When Kansas lawmakers left for an early spring break in mid-March, the state was projected to have a healthy savings account of nearly $1 billion in reserves come June. They passed an $8 billion budget as the coronavirus pandemic was just beginning, not knowing whether they’d even come back to Topeka. Since then, the virus caused thousands of businesses across Kansas to close and more than 200,000 people to file for unemployment. Tax revenues started falling off a cliff — income taxes are expected to be down more than 15% and sales taxes by 4% — and there’s now an estimated $650 million budget deficit for the fiscal year that starts July 1. It’s up to lawmakers and the governor to fix the financial situation, and it could take wide-ranging budget cuts.
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The city of Westwood last week released a four-and-a-half phase reopening plan, but like the city of Merriam, Westwood has yet to make a firm decisions about Woodside Pool opening this year or not. Although Woodside Pool acts as the city pool, it is still part of the private Woodside Club and is reliant on the club’s ability to safely open, according to Westwood’s announcement. Woodside is currently working on a reopening plan, but the city is not accepting pool pass applications due to the uncertainty of a facility opening. The city will provide updates on the pool and pool passes as they come, according to the announcement. Other cities such as Roeland Park, Prairie Village, Mission and Fairway have decided not to open their pools for the summer. The Overland Park city council will consider a committee recommendation to keep the city pools closed this summer, as well.
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County election officials are getting set to spend $1 million soon to add tabulation devices to its two-year-old voting machinery – a move election officials say is necessary because of concerns over the spread of COVID-19. But the change also renders redundant the built-in tabulation function that was the star feature of the $10.6 million purchase in 2018. That year the county was first in the country to use the voting machine/tabulation combo that had just been developed by vendor Election Systems and Software, of Omaha. The existing machines will now basically become ballot markers instead. Voters who use them to make their choices will then walk their marked ballots over to a separate tabulator to be counted, said Connie Schmidt, who is election commissioner through this year’s ballots, after which the Secretary of State’s appointee Fred Sherman will take over.
(Read more: Prairie Village Post)