The Wichita projects supported by 14 community improvement districts

Perhaps you’ve spotted the signs or noticed the extra tax on your receipt. Fans who buy Wind Surge merchandise at Riverfront Stadium, for example, will notice an extra 2% sales tax, outside of the usual 7.5% rate. Similarly, there’s also an added 1.5% sales tax at Chicken N Pickle. That’s because there are 14 community improvement districts across the Wichita area that are leveraging an additional sales tax — anywhere from 1-2% — to support certain commercial development projects. A CID is an incentive program that provides funds to a development project through the levy of additional sales tax within the district boundaries, or special assessments on real property.
Source: Wichita Business Journal

Ranson Financial2023-10-16T13:51:46-05:00October 16, 2023|News|

Places to go, sites to see, tales of yore keep Atchison tourism on the Kansas Map

For the curious, history lovers, adventurists, and naturalists near and far, they might tell Atchison is the place they like to go for good time experiences. Kansas Tourism recently announced that the Atchison Area Chamber of Commerce was recently awarded a $10,000 Marketing Grant in the 2023 Tourism Marketing Grant Awards Program. The grant awards announced on Aug. 28, are designed to assist local tourism or attractions in new or first-time innovative marketing initiatives. Atchison Chamber is one of the 22 projects that the Kansas Tourism Award will provide funding throughout the state to enhance and expand advertising efforts to attract new visitors to the state and destinations throughout.
Source: www.atchisonglobenow.com

Ranson Financial2023-10-16T10:21:07-05:00October 16, 2023|News|

Security breach in Kansas court network system

The Kansas Supreme Court issued an order today declaring all court clerk offices inaccessible for electronic filings through Sunday, October 15th. This order comes after the court’s network experienced interruptions on Thursday. Courts remain open according to the news release issued by the Kansas Judicial Branch on Thursday. The courts will continue to accept paper filings and fax filings. By declaring the courts inaccessible for efiling purposes, certain filing deadlines may be extended under applicable rules and statutes.
Source: KSNF/KODE

Ranson Financial2023-10-16T10:16:28-05:00October 16, 2023|News|

With funding for Kansas schools higher, the attorney general wants to close their lawsuit

Kansas’ Republican attorney general asked the state’s highest court to reward the GOP-controlled Legislature for following through on a decade’s worth of court-mandated education funding increases by making it harder for local school districts to force higher spending in the future. Attorney General Kris Kobach’s office wants the Kansas Supreme Court to close a lawsuit that four school districts filed against the state in 2010. The request was filed Wednesday by Tony Powell, a former state Court of Appeals judge who now serves as Kobach’s solicitor general. The state Supreme Court issued seven rulings from 2013 through 2019 requiring the Legislature to increase funding for public schools and to make its formula for distributing its funds fairer to poorer areas of the state.
Source: KSNT 27 News

Ranson Financial2023-10-16T10:14:48-05:00October 16, 2023|News|

Thousands of local governments fail to report how they’ve spent COVID-19 relief funds

States and local governments have spent about 45% of the $350 billion given out through one federal COVID-19 relief program, but tracking that money has been difficult and 4,268 local governments – about 14% – have yet to submit reports on how the money was used. The U.S. Department of the Treasury hasn’t publicly released the names of the small local governments that have failed to report back on what they did with the money because it doesn’t want to put “undue pressure” on them, according to a report released Wednesday. When Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, it created the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds program. The U.S. Treasury allocated $350 billion in State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds to tribal governments, states, the District of Columbia, local governments and U.S. territories. The money was to help cover a broad range of costs stemming from the pandemic, including revenue replacement.
Source: www.chanute.com

Ranson Financial2023-10-16T14:29:00-05:00October 16, 2023|News|

Does Wichita have secrets? New book highlights more than 80 of them

Vanessa Whiteside is spilling Wichita’s secrets. Whiteside, a travel blogger and writer, again draws on her natural curiosity and the love of her hometown for her second Wichita-centric book published through Reedy Press. In the introduction to “Secret Wichita: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure,” Whiteside writes that she took on the task of sharing Wichita’s secrets “because I wanted to learn as much as possible about the city’s hidden gems, forgotten stories, and intriguing spaces.” The book highlights more than 80 people, places, artifacts, collections and things in Wichita that fall in the category of being weird, wonderful, obscure and maybe, in some cases, odd. Some will be familiar to locals, while some are likely lesser known, such as a museum dedicated to military tanks, a buried robot, a steampunk village in a west Wichita residential community, and a giant rollercoaster that was part of an amusement area on an island in the middle of the city.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle

Ranson Financial2023-10-16T09:58:27-05:00October 16, 2023|News|

Therapy dogs are making pawsitive impact in Parsons Schools

Students in the Parsons School District have an extra resource to provide support and comfort. For the past six years the district has had a therapy dog inside just one of its schools. Now every school in the district has a certified therapy dog. “I tell the kids he’s here for you guys. When you guys are down and you’re upset and you need you just need to pitch someone. You just need to hug someone. And he gets plenty of hugs and kisses,” said Jo Rae. Administrators say the dogs are a benefit for the schools in ways such as reducing negative behavior in the students, as well as dealing with stress. “It helps with students anxiety as they come into the room with just managing things at home and coming to school in a brand new class. But also when something is tough and they feel stressed out, they can come pet Sofia and there chill,” said Wendy Vaughn.
Source: KSNF/KODE

Ranson Financial2023-10-16T09:57:20-05:00October 16, 2023|News|

SEK sounds off on transportation

The Kansas Department of Transportation heard from Southeast Kansas residents during a Local Consult meeting to seek public input on IKE, the Eisenhower Legacy Transportation Program. The event at the Bowlus on Thursday morning included discussion on needed improvements to state highways. Truck drivers hauling material to and from Monarch Cement Co. in Humboldt face a particularly troublesome stretch of road on K-39 west of Chanute toward Fredonia. Kent Webber, president of Monarch, shared his concerns about the road at a special meeting organized by the Kansas Department of Transportation at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center on Thursday morning. KDOT officials met with more than 100 residents, county and city officials, business leaders and non-profit representatives to discuss projects under IKE, the Eisenhower Legacy Transportation Program.
Source: The Iola Register

Ranson Financial2023-10-16T09:37:06-05:00October 16, 2023|News|

Union Pacific sued over chemical spill affecting Wichita neighborhoods near 29th, Grove

Wichita residents living above a chemical spill from Union Pacific Railroad face property damages and a loss of property value as a result of the company’s negligence, according to a federal lawsuit filed this week by law firms across the country. The class-action lawsuit addresses a chemical spill at a Union Pacific rail yard near 29th North and Grove, which many Wichita residents learned about last year. The spill – which contains trichloroethylene, a carcinogenic degreasing agent – contaminated the groundwater beneath about 2,800 addresses. The groundwater plume runs about 3 miles, from 29th Street to the north to Murdock to the south, through many historically Black neighborhoods. “We’re concerned about the … impact on people’s home values,” said Chris Nidel, a lawyer with the Maryland-based Nidel & Nace firm, which helped file the lawsuit.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle

Ranson Financial2023-10-16T09:35:22-05:00October 16, 2023|News|

Some seniors, disabled Wyandotte County residents to be exempt from fee on BPU bills

Wyandotte County residents of a certain age and income, or who are disabled, will soon be able to seek exemptions from a Unified Government fee on their utility bills. The Board of Commissioners, Wyandotte County’s governing body, on Thursday passed PILOT relief for people ages 65 or older who have an income of $37,750 or less. The exemptions for qualifying residents will start in 2024. Ratepayers have long complained of the UG fee on their bills from the Board of Public Utilities, the publicly-owned utility that provides water and electricity to Wyandotte County. The PILOT fee, which stands for payment in lieu of taxes, helps the Unified Government manage revenue losses from property taxes that are not collected from the BPU, since the municipal utility is tax exempt. The money is used to help fund city operations. Residents unable to pay the PILOT fee face having their water or electricity turned off.
Source: KC Star Local News

Ranson Financial2023-10-16T09:33:13-05:00October 16, 2023|News|