg.

Ranson Financial2020-09-15T07:36:52-05:00September 15, 2020|News|

Vandals have stolen one of the just-installed Keeper statues celebrating Wichita’s 150th

If you go out searching for the 13 Keeper statues that were just installed as a celebration of Wichita’s 150th birthday, you can mark one off the list — for now. Over the weekend, the new statue at Planeview Park was somehow knocked off its base and stolen. The 10-foot-tall fiberglass statue, which had been painted by artist Tereza Zardoz, had just been put in place near the park’s playground two weeks ago. It’s the first time since the Keeper project started in 2015 that a statue has been stolen, said Tessa Brungardt, the project manager. And only one other statue has ever been vandalized.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle

Ranson Financial2020-09-15T07:44:46-05:00September 15, 2020|News|

Prairie Village councilmembers approve voluntary compost-collection service agreements

The Prairie Village city council last week voted to allow two local compost companies to provide curbside collection service for interested residents. The council’s Tuesday action follows its June 2021 budget discussion where the council decided not to proceed with a citywide curbside compost and glass collection program that would have been paid for from the solid waste assessment fee on property taxes, according to council documents.
Source: Prairie Village Post

Ranson Financial2020-09-15T07:44:26-05:00September 15, 2020|News|