THE FINANCIAL CRISIS: Flint Hills president points out the Legislature has shortchanged the state's pension fund for years. The result? A $10 billion problem.

The time bomb in the KPERS portfolio may be ready to blow

The financial future of Kansas is grim, with a deficit that may be as high as $1 billion within the next two years. If that weren't bad enough, the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System portfolio is feeling the effects of Wall Street's anguish, with a loss of almost 30 percent between January and October of last year.

Now for the bad news. According to the new president of the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy, Dave Trabert, the situation's been made much worse by a lack of legislative funding. Between 1998 and 2007, the Kansas Legislature has only allocated KPERS an average of 71 percent of the actuarially required contributions.

This lack of legislative funding may have increased the unfunded actuarial accrued liability, or the gap between the value of assets KPERS has and the estimated liability for benefits already earned by members, to nearly $10 billion, according to Trabert. [ Read more...]

'It’s going to be one tough choice after another.'

Yoder: sale of state-owned assets should be on the table

States across the nation facing budget woes similar to Kansas are busy selling or leasing state-owned assets – everything from airports and toll roads to parks and golf courses – to generate revenue.

Might that be a solution for Kansas?

Rep. Kevin Yoder, the Overland Park Republican who was appointed to chair the House Appropriations Committee, said he believes the sale or lease of state-owned assets “should be on the table” as budget-makers contemplate how to close the state’s pending budget gap. [ Read more...]

Resolution could be presented to full RNC this month

Kansas' National Committee Woman joins other Republicans in denouncing bailouts

A national GOP delegate from Kansas who co-sponsored a resolution condemning the federal government for its embrace of bailouts said Tuesday she backed the resolution because she believed it was important that the Republican Party reiterate the "core principles" of the party in the face of bailout mania.

“As a co-sponsor of the resolution, my hope is to send a strong message to everyone who reads it that our GOP will return to our ideals of lower taxes and smaller government,” Helen Van Etten, one of three Kansas delegates to the GOP, told Kansas Liberty in e-mail correspondence.

The strongly worded resolution, issued Monday and signed by 10 Republican Party delegates, including primary sponsor Jim Bopp, vice-chair of the Republican National Committee, bashed the bailout of the banking industry and implored President George W. Bush and President-elect Barack Obama to oppose additional bailouts in favor of more fiscally conservative solutions. [ Read more...]

IMMIGRATION: Bill would include an end to in-state tuition breaks for illegal aliens.

Tactics will change, but goals of immigration reform advocates remain the same

Rep. Lance Kinzer, the Olathe Republican who sponsored a comprehensive immigration reform bill that failed to make it through the 2008 Legislature, said lessons learned during that campaign will guide his latest effort to crack down on illegal immigration.

Kinzer, the newly appointed chair of the House Judiciary Committee, told Kansas Liberty Monday that he may have over-reached in attempting to pass the comprehensive reform package and that he would attempt an incremental approach after the Legislature convenes in January.

He said a more limited bill might have a higher likelihood of success, thus building momentum that could be a springboard for other legislative initiatives in the coming session and beyond. [ Read more...]

AG-BIZ: U.S. exports are already down more than 25 percent from a decade ago - and renewed competition from Black Sea exporters isn't helping, a report says. Meanwhile, North Dakota beats Kansas for top U.S. producer.

Kansas wheat growers feeling pressure from rivals near and far

After a record-breaking 2007, Kansas wheat producers, already fearful of falling prices, are facing some stiff competition from farmers in the north and from exporters far to the east.

Following a couple of off-years, growers in Russia and Ukraine now are setting some records of their own, while North Dakota took advantage of a weather break and outpaced Kansas' output.

According to a report in Monday's Wall Street Journal, "The U.S. won't lose the title of world's biggest wheat exporter, but countries such as Ukraine and Russia are expanding their influence on the world market, analysts said. The region is now one of the top-five world exporters, a group formerly limited to the U.S., Canada, the European Union, Australia and Argentina." [ Read more...]

HUMAN RESOURCES: Former Sebelius aide says without Parkinson at the top of the ticket, Kansas Dems will be 'in a world of hurt'

Parkinson says he will 'not run for Governor'

Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson on Friday put an end to rampant speculation that he would attempt to seek the state’s top office in two years.

“After much thought, I have made the decision not to run for Governor or any other political position in 2010,” Parkinson said in a statement.

Parkinson, a former chair of the Kansas Republican Party, jumped ship two years ago to run on a ticket with Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius when she sought a second term. [ Read more...]

Ferris Beuller has nothing on Kansas bureaucrats

Did Sebelius' paid day off cost taxpayers more than $9 million?

When Gov. Kathleen Sebelius declared last Friday a state holiday, giving all state employees a paid day off from work, it's a gift that may have cost Kansas taxpayers more than $9 million.

Sebelius Spokesperson Nicole Corcoran told Kansas Liberty that Sebelius and previous governors have given an additional vacation day, based on when the holiday lands in the week.

In a November letter to state employees, Sebelius told state workers that "the State of Kansas will be short $211 million in the current fiscal year. The projection for 2010 is even more dire," and said "to protect our children’s education and the most vulnerable Kansans, we must work together to make strategic cuts which safe guard those critical efforts." [ Read more...]

Sontag assumes post Jan. 5; Cobb will oversee all state AFP chapters

Former NFIB director to take reins of AFP-Kansas

The Kansas chapter of Americans for Prosperity will have a new director as the Kansas Legislature prepares to kick off its 2009 session.

Derrick Sontag, former director of the Kansas chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business, will assume the position held by Alan Cobb since the group was established in Kansas in 2004. Cobb is leaving to take a post as national director of state operations for AFP.

“Promoting free-market principles and protecting small businesses were key elements of my work at NFIB,” Sontag said in a release issued Wednesday by AFP. “Those ideals go hand-in-hand with the efforts of Americans for Prosperity, which makes this a natural transition. [ Read more...]

HUNCHES: An unlikely cluster of Kansans looks over their shoulder - and into the future

Unpredictable predictions 2009

Kansas Liberty polled some of the Kansans responsible for making some of the news we covered in 2008 to find out what they thought were the most memorable moments of the year - and to get predictions of what to expect for 2009.  [ Read more...]

COMMENT: A new year, a new president, a new education secretary - and a new opportunity to avoid the education bureaucracy's same old failures. John R. LaPlante explains.

Meet Arne Duncan

President-elect Barack Obama has finished putting together his cabinet, which includes a new secretary of education, Arne Duncan.

This appointment will likely mean some modest changes that could bear fruit down the road—and certainly more federal spending on what has traditionally been a matter for state and local governments.

Mr. Duncan is currently the superintendent of the Chicago Public Schools. With roughly 410,000 students, it is the third-largest district in the country. By comparison, just under 419,000 students attend grades 1 through 12 in Kansas public schools.

What does the new secretary think about some of the key issues in education? [Read more...]

RESOURCE: The newly elected House leadership team has announced Republican appointments to 2009-2010 Legislative Joint Committees.

House Joint Committee Appointments

The following appointments are the final committee assignments from Speaker-Elect Mike O’Neal (R-Hutchinson) to take effect at the beginning of the 2009 Legislative Session (Chairs and Vice Chairs and Standing Committee assignments have all been announced previously): [ Read more...]

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