Finney County discusses redistricting for precincts districts

Finney County Commissioners discussed redistricting at its regular meeting Monday. Dori Munyan, Finney County clerk and election officer, said the Finney County Election office is going to initiate a redistricting project to “consolidate and clean up our voting districts or precincts.” The redistricting will be based on the 2020 Census data to hopefully reduce the number of precincts in the county, of which there are 71. Munyan said when she took office in 2018 Finney County had 28 precincts, but after some administrative clean up in 2018 they ended up with 41 precincts, but after the legislative redistricting it increased to 71.
Source: Garden City Telegram

Ranson Financial2023-07-07T14:12:20-05:00July 7, 2023|News|

State officials explain possible ramifications of USD 112 vote to dissolve

Two representatives from the Kansas State Department of Education met with patrons of USD 112 Central Plains on June 27 to answer questions about the upcoming Aug. 1 vote. The vote will give patrons of the district the option to disorganize with a “yes” vote or remain the same with a “no” vote. “I’m not here to convince you how to vote,” said Scott Gordon, general counsel for KSDE. “I want you to know what will happen afterward. “You may have heard rumors or information from people who say they’re on the inside. They don’t know what they’re talking about. Nobody knows what they’re talking about.”
Source: Great Bend Tribune

Ranson Financial2023-07-07T14:12:57-05:00July 7, 2023|News|

Larned council tackles water issues

Water issues dominated agenda discussion at the Larned City Council’s meeting Monday. In the first item of new business, the council approved the establishment of a Water Rights Task Force followed up with the purchase of a new rotary fan press filtration unit for the city’s wastewater plant. City Manager Brad Eilts told the council that the statutory window was closing on the city’s ability to secure water rights for the community based on peak usage. For the past four decades, the city has operated under an unsecured water right to consume 601.2 million gallons annually. By state statute, a community has 40 years to acquire and perfect a water right amount. For Larned, that period of time expired in 2019, at which time the City of Larned applied for and received a five-year extension.
Source: Great Bend Tribune

Ranson Financial2023-07-07T12:02:58-05:00July 7, 2023|News|

Wichita hopes to get homeless veteran population to functional zero by 2024

The City of Wichita is partnering with United Way of the Plains, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and Sedgwick County to effectively end veteran homelessness in Wichita by the end of next year. “Homelessness is a complex social issue,” says United Way of the Plains president Pete Najera. “And it will take a collective community response to bring it to functional zero.”
The City of Wichita’s Housing and Community Services department will play a crucial role in achieving the goal. Director Sally Stang said that the department plans to work with landlords on finding a way to provide the roughly 32 veterans a place to stay. “We’re gonna have to prove that we’ve got a system in play that as new veterans enter into homelessness, it’s brief and non recurring, and that we have systems in place to quickly move them into housing,” Stang said.
Source: KAKE – News

Ranson Financial2023-07-07T14:13:52-05:00July 7, 2023|News|

WPD looking at changes to code after being called out to City Nightz multiple times in last year

Since June of 2022, the Wichita Police Department says it has responded to 13 different incidents at City Nightz including the shooting there over the weekend that injured 11 people.
Of those 13 incidents, six were either simple battery, aggravated battery or aggravated assault. Wichita Police Chief Joseph Sullivan told KAKE on Monday he is working with the city’s law department to see what sort of new ordinances could be put into place for the department to better deal with businesses who are repeat offenders. “Give me more bite, if you will, so that I can take stronger action and more immediate action when we have incidents or a series of incidents that emanate from the same club,” said Chief Sullivan.
Source: KAKE – News

Ranson Financial2023-07-07T14:14:19-05:00July 7, 2023|News|

Chalk the Town colors Hutchinson with positivity

The City of Hutchison, Downtown Hutchison and Kara Vaughn hosted their second day of the 2023 Chalk the Town Event at Carey Park Sunday. The event was inspired by Vaughn’s viral TikTok video. The video gained over 30 million views when Vaughn’s landlord told her to remove her chalk art. In response, Downtown Hutchinson and the City of Hutchinson teamed up with Vaughn to host the two-day event. Participants were able to take part in demonstrations and prize drawings, as well as a scavenger hunt to find chalk creations around the park. Despite her situation, Vaughn says she is excited to bring a positive event like Chalk the Town to the community. “It means so much to me just to see how much the community could come together last minute to pull something off that is really important and just to spread a positive message, and I’m super excited,” Vaughn said.

Source: KSN-TV

Ranson Financial2023-07-07T11:32:52-05:00July 7, 2023|News|

Mission to consider updating tax abatement policy

The Mission City Council is set to consider an updated tax abatement policy later this month. This comes after two developers for separate apartment projects, 58 Nall and Milhaus, asked the city for tax abatements in the last year…. The policy was drafted following a May 31 city council work session and presented to the finance and administration committee on July 5. … developers who are approved for a tax abatement in Mission would pay 55% of their property taxes to the city. Developers must meet eight criteria in order to qualify for the 45% tax abatement, including a minimum capital investment of $3 million and proven economic benefit to the community. The policy states a 75% tax abatement is the maximum for any project for 10 years, “except in extraordinary circumstances,” according to city documents.
Source: Prairie Village Post

Ranson Financial2023-07-07T14:18:18-05:00July 7, 2023|News|

Kansas audit of election security exposes strengths weaknesses of voting systems

The auditing division of the Kansas Legislature reported Thursday election officials in more than a dozen counties studied maintained adequate overall security practices and management of election computers but raised questions about the security of ballots and vote tabulation machines. The objective of the review was to provide a partial picture of Kansas’ election security by comparing practices in Kansas against a set of policies recommended by federal election regulators. “Our results showed Kansas counties have many practices for ensuring the accuracy and security of elections,” the report delivered to House and Senate members said. “They’re also missing or have weak practices in several important areas. That means security isn’t as good as it could or should be.”
Source: The Lawrence Times

Ranson Financial2023-07-07T14:19:03-05:00July 7, 2023|News|

Municipal Bond Trends for July 6, 2023

The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of MBIS “investment grade” yields. Every issuer’s credit is different, and other financing sources may be available. To obtain comprehensive Financial Advisory services for your local government, contact your Ranson Financial Municipal Advisor, Larry Kleeman, or Henry Schmidt.

Henry Schmidt2023-07-07T04:37:27-05:00July 7, 2023|News|

Desire for Interest on Deposits Is Bad for Main Street Banks

When the Fed started raising interest rates to fight inflation, the conventional wisdom was that it would be a boon for Main Street banks. They were expected to increase the rates they charged on loans faster than those paid to depositors, pocketing the difference. Instead, the opposite is happening. The Fed’s hikes and the failures of a trio of midsize banks are prompting once-loyal customers to pull their money out of checking accounts that pay no interest. Banks are paying much higher rates on the deposits they are retaining, which is eclipsing the benefit of charging more on loans. They also are hoarding cash and tapping high-cost loans in response to the recent failures.
Source: WSJ.com: Markets

Ranson Financial2023-07-06T09:19:03-05:00July 6, 2023|News|

Services

Company