BY JIM MCLEAN

Kansas officials got the bad news they were expecting Wednesday.

After reading the economic tea leaves and noting that tax collections had trickled in short of expectations in 11 of the past 12 months, the Consensus Revenue Estimating Group reduced its projections for this budget year and the next one by $228.6 million.

The problem is likely bigger than that number suggests.

The amount the state expects to collect in taxes over the next two years was reduced by nearly $350 million. But Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and legislators are using about $120 million in revenue transfers from the Kansas Department of Transportation and other agencies to temporarily replace that lost tax revenue.

Shawn Sullivan, Brownback’s budget director, said problems in three mainstays of the Kansas economy — agriculture, aircraft manufacturing and oil and gas production — are largely responsible for the gloomy forecast.

“We are facing headwinds in those three areas,” Sullivan said.

But others say the income tax cuts passed in 2012 at Brownback’s urging are to blame for the state’s continuing revenue and budget problems.

“The lowered revenue expectations released today are the product of failed tax policy — not a broken estimating process,” said Annie McKay, director of the Kansas Center for Economic Growth and a frequent critic of the governor’s tax policies.

“More one-time ‘fixes’ will be used to inadequately support schools, health care and other areas key to a prosperous future for all Kansans,” McKay said.

“Unfortunately, unprecedented and unaffordable tax policy continues to wreck our state’s prospects.”

Former Kansas Budget Director Duane Goossen, now senior fellow at KCEG, said if the Brownback tax cuts hadn’t passed, the state would be collecting more than $1 billion of additional tax revenue per year. “

Those tax changes upended the budget,” Goossen said.

Three budget-balancing plans

Brownback is proposing three options for addressing the projected shortfalls. All three would take an additional $185 million from KDOT, forcing a two-year delay in all major highway projects. Two of the three plans also call for extending a $17.7 million cut in the 2016 higher education budget into 2017.

In addition, option one, which Sullivan said the governor prefers, includes a controversial proposal to bond part of the money Kansas receives annually under an agreement reached in the late 1990s to settle a multistate lawsuit against the major tobacco companies.

The state has used the bulk of the money, which in recent years has averaged around $52 million, to fund early childhood education programs. The governor’s proposal would earmark about $42 million a year for those programs and sell the remaining revenue to bondholders. Securitizing a portion of the tobacco settlement would generate an estimated one-time payment to the state of approximately $158 million, Sullivan said.

“There have been approximately 20 states that have done this,” he said. “There are positives and negatives to doing it. But it is one option to consider.”

If securitization proves too controversial, a second option would free up nearly $100 million by delaying the final 2016 payment into the state’s pension plan until 2018.  Previously the governor had said he intended to delay it only to September.

The third option outlined by Sullivan would cut spending to public schools, universities and most state agencies by nearly $140 million in the 2017 budget year, which begins July 1.

The cuts, which would range from 3 percent to 5 percent, would reduce funding to the Department of Education and school districts by more than $57 million.

In addition, cuts of $35 million to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment would force the agency to reduce contractual payments to the companies that manage KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program. The companies, Sullivan said, would likely attempt to recoup their losses from doctors, hospitals and other health care providers.

“I would anticipate that it would probably lead to reimbursement reductions,” he said.

Hensley: ‘Borderline extortion’

Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley, of Topeka, accused Brownback of resorting to scare tactics to coerce lawmakers into supporting his preferred option.

“What the administration has done is to set this up in such a way as to hold a gun to the Legislature’s head to say, ‘You’ve got to go along with this tobacco securitization or you’ve got to accept these other options,’” Hensley said. “It’s borderline extortion in my mind.”

Hensley said a growing number of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle would prefer a fourth option: repealing the part of the 2012 tax bill that exempted more than 330,000 business owners from state income taxes.

“I think the people of Kansas get that that is a very unfair tax system,” he said.

When lawmakers were scrambling to balance the budget at the end of the 2015 session, Brownback used a veto threat to block an effort to repeal the business tax exemption, forcing them to approve large increases in the sales and cigarette taxes to balance the budget. But Sen. Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican, recently said he believed the governor might sign a repeal bill this year.

When asked about Denning’s statements, Sullivan said the governor remains opposed to any changes in the tax plan.

“The governor doesn’t believe that it’s useful to have a debate at this point about raising taxes on small businesses or anyone else,” he said.

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

McPherson College will offer a new music series and a student scholarship, thanks to a generous $1 million commitment to the college’s “Power the Future” campaign in honor of MC alumna and piano teacher Fern Lingenfelter, according to a media release.

Her son, Steve Clark – chairman of Clark Investment Group in Wichita, Kan. – has generously established the fund at MC to support the new Fern Lingenfelter Artist Series. This cultural series will consist of two annual music performance events with a special emphasis on piano.

Dr. Steven Gustafson, coordinator of the college’s arts and lecture series, said that the Fern Lingenfelter Artist Series will be a significant enhancement to the college’s cultural offerings, both to the campus and surrounding communities.

“Not only will the series enrich opportunities to hear great performances,” Dr. Gustafson said, “but it is also a most fitting tribute on behalf of Mr. Clark to honor his mother, Fern Lingenfelter, and her significant work as a piano teacher and advocate for music education.”

The fund will not only support great musical performances and masterclasses for the campus and community, it will also foster future generations of musicians. After establishment of the performance series, the fund will create the Fern Lingenfelter Scholarship in Music – an annual merit-based scholarship for one or more full-time MC students majoring in music.

“McPherson College has seen a rebirth in our music programs the last few years,” McPherson College President Michael Schneider said. “This gift solidifies both Steve’s commitment to his mother’s legacy and our place as a leader in performing arts across the state of Kansas.”

Lingenfelter taught piano in McPherson for years – both traditional college students on the MC campus and younger students at a studio downtown. She developed her skills studying with Jessie Brown at McPherson College – where she earned a certificate in piano in 1924 – and with Swedish pianist Oscar Thorsén at Bethany College.

Lingenfelter earned a Bachelor of Music degree in 1925 and later a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1938 from McPherson College. After marrying Layman Clark and leaving McPherson in 1940, Fern and Layman had one son together – Steve Clark. Lingenfelter later married William D. Stoebuck of Wichita.

History speaks to Lingenfelter’s dedication to teaching music and public piano performance; she was described in a 1939 “Quadrangle” McPherson College yearbook as “busy filling the air with music.”

Her schedule must have been packed. Her public performances are frequently mentioned in the 1920s through the 1940s in the “McPherson Daily Republican,” she played organ during services at the original First Baptist Church in McPherson until 1940, and the “Quadrangle” spoke of her “frequent recitals in the college chapel.”

Throughout her career, those she encountered remarked upon her patience, ability, and joy. She was credited with the large enrollment in the Junior Piano Department. Her students from elementary age through college won contests and learned with “unusual rapidity.”

But her kind, understated personality was likely her most remarkable characteristic. The 1932 “Quadrangle” remarked that, “Although very quiet, she has a ready smile and willingly gives of her talent.”

That commitment to community, strong work ethic, and a kind disposition has apparently been passed from mother to son. Steve Clark has been a central figure in the Wichita real-estate market for more than 45 years and has properties in many states. His long history of supporting the local and regional community includes work with the Greater Wichita YMCA, Wichita State University and the Kansas Board of Regents. He was honored in 2015 by the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce as Wichita’s “Uncommon Citizen” and in 2013 was inducted into the Wichita Business Hall of Fame.

Although his mother passed away in 1962, Steve said he has seen a long and lasting influence from her lifetime of work. Establishing the fund is his way to say, “Thank you,” and to support the music and the instrument she loved so much.

“Music and piano were her passion, and even years later people in McPherson would tell me, ‘Your mother was my piano teacher,’” Clark said. “One of my biggest regrets is not fulfilling her desire for me to play the piano. She always spoke fondly of McPherson College. I know she would be pleased to know what the college is now doing in her remembrance.”

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities have booked into jail Guy D. Harris,  28,  who was identified as a person of interest in a sexually battery at a Wichita high school.

The Wichita Eagle reports that the man is being held on suspicion of multiple charges, including sexual battery and criminal discharge of a firearm. Jail records show the man was booked into jail Wednesday and is being held on a $65,000 bond.

Authorities began investigating in September after an 18-year-old student told administrators that a stranger approached her in Wichita East High School and asked her where the gym was located. Police said the teen alleged that the man followed her into a bathroom and sexually battered her as she attempted to return to the hall.

The school has adopted stricter security measures.