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Month: March 2019
Missouri River projected to crest on Friday at just below flood stage in KC
As areas upstream on the Missouri River in Nebraska and Iowa are facing major flooding and destruction of homes, in the Kansas City area the current projection is that the river will crest just below flood stage on Friday.
According to Army Corps of Engineers officials, the Missouri River currently is cresting at Omaha, Nebraska, and that area should go below flood stage on Saturday. Officials listed nine breaches or overtoppings of levees south of Omaha. Omaha has been in flood stage since March 16.
Hamburg, Iowa, was particularly hard hit by the flooding, as temporary barriers were overcome by high water, according to officials.
The river is expected to crest in St. Joseph, Missouri, and Atchison, Kansas, on Thursday, officials said. The river is currently in moderate flood stage at St. Joseph and is projected to go into major flood stage on Wednesday. In Atchison, Kansas, the river is currently in moderate flood stage and is projected to go into major flood stage on Wednesday.
On Friday, the river should crest in Leavenworth, Kansas, Parkville, Missouri, and Kansas City, according to officials. In Leavenworth, the river is currently in moderate flood stage at 25.45 feet, where flood stage is 20 feet. It is projected to crest at 28.7 feet, still in moderate flood stage, on Thursday and Friday.
The Missouri River at Parkville was at 29.92 feet at 7:45 p.m. Monday, where flood stage is 25 feet. The river is expected to stay in the moderate flood stage when it crests at 32.4 feet on Thursday and Friday, according to hydrology charts.
The current river levels forecast included a small amount of rain, perhaps a fourth of an inch, expected to fall Tuesday, forecasters said. The daily levee overtoppings and breaches on the Missouri River also are changing the river level forecasts.
Currently, the Missouri River at Kansas City was at 29.49 feet at 5:30 p.m. Monday, where flood stage is 32 feet. The river is projected to rise to 31.3 feet on Friday. Those projections are subject to change, according to officials.
The Missouri River at Parkville, Missouri, which is across from Kansas City, Kansas, is currently in moderate flood stage, according to hydrology charts.
When it gets past this weekend, the Kansas City area and the Midwest will not be totally out of flooding risk, as more snow melt is projected around the beginning of April, according to officials. Snow melt upstream is expected to affect the Big Sioux, James and Vermillion rivers, and water will enter the Missouri River from these rivers unregulated at a point below the Gavins Point dam, according to officials.
Officials said they expected a renewed risk of flooding in April, with the snow melt runoff and the active precipitation pattern over the next month.
The Corps of Engineers currently is reducing the release of water from the Gavins Point Dam. On Sunday evening, the releases were reduced to 43,000 cubic feet per second.
However, the inflows of water did not decline as much as expected, and instead of reducing the release of water to 33,000 cfs as planned this morning, the releases were reduced to 38,000 cfs. At 6 p.m. Monday night, the releases were reduced another 5,000 cfs. The release amounts will be re-evaluated again on Tuesday morning, officials said.
As a result of the increased inflow to Gavins Point, the Corps of Engineers has reduced the releases from Fort Randall to zero.
Kansas governor and Senate ready to end school spending battle, House not so much
by Stephen Koranda, Kansas News Service
Republicans in the Kansas Senate seem ready to end a long-running lawsuit by complying with a court ruling that said the state sends too little money to local school districts.
The Kansas House? Not just yet. It’s advancing a plan that would continue adding school spending for another year, and only another year.
That sets up a potential fight between the two chambers and threatens Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s hopes for a plan to finally settle the court battle and carve out increased funding for public schools for several years to come.
Leaders in the House want to mix conservative policies with a funding plan that only boosts spending for the coming fiscal year. They’d also strip away future funding increases already in state law.
Senators have approved a bill mirroring Kelly’s plan for a multi-year funding hike, which many lawmakers hope could end the lawsuit.
“It is our best attempt to provide a reasonable solution for the Supreme Court,” Republican Sen. Molly Baumgardner said last week when pitching the bill to her fellow senators.
In a way, the Senate vote marks a change of fortune for Kelly. Republican leaders have blasted and blocked many of her major proposals. But Kelly’s school funding plan, based on numbers from the Department of Education, has garnered bipartisan support.
The Senate sent the bill to the House on a 32-8 vote with support from Democrats, moderate Republicans and conservatives such as Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning.
But House Speaker Ron Ryckman said he has concerns the boost in school funding would leave lawmakers unable to fund other services like roads and mental health care.
“We have to balance everything out and not always do what is politically easy to do,” Ryckman said. “We need to protect other core functions of government.”
The House will continue to work first on a proposal introduced last week, Ryckman said.
That bill includes an initial injection of cash for local school districts, but it cancels future funding increases and mixes in some controversial policies. For instance, it would let bullied students transfer to private schools on the state’s dime. Letting students use public money for private schools has already drawn criticism from a teachers’ union and school districts.
The Kansas Supreme Court mostly signed off on a funding boost lawmakers approved last year. But the justices said that previous spending plan needs to be adjusted for inflation. Kelly’s bill offers that added money.
Rep. Tom Sawyer, the Democratic Party leader in the House, wants to simply approve the Senate plan and move on. He said the House Republicans’ bill reopens the entire school funding debate.
“That causes all kinds of problems with the court,” Sawyer said. “Do the Senate bill. Get it behind us. Fund our schools the way we should.”
A committee will continue work this week on the House plan.
If the House approves its bill, the two chambers will have to find a compromise between proposals that have a wide disparity in funding and policy ideas.
Kelly will stay out of the fight for now and won’t pitch her plan to House lawmakers.
“They would prefer just operating on their own,” Kelly told reporters.
The issue is further complicated by a group of dozens of school districts, including the four that sued the state in the latest lawsuit, that now say even the bill approved in the Senate falls hundreds of millions of dollars short.
Baumgardner said lawmakers can’t afford what the school districts want without crippling the state budget.
“A $900 million price tag over four years will be devastating to our state,” she said during the Senate debate.
Republican Sen. Kevin Braun, from the 5th District, including western Wyandotte County, said if the Senate bill doesn’t satisfy the high court, it’s time to change the state constitution so courts can’t weigh in on school spending. He’s not interested in another round of fighting over a funding increase.
“This is not an opening bid,” Braun said. “This is a final offer.”
Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for Kansas Public Radio and the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio covering health, education and politics. Follow him on Twitter @kprkoranda.
Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.
See more at https://www.kcur.org/post/kansas-governor-and-senate-ready-end-school-spending-battle-house-not-so-much