By JIM MCLEAN

Kansas officials have borrowed a record $900 million from the state’s investment fund but still may need to implement a series of emergency measures to end the 2016 budget year in the black.

Shawn Sullivan, director of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s Budget Office, said that the $900 million certificate of indebtedness approved Wednesday by the State Finance Council will be used to manage anticipated cash flow problems in the 2017 budget year, which starts July 1.

But with only a week remaining before the end of the 2016 budget year, the state is facing a $45 million shortfall.

And that could grow if June tax revenues come in short of projections. Sullivan is considering several contingency plans, including sweeping some or all of the cash from the Medicaid drug rebate fund.

A change in federal law triggered by the Affordable Care Act allows states with Medicaid managed care programs to collect refunds on prescription drug claims. Prior to the ACA, states that contracted with private insurance companies to operate their Medicaid programs were ineligible for the rebates.

Kansas privatized its Medicaid program in 2013 and renamed it KanCare. When the budget year ends June 30, Sullivan said he expects the balance in the drug rebate fund to be in the neighborhood of $40 million to $45 million.

“As a last resort, I may transfer a portion of the ending balance to the State General Fund for 2016,” he said in an email to the KHI News Service.

Sullivan said he will make a decision next week once he knows how close June revenues will come to meeting projections. Revenues fell more than $74 million short of projections in May.

The drug rebate money is currently earmarked to pay for anticipated increases in KanCare claims in the 2017 budget year, Sullivan said. If the demand for services grows as anticipated, any money transferred from the fund would have to be repaid. If the anticipated growth doesn’t occur, the state may not have to replenish the fund.

The Brownback administration transferred $55 million from the drug rebate fund in 2014 to help bridge a $280 million shortfall. That money wasn’t repaid because rebate payments exceeded projections the following year, Sullivan said.

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

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has placed new limits on state laws that make it a crime for motorists suspected of drunken driving to refuse alcohol tests.

Justices ruled Thursday that police need a search warrant before requiring drivers to take blood alcohol tests. But the court declined to require a warrant for breath tests, which it considers less intrusive.

The ruling came in three cases where drivers challenged so-called implied consent laws in Minnesota and North Dakota as violating the Constitution’s ban on unreasonable search and seizure. State supreme courts in each state had upheld the laws.

Drivers in all 50 states can have their licenses revoked for refusing drunken driving tests. The court’s ruling affects laws in eleven states that impose additional criminal penalties for such refusals.

In March, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt asked the state Supreme Court to put on hold recent decisions that declare state DUI-related statutes unconstitutional until the U.S. Supreme Court decides a similar case later this spring.

In a series of four cases announced on February 27, the Kansas Supreme Court overturned state statutes related to DUI, most notably a statute making it a crime for a person suspected of DUI to refuse to submit to a breath test to determine blood-alcohol levels.

SALINE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating a suspect for an alleged attack on a woman in her home.

David J. Miller, 32, Salina, battered and tried to strangle a woman in her 20s around 11 p.m. Monday night at a central Salina, according to Police Captain Mike Sweeney.

Miller left the home before police arrived. The woman suffered bruises to her face, head, and forearm.

She was transported to Salina Regional Health Center for treatment and released.

Miller was booked into the Saline County Jail late Wednesday morning on requested charges of aggravated battery and criminal threats

LONDON (AP) — Doctors have an unusual warning for anyone prone to checking their smartphones in the dark: make sure you use both eyes.

In a letter published in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine, doctors in London detailed the cases of two women who inexplicably suffered temporary blindness lasting up to 15 minutes.

But soon after walking into an eye specialist’s office, the mystery was solved. Dr. Gordon Plant figured out that the women habitually looked at their smartphones with one eye while lying in bed in the dark, with the other eye covered by the pillow.

That mismatch meant that when they put down their phones, the eye adapted to the light took time to catch up to the dark-adapted eye, resulting in temporary blindness that Plant described as harmless.

SHAWNEE COUNTY – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just after noon on Thursday in Shawnee County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2016 Freightliner semi driven by Mitchell Thornburrow, 22, Manhattan, was westbound on U.S. 24 two miles west of Rossville.

The semi went off the road into the right ditch. The driver overcorrected causing the truck to go on its side and a 1991 Mercedes Benz 190-E driven by Michael McGinnis, 50, Topeka, into the ditch.

McGinnis was transported to Stormont Vail.

Thornburrow was not injured. Both drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

HUTCHINSON – A Kansas man who was involved in a fatality accident on May 12, has been arrested for vehicular homicide and having no insurance.

Everette Hardy, 25, Hutchinson, was eastbound on 14th Avenue, failed to yield at a stop sign and collided with southbound pickup driven by Jack B. Johnson, 80, at the intersection of Poplar Street, according to Police

Johnson was transported to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center for treatment of injuries and was later transported to a Wichita hospital where he died on June 3.

Hardy was cited at the time for disobeying the stop sign, but now faces the much more serious charge.

Bond in the case set at $5,100. Unless he makes bond, he should make a first court appearance Friday.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Wichita police say a 3-year-old girl drowned in a pool at her daycare provider’s home.

Police Sgt. Nikki Woodrow says the girl and a 5-year-old were playing in the backyard Thursday morning.

The 3-year-old somehow got into an above-ground pool that was about 4 feet high. She died at the scene.

Woodrow said the daycare provider and three other children were in the house when the girl drowned. She says it’s unclear how long the girl was in the pool and an investigation is continuing.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Westar Energy is seeking a change in its transmission costs that would reduce customers’ rates by about $18 million.

In March, the Kansas Corporation Commission approved a $25 million increase to the utility’s transmission delivery system. That came a day after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved a settlement between Westar and the KCC after determining the company collected too much money from customers.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports those two decisions prompted Westar to update its transmission costs Tuesday, reducing charges to customers by $18 million.

Westar spokeswoman Gina Penzig says the when customers see the reduced costs will depend on when the KCC acts on the utility’s request. She says if the request is approved, customers in average households should save about $1.50 a month.