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THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
www.iolaregister.com
Monday, March 6, 2017
Legislators react to Supreme Court’s ruling on school funding and its effects on the state budget
Thompson: Tax hike seems unavoidable
Lawmakers face ‘a tall order’ By JIM MCLEAN Kansas News Service
It is not hyperbole to say the challenges that members of the 2017 Kansas Legislature face are among the most daunting in state history. In the next three months, they must find ways to erase hundreds of millions of dollars in red ink to avoid deficit spending, which the Kansas Constitution prohibits. They also must devise a new school finance formula and come up with the estimated $800 million it could take to satisfy the Kansas Supreme Court, which on Thursday declared the current funding formula
The Kansas Legislature must find ways to erase hundreds of millions of dollars in red ink to avoid deficit spending and devise a new school finance formula by June 30. FILE PHOTO / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE inadequate and therefore unconstitutional. Individually they are huge tasks, but lawmakers must
House
tackle them in tandem amid a charged political environment with the clock ticking toward a hard deadline: the end of the state’s fiscal year on June 30. “It’s a tall order,” says Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat. Hensley recalls that a rewrite of the school finance formula he worked on as a member of the in the early 1990s took
By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
Solving school funding and a budget deficit could be at hand if reason were to prevail, Rep. Kent Thompson told the Register Sunday afternoon. The immediate challenge is a $380 million shortfall for the fiscal year 2017 budget, which, by state law, must balance by June 30. “We have to find revenue, or makes cuts, that’s all there is to it,” Thompson
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said. Even if tax revenues continue to surprise at the current pace — February’s was $37 million in excess — the state would still find it- Kent Thompson self short by better than $200 million. Can cuts be found to exorcise the budget demons? See THOMPSON | Page A4
Congress to probe wiretap claims By JONATHAN LEMIRE The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President D o n a l d Trump started his weekend in Florida in a fit of anger over his young ad- Donald Trump ministration getting sidetracked just days after his most successful moment in office. He returned to the White House late Sunday derailed — again. Trump’s frustration appeared to be both the symptom and the cause of his recent woes. Angry about leaks, errant messaging and his attorney general landing in hot water, he fired off a series of tweets that only ensured more distractions. His staff had hoped to build on the momentum generated by his speech to See CLAIMS | Page A2
Kyle Henry, 23, Waverly, was injured in a two-vehicle accident south of Humboldt Sunday morning. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN
Waverly man injured in accident HUMBOLDT — A Waverly man was flown to an Overland Park hospital after being injured Sunday morning in a two-vehicle accident just south of Humboldt. Kyle Henry, 23, Waverly, was driving a 1994 Toyota flatbed pickup along U.S. 169, just north of Tank Farm Road or two miles south of
the Humboldt exit, when his vehicle crossed the centerline and collided head-on with a northbound semitractor-trailer rig driven by David Stout, 57, Chouteau, Ohio. The Kansas Highway Patrol reported the vehicles then separated and struck bridge rails spanning Coal
Creek. Emergency crews had to cut away a portion of the pickup to free Henry, deputies at the scene said. He was taken by ambulance to Neosho Memorial Regional Medical Center, then flown to Overland Park Medical Center for what were described by
Allen students put their knowledge to the test By SHELLIE SMITLEY The Iola Register
Students from six area community colleges flexed their encyclopedic muscles during the Academic Excellence Challenge Saturday at Allen Community College. Clarie Moran, Iola, said she joined the ACC team because of similar competitions as a student at Iola High School. Leah Hiebert, Wilsey, said fellow volleyball teammates convinced her to give it a try. She in turn recruited volleyball team member Adanna York, Edmond, Okla. Instructors from the parSee ALLEN | Page A4
Moderators ask team members questions at the Academic Excellence Challenge, Saturday, at Allen Community College Saturday. REGISTER/SHELLIE SMITLEY
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KHP as “disabling” injuries. Stout was not hurt in the 6:45 a.m. wreck. A portion of the highway was closed for about four hours while the wreckage was cleared. Troopers said both drivers were wearing their seat belts.
Seattle police investigate Sikh shooting KENT, Wash. (AP) —Authorities say the FBI will help investigate the shooting of a Sikh man in a Seattle suburb by a suspect who told the victim “go back to your own country.” The victim, identified by India’s foreign minister as Deep Rai, a U.S. national of Indian origin, told police that a man approached him as he worked on his car in his driveway Friday in the city of Kent. He says they got into an argument before the gunman shot him in the See SIKH | Page A2
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