The Kansas Judicial Branch, already in the conservatives’ gunsights for the Supreme Court demanding more state money for public K-12 schools, has taken its first drubbing from the Legislature this session by seeing the House Appropriations Committee scuttle its request for a budget increase next year.

The court’s request for about $20 million in additional State General Fund appropriations—mostly for salary increases for judges and support staff who haven’t seen significant raises for years—was rejected by the panel.

Part of the reason might be that the $7.5 million sought for 21 percent raises for judges was No. 1 on the list of requests…though the courts also asked (No. 2 request) for $10.3 million for raises for court employees — those clerks and other assistants who don’t wear black robes but keep the judicial system running.

Kansas district court judges are the lowest paid in the nation, below surrounding states, both judges and other court employees. Makes you wonder who would want to be a district court judge, or a support staffer and at some point, whether lack of those workers will delay justice in Kansas… That’s issuing anti-stalking orders or settling car wreck damages or reassessing support payments or holding hearings for those charged with serious crimes…

And there may be another whack coming, at the Kansas Supreme Court after new Gov. Jeff Colyer in his State of the State address proclaimed Kansas to be an anti-abortion state from its infancy and demanding a return to that abortion provision in the state’s 150-year-old original constitution.

Abortion issues are strong vote-getters among conservative Kansas Republican primary election voters who Colyer is going to need to win his party’s gubernatorial nomination in August. But his emotion in presenting that issue to lawmakers at a joint session of the legislature last week was stirring.

The high court has been sitting on the most recent abortion case for nearly a year after a hearing last March.

The bill that sparked the lawsuit was passed by the Legislature in 2015 and prohibited a specific procedure — dilation and evacuation — which is used for about 95 percent of second-trimester abortions in Kansas.

A Shawnee County District Court judge refused to order enforcement of the law, and the Kansas Court of Appeals in January 2016 split evenly in a hearing on the lower court’s order.

That forwarded the issue to the Supreme Court, which still has the case under advisement.

And just what all that—the schools case, the unrelated abortion case and the (possibly) unrelated budget freeze—means for Kansas is uncertain.

But, it appears that the abortion issue—if the U.S. Supreme Court membership changes and another one or two President Donald Trump-appointed justices are approved for the court, there’s a chance that the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision might be reviewed. That decision, recall, declared unconstitutional laws which criminalize or restrict access to abortion beyond the reasonable regulation of such procedures.

Return to no-abortions in Kansas? Anti-abortion activists like the Colyer talk, the direction he wants to head, and want the Kansas Supreme Court to hold constitutional that three-year-old abortion procedure restriction that has been in abeyance since 2015.

It becomes just another issue from the past that has reached into Kansas politics, and whatever side you’re on for the issue, it seems more than a little punitive to use it to deny adequate funding for the state’s judiciary,

What’s next? Probably watching the court and the Legislature to see whether an abortion decision comes before adjournment of the Legislature…and what happens to the budget then…

Syndicated by Hawver News Company LLC of Topeka; Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report—to learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit the website at www.hawvernews.com

By JOHN P. TRETBAR

Oil prices rebounded Monday after dropping nearly 10% last week. In early afternoon trading the Nymex benchmark contract was up 58 cents to $59.78/bbl. London Brent gained 34 cents a barrel to $63.13. Kansas Common crude at CHS in McPherson starts the week at $49.50 a barrel, after losing two dollars on Friday.

The government says U.S. oil production will top 11 million barrels a day much quicker than anticipated. In its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook last week, the Energy Information Administration predicted the 11 million barrel milestone will happen by November. Previous estimates pegged it a year later.

Rig Counts are on the rise across the US and across Kansas. Independent Oil & Gas Service reported 11 active oil and gas rigs in eastern Kansas, which is up one. There are 25 west of Wichita, up two rigs. Operators are drilling at one Stafford County lease, and moving in completions tools at one site in Barton County, two in Ellis County, two in Russell County and one in Stafford County. Baker Hughes reported 975 active drilling rigs across the US last week, up 25 oil rigs and three gas rigs. Canada cut back 17 to 325 active rigs.

The Kansas Corporation Commission reports 113 new intent-to-drill notices filed across Kansas last month, the same figure as the month before, down from a year ago, up from two years ago, but way below the 459 filed in January of 2015. There was one intent filed in Barton County last month, two in Ellis County, and one in Stafford County. We haven’t seen a new intent in Russell County since November.

Kansas reported 36 new drilling permits last week, 17 east of Wichita, 19 in the western half of the state, including on in Barton County, one in Ellis County and four in Stafford County. For the month of January, regulators issued 107 permits across Kansas, 51 east of Wichita, and 56 in the western half of the state. There was one new permit filed in Barton County, two in Ellis County and one in Stafford County.

Independent Oil & Gas Service notes 41 new well completions across the state last week, 34 in eastern Kansas, and just seven west of Wichita. That’s 179 well completions so far this year. Monthly reports show 113 newly completed wells statewide in January, down slightly from a month earlier and from a year earlier. There were 55 new completions last month in eastern Kansas and 58 west of Wichita, including five wells in Barton County, six in Ellis County and four in Stafford County.

Venezuela has the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves, but its falling production is forcing the OPEC member to import crude oil from Russia. Platts reports three tankers have left Russia for Venezuelan refineries so far this year, and another is expected to load later this month.

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has called for an OPEC-wide crypto-currency, akin to the Bitcoin but backed by oil. At least one U.S. Senator is worried that an electronic coin backed by Venezuelan oil would be a way to avoid U.S. financial sanctions. The issue was raised in committee by New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, who also highlighted reports that Russia’s government is considering a similar initiative.

President Donald Trump has backed off his proposal to stop sharing oil revenues from offshore drilling with states along the Gulf of Mexico. In the new budget proposal, the White House preserved the revenue sharing agreement, which was expected to deliver $275 million to four Gulf states this year.

Pioneer Resources announced it is selling assets elsewhere and focusing solely on the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, making Pioneer a Permian Basin “pure play.” The company announced a 26% spike in its Permian oil production last year, and said it would place 250 to 275 wells on production there this year.

Budget cuts in Oklahoma are forcing regulators to consider raising fees for oversight of petroleum storage, commercial transportation, and oil and gas operations. The Daily Oklahoman cites estimates they could generate an additional $13.7 million a year. A trade group told the Oklahoma Corporation Commission that oil and gas provide about a quarter of the state’s revenues, and said the Legislature should use some of that to fund O.C.C. operations.

North Dakota voters may decide in November whether to raise the state’s oil extraction tax. The initiative would also reverse a central piece of the overhaul state lawmakers passed nearly three years ago that the state’s Democrats label a “shady last-minute deal” crafted in the final days of the legislative session.

A legislative committee in South Dakota voted down a measure to ban oil pipelines in the state. Had it passed, the measure would have prevented construction of new pipelines after July 1.

An activist from Seattle will serve one year in prison for cutting through a fence and turning a shut-off valve on the Keystone Pipeline during a protest a year and a half ago. A co-conspirator who filmed the protest was sentenced to probation Tuesday.