by Stephen Koranda, Kansas Public Radio, Kansas News Service
Kansas lawmakers are working to fill a $350 million budget hole in the current fiscal year that ends in June.
Members of a House committee wanted to know what it would take to erase the deficit using only spending cuts. A legislative report says state agencies would see a 7 percent budget reduction.
Republican Rep. Erin Davis requested the information. Davis said she’s not advocating for cutting Kansas spending, but she wanted to see what the option would look like.
After getting the numbers, Davis says the cuts would mean furloughs at some agencies, which would affect services.
“It’s not like they can go from having the toilets cleaned five days a week to two days a week and have a major savings. The effect of this would be that there would be furloughs. Yes, average Kansans would feel this,” Davis said.
The reductions would mean more than $200 million taken from K-12 education. The state’s public universities would take $40 million in cuts.
“Now we have a picture of what the cuts would look like and we’ll see exactly how members want to move forward,” said Republican Troy Waymaster, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
Waymaster said the governor’s proposal to dissolve an investment fund to fill the current year’s budget hole looks more palatable than the cuts.
“I’m telling you right now … that would be an extreme hit to K-12,” Waymaster said.
Mark Tallman, with the Kansas Association of School Boards, said some districts may be able to use reserve funds to get through the rest of the fiscal year. He said they’d then have to make spending cuts for the coming years. That could mean closing buildings, reducing staff and cutting student programs.
“There’s no way around it if you’re talking about this type of magnitude of reduction,” Tallman said.
Other cuts in the budget report include:
• Board of Regents: $13.2 million.
• Department for Children and Families: $9.5 million.
• Department for Aging and Disability Services: $25.3 million.
• Department of Corrections: $11.6 million.
• Judicial Branch: $7.3 million.
Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for Kansas Public Radio, a partner in the Kansas News Service.
Wendell Maddox (File photo)
The president of the United Way of Wyandotte County will be retiring on June 30, according to an announcement by the organization today.
Wendell Maddox, president and CEO of United Way of Wyandotte County announced he plans to retire on June 30, 2017. Maddox has been with United Way of Wyandotte County for 17 years, 12 years as president.
“Wendell Maddox has been a forward thinking, trustworthy, and motivating leader of the United Way of Wyandotte County for many years. He is deserving of this retirement and will be missed in this role,” said Terry Robinson, former United Way of Wyandotte County board chairman.
United Way of Wyandotte County is one of nearly 1,300 community-based United Way associations in 30 countries and territories. The organization is governed by an independent board of 36 local community leaders and volunteers. United Way of Wyandotte County’s mission is to increase the community’s understanding of human needs and to mobilize resources to meet those needs. Money raised through the annual United Way campaign stays in Wyandotte County to support programs operated by nonprofit social service agencies based in the community.
Maddox has been instrumental in fulfilling United Way’s mission in Wyandotte County, a spokesman said. Maddox, born and raised in Wyandotte County, began working for the United Way of Wyandotte County as the director of agency relations in January 2000.
Eighteen months later he became vice president, under the leadership of Terry Woodbury, who was president and CEO from 1999 to March 2004. In March 2004, Maddox became the organization’s first African American president and CEO. In the years following, Maddox worked to further define and extend the effect United Way has in Wyandotte County.
“Terry [Woodbury] and I shared a vision of implementing an incremental process to move community funding to specific programs rather than entire agencies,” Maddox said. “We wanted our donors’ investments to have more of a direct impact on individuals and families.”
In response to that vision, in 2001 United Way of Wyandotte County implemented a new allocations process that funded specific community programs rather than entire nonprofit agencies. In 2013 Maddox lead the first communitywide effort to define the needs in Wyandotte County through the United Way’s community impact plan.
Community leaders, nonprofit partners, and United Way board members collaborated with United Way staff to establish outcomes and indicators for three primary issue areas which now define the direction of United Way of Wyandotte County’s funding decisions. These three areas include: meeting basic needs, nurturing children and families, and promoting health and quality of life.
Maddox also played a key role in the startup of the YouthBuild KCK program in 2000 and the “All Accounted For” project in 2006. YouthBuild helps young men and women who are unemployed and who did not complete high school obtain a GED and become prepared to enter the workforce. The “All Accounted For” project is an after-school initiative to ensure that all school aged children have the opportunity to participate in wholesome after-school activities.
Throughout the years, Maddox‘s leadership has continually been recognized by his significant involvement with many different community boards and committees.
In the spring of 2009 Maddox was elected to the Kansas City Kansas Community College Board of Trustees and served as board chairman from 2014 to 2017. He also has served on the boards or committees of the following organizations: Mental Health Association of the Heartland, School Linked Services, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, KCK Unified Government Human Relations Commission, Kansas City, Kansas Chamber of Commerce, Wyandotte County Community Health Council, Workforce Investment Board, Kansas Health Foundation Fellow, Healthy Communities Wyandotte, the YMCA Pioneering Healthier Communities, Kansas City, Kan., Public Library Foundation, and Sen. Jerry Moran’s Military Academy Selection Committee.
Maddox’s awards include the Boy Scouts of America Silver Beaver, Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools District 500 Reason to Believe, National Afterschool Alliance National Breakfast of Champions Award, Missouri Legislative Black Caucus-Achievement Award for Passage of Missouri’s Animal Care Facilities Act, and Sumner Class of 1965 Community Service Award.
“It has been an amazing journey for me and the organization over the past seventeen years,” Maddox said. “I cannot be happier nor prouder having had the opportunity to work in the community where I grew up.”
The United Way currently is accepting resumes for the president and CEO position.
A crash has closed southbound K-7 in Bonner Springs this afternoon. (KC Scout photo)
Southbound K-7 near Speaker Road has been closed at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday because of a crash, according to state highway officials.
On northbound K-7 at Speaker Road, the right lane only is open.
Traffic has been detoured onto eastbound I-70 until further notice, according to highway officials.
According to authorities, a Kansas state trooper responding to the crash suffered minor injuries in this accident.
Also, according to a spokesman for the Kansas Department of Transportation, northbound and southbound K-7 at Parallel Parkway traffic signals are not working because of the loss of power resulting from a traffic crash. Drivers must treat the intersection as a four-way stop until power can be restored, according to KDOT.
