Gov. Laura Kelly is taking a cautious approach to spending taxpayer money. Her proposed budget for Kansas anticipates just a 0.7% increase on the already approved 2025 budget. As a result, the state can’t afford large increases in government services. The Legislature passed a $2 billion tax cut last year. The full impact of that […]
Blaise Mesa
Blaise Mesa is The Beacon’s Kansas Statehouse reporter. He has covered the Kansas Statehouse for The Beacon since Nov. 2023 after reporting on social services for the Kansas News Service and crime and local government for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He has a bachelor’s degree in multimedia journalism with a concentration in radio from Columbia College Chicago.
Posted inKansas
A key Kansas water source is in trouble. Gov. Kelly wants to preserve it in new proposal
There is no Kansas as we know it without the Ogallala aquifer. The aquifer provides clean drinking water and a vital source of water for crops. If the aquifer dries up, so too will many farms and towns in western Kansas. And make no mistake, the Ogallala aquifer is drying up. The Kansas Water Office […]
Posted inState Government
Young inmates could get second chance with resentencing proposal
Ariana Cook was in a bad place in 2020. She was hooked on hard drugs and in love with a “master manipulator.” “I just knew I was gonna marry him and be a hood-rich junkie for the rest of my life,” she said. “I had no care in the world of regaining contact with anyone […]
Posted inKansas
Kansas lawmakers consider medical weed again. Is the fifth time the charm?
Kansas lawmakers are likely going to act on medical marijuana in the 2025 session. Maybe. Medical marijuana is becoming a perennial debate in Topeka, and it’s annually unclear how likely it is for a bill to pass. “I have sat through, I don’t know, three interim committee meetings,” said Sen. Cindy Holscher, an Overland Park […]
Posted inKansas
Kansas Legislature prepares for another round of property tax cuts
Kansas lawmakers started debating tax plans in early 2024 and didn’t agree to a cut until the summer sun shone all across Kansas. The governor vetoed three tax cut bills, and lawmakers returned for a special session where they came to terms on $1.2 billion in cuts over three years. But lawmakers still left disappointed. […]
Posted inState Government
Kansas Republicans will try again to ban gender-affirming care for minors
Kansas Republicans plan to try to ban gender-affirming care for minors again. That means cutting off access to puberty blockers and hormone treatments for children with gender dysphoria, and banning gender-affirming surgery for minors, which is incredibly rare. The GOP has tried and failed to pass this ban. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly consistently vetoes the […]
Posted inState Government
Kansas nearing ‘constitutional crisis’ as small-town lawyers become a scarcity
Kansas judges in rural counties struggle to find qualified attorneys to represent defendants in cases where the right to a lawyer is guaranteed. “We are approaching a constitutional crisis,” said Kansas Supreme Court Justice Keynen “K.J.” Wall. Forty-seven rural counties are legal deserts, or areas without adequate access to legal help. One-third of rural attorneys […]
Posted inState Government
Millions in Kansas juvenile justice dollars sit unused
Steve Stonehouse has seen it before. Children come to the Sedgwick County Department of Corrections youth intake facility, where he’s the director. They’re already kicked out of school and have nothing to do all day. So, the county corrections department started offering classes. The kids get at least four months of schooling, and they might […]
Posted inState Government
Kansas hired a felon to manage $100 million. An audit says that fits with a sloppy hiring system
The Kansas Department of Commerce doesn’t run criminal background checks on nearly any of its prospective employees. That’s one explanation of how the agency hired a felon with a history of financial crimes to handle over $100 million in American Rescue Plan Act money. Former Commerce employee Jonathan Clayton is suspected of embezzling public funds. […]
Posted inKansas
Is this bill the key to reducing gun suicides in Kansas and Missouri?
Donna Nathan loved two-stepping and The Beatles. The radio was always on at her house. That love of music easily translated to dancing in parades. Nathan and her daughter, Katrina Brees, even worked together at a studio making sculptures for Mardi Gras parades. “She was the type of person that would find some sick animal […]