MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — A new study has found that over-tapping of the High Plains Aquifer beyond its recharge rate peaked overall in 2006, while its rate of depletion in Kansas reached its highest point in 2010.

The Kansas State University study released Monday also projected the aquifer’s use would decrease by about half over the next 100 years.

Civil engineering professor David Steward and doctoral student Andrew Allen during their research looked at historic and projected future groundwater use rates of the eight states comprising the High Plains Aquifer.

Researchers studied the water depletion processes from 3,200 Kansas wells plus 11,000 wells from the other seven states.

Their study found the aquifer’s depletion followed a south to north progression. It noted some portions of the aquifer are depleting, while others are not.

PLATTE CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri jury has convicted one of two inmates who led authorities on a chase after escaping from a Kansas prison in 2013.

The Kansas City Star reports that a Platte County jury convicted Scott A. Gilbert on Friday of 10 felonies, including firing at a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest.

Gilbert and two other men escaped from the Lansing Correctional Facility in Lansing, Kansas, on May 10, 2013. One of the men was arrested without incident outside of Topeka.

Gilbert and a second inmate led authorities on the chase before barricading themselves in an unoccupied home near Smithville Lake in northwest Missouri. They surrendered after about six hours.

Gilbert is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 8.

The Lansing prison is about 30 miles west of Smithville.

By JIM MCLEAN

A nonprofit advocacy group that frequently tangles with Gov. Sam Brownback on policy issues is charging that his latest plan to avert a budget shortfall will shortchange some of the state’s poorest and most vulnerable children.

Shannon Cotsoradis, president and CEO of Kansas Action for Children, said the Brownback administration’s plan to sweep $9 million from a fund earmarked for early childhood programs will reduce their funding by about $1.3 million over the next 18 months.

The sweep of the money was one of several adjustments announced last week by State Budget Director Shawn Sullivan to fill a $124 million budget gap created by ongoing shortfalls in revenue collections. At the time of the announcement, Sullivan said the sweep would not reduce funding to any of the organizations supported by the block grant.

“Really, no one outside of state government will notice an impact from this change,” Sullivan said. “It’s more of an accounting transfer.” Cotsoradis is challenging Sullivan.

She contends that grant letters already sent will have to be revised to reflect reductions in available funding of 6.5 percent in the current budget year and another 3 percent next year. “The reality is they (the programs) will definitely feel these reductions,” Cotsoradis said. “It’s not just an accounting maneuver where we’ve moved money from one period to the next — it’s gone.”

At-risk children

Organizations potentially affected by the reductions include school districts, mental health centers, public health departments and Head Start programs that provide or help fund initiatives for at-risk children and their families.

“It (the block grant funding) is dedicated 100 percent to at-risk children,” Cotsoradis said. “So, in many communities across the state, we are taking money from the most vulnerable and youngest children who are often living in the poorest families.”

The money for the early childhood grants comes from payments that the nation’s major tobacco companies agreed to make in 1998 to settle a lawsuit filed by Kansas and 45 other states.

The settlement payments are deposited into the Kansas Endowment for Youth, or KEY fund, from which annual transfers are made to the Children’s Initiatives Fund.

Impact disputed

Sullivan and others in the Brownback administration continue to insist that the planned sweep will not reduce funding for the early childhood programs. “This one-time adjustment should not result in a reduction in grant funding or (in) the services delivered through them,” said Eileen Hawley, the governor’s spokesperson.

“This adjustment allows the Children’s Cabinet to meet its obligations under its current grants; aligns these grants with the correct accounting period; and ensures the state remains in compliance with its cash basis and budgeting law.” The reference to “the correct accounting period” is a key phrase in Hawley’s statement.

At issue is money that was reallocated from fiscal year 2015 to fiscal year 2016. Sullivan insists that money could only be spent to cover expenditures made in 2015. “It was discovered over the summer that the Children’s Cabinet had been doing what we call encumbering funds from the last fiscal year … inappropriately,” he said at last week’s briefing on the budget.

The use of the reallocated funds by the Children’s Cabinet violated state law, Sullivan said. But Cotsoradis said the nine-member Children’s Cabinet, which administers the block grant program, was led to believe it was OK to use the carryover money in 2016.

“We knew there was money reallocated from 2015 to 2016 and we included that in our grant awards slate,” she said. “The budget division was well aware of that. Then, they swept the money after the grant-award letters went out without doubling back to make sure all those grantees would be whole.”

Arguing that the sweep had been planned for months, Cotsoradis points to a decision made by state officials requiring several grantees to change their operating calendars to align with the state’s fiscal year. The state’s sudden insistence on a common operational calendar created a pool of unspent money at the end of the 2015 budget year

“In retrospect, it certainly looks like the fiscal year was altered to free up resources that could be swept by the administration,” she said.  Because the amount the state recieves from the tobacco settlement can change from year to year, Cotsoradis said the diversion of money from the CIF is jeopardizing the long-term funding of children’s programs.

“These financial gimmicks are more irresponsible than payday lending,” she said. “The state is borrowing against something it doesn’t even know it has and, ultimately, children will pay the price.”

In recent years, the Brownback administration has diverted nearly $50 million from the CIF to help address budget problems, Cotsoradis said.

Jim McLean is executive editor of KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has issued an executive order forbidding any state agencies or organizations that receive state grant money from helping relocate Syrian refugees in his state.

Brownback said Monday the action was necessary because the federal government can’t guarantee Syrian refugees coming to America aren’t terrorists.

 

We must take immediate action to ensure terrorists don’t enter Kansas under the guise of refugee resettlement #ksleg https://t.co/KSPvQn8fQQ

— Sam Brownback (@govsambrownback) November 16, 2015

 

He says refugees fleeing persecution in their own country might be better served by resettling in a friendly country closer to their homes.

Brownback acknowledged that many people seeking refugee status are peaceful and looking for a better life, but said Kansas can’t allow an influx of Syrian refugees while the Islamic State group is threatening to infiltrate the refugee process.

Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer says the well-being of Kansans is a higher priority than helping refugees.

HUTCHINSON -A Kansas teen charged with two counts of first-degree murder and aggravated arson was back in court on Monday over a request by the state for a status hearing.

Samuel Vonachen is accused of setting a fire to his family’s home which in September 2013. The blaze killed his mother and sister.

He was 14 at the time and the state has charged him as an adult for those crimes.

Judge Trish Rose heard a request by the state for another mental evaluation to be completed on the defendant, following a report on evaluation done by the defense.

The judge placed the contents of that report under seal.

She also granted the state’s request for two psychologists from Wichita do the examination. The report on that mental examination will be required to be presented to the court by Dec. 31. It will also be placed under seal.

The case is scheduled for a jury trial in 2016.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City authorities are investigating after a woman reported being kidnapped from her driveway and forced to withdraw money from an automatic teller machine.

Police say three men approached the woman late Saturday as she drove into her driveway. They forced her into the back seat of her car, while one of the men drove her to a bank and forced her to withdraw money from the ATM. The Kansas City Star reports another man assaulted the woman as they drove to the bank.

Police say that after leaving the bank, they drove to nearby Prairie Village, Kansas, got out of the woman’s vehicle and got into a vehicle that had been following them.

Police did not release suspect information.