LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Democratic Kansas Gov.-elect Laura Kelly says she’s aware the state may need to help higher education institutions but has more pressing issues she needs to focus on during her first legislative session.

“We’re going to have to deal with situations in the state in a sort of triage approach, where we go after the critical issues first,” Kelly said, listing K-12 education funding, Medicaid expansion, infrastructure and the state’s foster care program as the main issues. “I’m fully aware of the needs for higher education and we will be reviewing those and doing what we can.”

Under Republican former Gov. Sam Brownback, higher education saw its budget slashed by $30.7 million. Lawmakers restored $6 million of that in 2017 and another $15 million in May. But despite the partial restoration of funding, the University of Kansas announced it would need to make a $20 million cut from its own budget.

Kelly, who will be inaugurated on Jan. 14, said she’s aware morale seems to be low at the university because of the proposed budget cuts and ensuing layoffs.

“Higher education has not been immune to the damage that has been done over the past several years,” Kelly said, referring to the state’s budget crisis during Brownback’s tenure.

She said government can help by passing a balanced budget and reinstating an executive order that provides state workers with protections from job discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity, she said.

“I think that will send a message to other states that Kansas is open and we are friendly and this is a place you’ll want to consider,” she said of the LGBT protection order. “Those are the types of things that can help the university and its morale.”

She said that increasing enrollment also would help and noted that foreign student enrollment is down.

“I think that’s a lot because families in other countries see the United States as an unfriendly place at the moment, so they are sending their kids to Canada or London.”

By WAYNE PARRY and GEOFF MULVIHILL
Associated Press

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — The race to legalize sports betting is on now that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed it in all 50 states, but will it provide enough extra tax revenue to make much of a difference for schools, roads or pension debt?

Don’t bet on it.

Just look to the states that capitalized immediately after the court’s ruling last spring and to Nevada, which previously had an effective monopoly on sports gambling. Even though the market is still developing, the returns to date have been modest.

In Nevada, revenue from sports betting has accounted for roughly one half of 1 percent of the entire state budget.

“Everything I’ve seen so far suggests that this would not be what one would consider to be a pot of gold,” said Ohio state Sen. John Eklund, a Republican who introduced legislation to legalize sports betting in his state.

Delaware, Mississippi, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and West Virginia legalized sports betting last year after the Supreme Court decision, as did the District of Columbia. Although New Mexico has not passed a sports betting law, the Santa Ana Star Casino & Hotel started taking bets in October through a tribal gambling compact.

Lawmakers in Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee and Virginia already have filed bills to allow sports betting, and those who track the industry expect a total of 30 states to consider similar ones this year.

The expected stampede of states seeking to legalize it has parallels to the growing trend toward legalizing recreational marijuana, which 10 states have done and others are considering.

As with marijuana, lawmakers say they are motivated in large part because sports betting has been a black market activity outside Nevada. Legalizing it would allow states to impose regulations and take in at least some money.

“I keep telling them this is not like a craps table or a slot machine,” said Mark Sickles, a Democratic state lawmaker in Virginia who has sponsored a bill that would place a 15 percent tax on sports betting in the state. “My main purpose is to take something that’s currently being done illegally and get some tax revenue from it.”

Revenue from legalized pot makes up just a small portion of state revenue, even in the states with the most mature markets — about 2 percent in Colorado and a little over 1 percent in Washington, according to a May report from Moody’s Investors Service. That’s still a far larger portion of revenue than even the most optimistic projections for sports betting.

New Jersey was the first state to legalize sports betting after the Supreme Court decision last May.
The state’s gambling industry took in $928 million worth of sports bets since the first one was taken on June 14 through the end of November. From that, the state received less than $8 million in tax revenue.

Even if the state meets its projection of $25 million in sports betting tax revenue for a full year, that would amount to well under one 10th of 1 percent of the state’s $37.4 billion budget.

Former New Jersey state Sen. Raymond Lesniak began the effort to legalize sports betting there 10 years ago with what at the time seemed like a quixotic lawsuit against the federal government. He said sports gambling was not supposed to be a big moneymaker for the state.

“It wasn’t intended to do that,” he said. “I was driven by the fact that the Atlantic City casino industry was dying and the horse racing industry was on life support. It needed an injection of new money and new people that would come, fill up rooms, eat in restaurants, spend money.”

Lesniak expects sports betting to eventually generate over $100 million in taxes for the state once all New Jersey’s casinos and racetracks have sports books up and running for a full year. That would be 10 times the level of tax revenue being generated right now, when many sports betting operations in New Jersey are in their infancy.

Yet experts say sports betting revenue in New Jersey and elsewhere is likely to be diluted as more and more states jump into the game.

New Jersey’s market is being squeezed on one side by Pennsylvania, which recently began offering sports betting, and on the other by New York, which is likely to pursue legalization this year.

For perspective, New Jersey’s casino revenue at the end of 2006, when Pennsylvania opened its first casino, was $5.2 billion. A decade later, that number had been cut in half and Pennsylvania had more casinos.

The states that have launched sports betting this year expect they will bring in tax revenue that ranges from about $5 million in Mississippi and West Virginia to $25 million in New Jersey. In each state, hitting those targets would account for just a fraction of 1 percent of state spending.

Even Rhode Island, which has the highest sports betting tax rate at 51 percent, estimates it will take in $23.5 million a year, or a quarter of 1 percent of the state’s budget.

Those revenue projections are in line with expectations from the municipal ratings firm Moody’s Investor Service. Baye Larsen, who analyzes state finances at Moody’s, expects sports betting to account for a “very, very small slice” of state revenue and will do little if anything to help cover their rising pension, Medicaid, education or infrastructure needs.

Instead, some lawmakers said they will try to direct the money to specific projects. A bill in Missouri, for example, would send some of the revenue to the capital improvement fund of the state Veterans Commission, while some of New Jersey’s online sports betting revenue is targeted to an Atlantic City promotion campaign.

“Legalized sports gambling is not a way to raise revenue for the government; it is not a mechanism to create jobs,” said Minnesota state Rep. Patrick Garofalo, a Republican. “It’s a high-volume, low-margin business.”
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Associated Press writer Regina Garcia Cano in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect following an alleged aggravated assault.

Just after 3:30p.m. Tuesday, police responded to a call for service, involving an assault in progress, in the area of the 3300 SW 29th in Topeka, according to Lt. Jerry Monasmith.

During the course of the investigation officers found the suspect to be in possession of a firearm as a felon, possession of methamphetamine and marijuana.

Officers arrested Boisy Barefield, 33, Topeka, and he is being held in the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on requested criminal charges of Felon in Possession of a Firearm, Possession of Methamphetamine, Possession of Marijuana, Aggravated Assault, Battery, and city warrants.

Barefield has two previous drug convictions, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.

DICKINSON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect wanted Florida since last spring.

Just after 1:00p.m. Monday, police received a tip from a concerned citizen regarding a possible fugitive hiding in the city of Herington, according to a media release.

After a brief investigation, the fugitive was identified as Nathaniel Lee Sweeney,24, of Titusville, Florida.

Using information received from the tip, the Herington Police Department responded to the 700 Block of East Arnold Street where Sweeney was located in the basement of a residence and took him into custody without incident.

Sweeney was wanted out of Brevard County, Florida for violating conditions of probation. His original charges in Florida were Possession of Methamphetamine and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.

Sweeney had been on the run since April 2018. Sweeney was also named the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office “Fugitive of the Week” by Sheriff Wayne Ivey in May 2018.

Sweeney was transported to the Dickinson County Jail where he is being held without bond pending extradition to the State of Florida. 

DODGE CITY, Kan. (AP) — Ford County has paid more than $70,000 in legal fees so far to a firm that represented its county clerk in a lawsuit filed after Dodge City’s only polling place was moved outside city limits for November’s general election.

A document received through an open records request shows the county paid the Hinkle Law Firm $71,481 in October and November to defend County Clerk Debbie Cox.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued Cox in late October because the location inside the city was scheduled to undergo construction. The ACLU argued moving the site made it more difficult for voters — particularly the city’s large Hispanic population — to vote.

Days before the election, a federal judge denied the ACLU’s request to keep the original site open.