Early this past Sunday morning, at the last minute, Kansas legislators passed a school funding bill of more than $500 million. The Supreme Court must still rule on its constitutionality, but the frantic maneuvering of last week allows Kansans to understand a lot about state politics as we head toward the end of the session and the 2018 elections.

#1. In contrast to 2017, when Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning joined with House Speaker Ron Ryckman to provide steady, even bold, leadership to override Governor Sam Brownback’s veto of income tax increases, the Senate remained adrift and leaderless up through the last moments of the 2018 regular session. President Susan Wagle remained incapable of leading her chamber, and Sen. Denning this year accompanied her in various strange and unproductive maneuvers that could well have derailed stopped the legislative process, despite the clear need to address the Supreme Court’s mandate on school funding.

After delaying the proceedings to demand passage of an unwise, unpassable constitutional amendment to strip the Court’s authority to require school funding, Denning joined Wagle to offer a low-ball, $250 million school finance figure that the Court would have rejected out of hand. Last year’s statesman, cited as a “best state legislator” by Governing magazine, took an unproductive, far-right turn in addressing the session’s top issue.

#2. Under pressure, bipartisan coalitions narrowly prevailed in both chambers. In the House, some Democrats opposed the final education bill because it did not spend enough, but the moderate Republican-Democratic coalition squeaked by. Notably, Speaker Ryckman provided the 63rd vote, as moderate Republicans made the difference.

#3. Although Governor Jeff Colyer endorsed the $500 million-plus House bill, he offered little leadership in pressing the Senate to make a deal. Sam Brownback did receive a bit of credit for suggesting $600 million in his January State of the State address, but that merely reflected the session-long conventional wisdom that $500-600 million would be a minimum to satisfy the Court.

#4. Governor Colyer, by backing the House bill, differentiated his position from that of Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who has been consistently willing to confront the Court and create a constitutional crisis. Colyer is saying, in essence, “I’m conservative, but I’m not willing to throw the state under a bus.” Kobach would drive the bus.

#5. Election threats failed. Senate President Wagle weighed in, threatening Senate chairs if they voted for the bill, and she and her Chamber of Commerce allies conjured up the vision of legions of far-right primary candidates who would receive generous funding to oppose House Republicans’ supporting the $500 million figure. These threats may be real, but 2018 scarcely seems a year to encourage GOP challenges in either primaries or the general election.

#6. Finally, and unsurprisingly, the school finance legislation has proved technically deficient, in that it appropriates $80 million less than the Legislature originally assumed. Given the pressure-cooker politics of the session’s last few days, this is understandable, but it demonstrates the dangers of rushed legislation. Rather than make a bunch of head feints, the Senate could have carefully worked the bill, but its leadership chose not to.

In a session with few notable leaders and increasing rancor, passing a funding package is significant. The bruising process demonstrated, however, that (a) the Kansas Legislature has not abandoned its highly partisan, unproductive ways of the 2011-2016 period and (b) the 2018 state legislative elections will be extremely important for the direction of the state.

Burdett Loomis is an emeritus professor at the University of Kansas.

December 5, 2016 our family met with a cancer doctor. She confirmed our fears, our Judy had terminal cancer, giving her around six months to live. That doctor didn’t know the amount of character, strength and determination Judy had.

Hospice Services was mentioned at that appointment and we somewhat turned a deaf ear to that suggestion. We are a strong, private family. We’d handle this chapter ourselves at home just like Judy wanted.

Seven months later, Judy was still fighting the fight, teaching us all how to die with dignity mixed with a little humor. As a family, we decided it was time to allow Hospice in to her home and our lives. Hospice was called in and even though we were dealing with this demon called cancer, we are here to tell you, our lives changed for the better when they came on board.

Our hospice team from Phillipsburg consisted of a doctor who visited Judy a few times at her home, a nurse, a social worker and later, a grief support team. Bringing this team into our lives was the best decision we made through this thirteen month journey.

From July 2017 through January 4th, 2018, our team came twice a week, staying with us as long as we needed them. They helped us find medicines to help Judy as well as assisted each one of us deal with our emotions and on going grief through this dying process. Most importantly, this hospice team assisted in fulfilling Judy’s wish to stay home through the illness and to die in her home surrounded by family.

On January 4th, 2018, the Good Lord called Judy home. Our hospice doctor came to visit Judy in the morning, when Judy asked how long she had, he answered a few hours to a couple of days. Judy chose a few hours. Our hospice nurse was with her and the family for 24 hours. The nurse continued to medicate Judy to keep her comfortable and explained the changes we were seeing in Judy as well as helping us deal with the emotions we were all going through.

Death, as we all know, is unpleasant, whether it happens fast or slow. We encourage you to invite a hospice team into your home and your lives if you or a loved one is facing a terminal illness. You will not regret having a support team to help the patient and the family through the journey.

It has been four months since Judy left us and our grief support team continues to check in on us and will do so up to two years.

Thank you hospice, may God continue to guide you and strengthen you all as you act as angels on this Earth.

The family of Judy Phillips
Bert Phillips, Travis and Monique Phillips and family, Steven and Nikki Hausler and family


Are you by chance wanting to get your tomatoes up and growing earlier than usual?

If you would like to have your tomato plants produce earlier in the year, there are certain things to keep in mind. Most people who try to get a jump on the season set their tomatoes out early and hope they do well. However, that may not be the best of plans, as tomatoes need certain requirements before they will grow well.  Those requirements are an acceptable soil temperature for root growth and an acceptable air temperature for both plant growth and fruit set.

Root Growth: Tomatoes need a soil temperature of at least 550 F to do well. Plastic mulch is most commonly used to warm the soil. Several days may be needed to raise the soil temperature. Check the soil temperature 2.5 inches deep in the soil at about 11:00 a.m. If that is not possible, check the temperature before leaving for work and again when you return and use the average of the two. It is best to lay a drip irrigation line before installing the plastic to make watering more convenient. (On laying down plastic, see the article below.)

Air Temperature: Plants must be protected from frost. Hot caps or water teepees are placed over the young plants to provide protection as well as provide a higher average temperature to encourage growth. Eventually the plants will outgrow the cover and start to develop flowers. But if the temperature goes below 550 F at night, tomato flowers may not set. The plant is not hurt, but the blossom will not set fruit, or, if it does set fruit, the fruit is often misshapen.


How early can you transplant into beds with plastic mulch? Start with a date about 2 weeks earlier than normal.

Laying Plastic Mulch
Plastic mulch is used often by commercial farmers, as well as home gardeners. Its employment is beneficial in controlling moisture levels around the root zone, as well as reducing and controlling weed infestations. It is also used to start vegetables such as tomatoes and melons earlier than normal.  Commercial growers use a machine to lay the mulch, but home gardeners must do this by hand.  Following are some tips on how this is done.

1. Fertilize according to soil test. You won’t be able to add fertilizer after the plastic is down.

2. Work the soil so that the bed can be easily shaped.
3. Use a garden hoe to form a trench along all edges of the plastic. The soil should be pulled to the outside of the bed. The trench should be formed six inches in from the edge of the plastic and extend along both sides and both ends. The trench should be deep and wide enough to bury six inches of plastic.

4. Lay a drip irrigation tube down the center of the bed. This isn’t absolutely necessary but it makes it much easier to water. Overhead watering will hit the plastic and roll off.

5. Lay the plastic down and cover the edges with soil. You need to slit the edge of the
plastic where the trickle irrigation tube enters the end of the bed.
6. Plant when the soil temperature reaches the correct temperature for the crop (550 F for tomatoes and 600 F for melons) at a 2.5-inch depth. Check the temperature at about 11:00 a.m. to get a good average temperature. Check for several days in a row to ensure the temperature is stable. And, have fun!

Rip Winkel is the Horticulture agent in the Cottonwood District (which includes Barton and Ellis counties) for K-State Research and Extension. You can contact him by e-mail at [email protected] or calling either 785-682-9430, or 620-793-1910.