Lawrence Journal-World 07-02-2016

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SATURDAY • JULY 2 • 2016

City leaders to decide on parking ticket increase Fines for downtown meters could be raised from $3 to $5 By Nikki Wentling Twitter: @nikkiwentling

Drivers who don’t put change into the downtown Lawrence parking meters will pay more in fines,

pending City Commission approval Tuesday. Fines for downtown parking violations will increase from $3 to $5 under an ordinance going before commissioners. The

last time fees increased was in 2009, when they went from $2 to $3 per ticket. The extra dollars per violation could add up to hundreds of thousands

more in revenue for the city, according to cityprovided data on overtime parking meter fines. It may also lead more drivers to pay the meters. “An increase in the

initial meter fee may result in increased adherence to the meter program, which is the desired outcome we wish to achieve,” Municipal Court Manager Vicki Stanwix wrote in a city memo.

Besides the original fine, late fees will also increase. Currently, violators are charged $15 if they don’t pay the $3 fine after 10 days. The ordinance increases the penalty to $20. Please see TICKET, page 2A

June tax revenue $34M short to cap year

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State delays $260M in school payments By Peter Hancock Twitter: @LJWpqhancock

Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photos

ABOVE: YOUNG VIOLINISTS PLAY ALONG WITH TALENT EDUCATION VIOLIN STUDIO TEACHER JULIE HOLMBERG at her annual violin picnic Friday in South Park. TOP: Eliana Morale, 5, of Basehor, plays along with her fellow violin students.

East Ninth Project supporters petition city to take action By Nikki Wentling Twitter: @nikkiwentling

Five weeks after the project stalled at the Lawrence City Commission, supporters of an East Ninth Street redesign started a new campaign, petitioning the city to again pick up the issue. Dalton Paley, whose family owns Art Emergency — an art gallery and creative hub at 721 E. Ninth St. — posted a video to Change.org featuring local artists and East Lawrence residents and business owners who support the transformation of East Ninth Street into an arts corridor. The campaign

went up at noon Thursday, and as of Friday night had 368 “signatures.” “We wanted to give a voice to the people who are in support of what I think could put Lawrence on the map,” Paley said. “This is the way we could express our voice.” On May 24, the City Commission listened for nearly four hours from both supporters and opponents of the project’s design. At 11 p.m., with not enough votes to move the design forward, commissionel dorado inc., City of Lawrence/Contributed Image ers voted to hold a work session about the project to go THIS RENDERING shows part of the proposed East Ninth Project through its specifics, including looking east from the intersection of Ninth and Rhode Island streets. Supporters of the project are petitioning the city to move Please see PROJECT, page 2A development forward.

INSIDE

Heavy rain Business Classified Comics Deaths

High: 75

Low: 67

Today’s forecast, page 10A

2A 4C-8C 6A 2A

Events listings Home & Garden Horoscope Opinion

10A Puzzles 1C-3C Sports 7A Television 9A USA Today

Topeka — The state of Kansas delayed nearly $260 million in payments to school districts during the last week of June, including about $5.5 million owed to the Lawrence school district, in an effort to finish the year with a positive balance in its bank account. The delayed school payment was one of several moves that Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration made in the final month of the fiscal year as total tax revenues came in $34.5 million below expectations in June, and $106.4 million short for the year as a whole. Kansas Revenue Secretary Total tax revNick Jordan enues came blamed the shortfall as part in $34.5 of a national million below trend. expectations “ U n f o r t u - in June, and nately, Kansas is a part of a $106.4 milnational trend lion short for with many the year as a states reporting reductions in whole. revenue collections because of a weak economy,” he said. Total tax receipts for the year, at $5.9 billion, were up by less than 1 percent compared with 2015, despite lawmakers raising the sales tax rate last year to 6.5 percent. Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration had announced earlier in the month that it expected a shortfall in June, and that a partial delay of final-month payments to school districts would be one of the tools used to keep the state from ending the year in the red. State education officials said that has happened in at least each of the last five fiscal years, but the amount held back this year, 71 percent of all the money due to schools in June, was larger than normal. But Brownback’s press secretary Eileen Hawley said the practice has been used as far back as 2004.

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Please see REVENUE, page 2A

Vol.158/No.184 28 pages


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