Category: Business

KCKCC expands offerings with Amazon for career choice program

by Kelly Rogge, KCKCC public information manager

Kansas City Kansas Community College has expanded its involvement with Amazon’s Career Choice program, providing Amazon’s hourly employees access to any credit-bearing certificate or degree at KCKCC.

This program is designed to help frontline employees grow their skills for career success at Amazon or elsewhere, according to a spokesman.

“KCKCC is thrilled to be selected as a local educational partner for Amazon,” said Dr. Tami Bartunek, vice president of strategic initiatives and outreach for KCKCC. “Amazon hourly employees now have the opportunity to become Blue Devils and advance their education by completing high quality, valuable credit-bearing technical programs or associate degrees. The relationship between KCKCC and Amazon will prove to advance many educational dreams.”

KCKCC, a public two-year institution in Wyandotte County, is the third largest community college in Kansas. The college is committed to students and strives to ensure all students have a positive and successful post-secondary experience, the spokesman said. KCKCC’s multiple locations provide learning opportunities for students throughout the Kansas City area.

According to The Economics of Education Review, a Kansas study found students who return to college and finish a bachelor’s degree earn on average $4,200 more immediately after graduation and experience an extra income growth of $1,100 per year, on average.

Amazon’s Career Choice program is an education benefit that empowers employees and meets individual learners where they are on their education journey through a variety of education and upskilling opportunities. These include full college tuition, industry certifications designed to lead to in-demand jobs and foundational skills such as English language proficiency, high school diplomas and GEDs. In the U.S., the company is investing $1.2 billion to increase the skills of more than 300,000 employees by 2025 to help move them into higher-paying, in-demand jobs.

Employees can take classes online, in-person at a local campus or on-site in one of the more than 110 Career Choice classrooms located in fulfillment centers in 37 states.

Since launching in 2012, Career Choice has helped provide education for more than 50,000 employees by partnering with more than 140 national and local colleges and universities. Career Choice is one of nine free skills training and education programs that Amazon offers to its employees as part of its Upskilling 2025 pledge. Employees can participate every year they work at Amazon and are eligible after only 90 days of employment.

“We’re looking forward to Kansas City Kansas Community College continuing as an education partner for Career Choice, adding to the hundreds of best-in-class offerings available to our employees,” said Tammy Thieman, global program lead of Amazon’s Career Choice program, in a news release. “We have intentionally cultivated a partner network of third-party educators and employers committed to providing excellent education, job placement resources and continuous improvements to the experience. Today, over 50,000 Amazon employees around the world have already participated in Career Choice and we’ve seen first-hand how it can transform their lives.”

KCKCC was chosen through a rigorous third-party educator selection process with Amazon’s Career Choice program featuring partners that are focused on helping employees through their education programs, assisting them with job placements and overall offering education that leads to career success.

For more information about Amazon’s Career Choice program, visit https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/workplace/career-choice.

State tax revenue tops February estimate, Kelly calls for food sales tax exemption

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — The half-billion dollars in state tax collections during February came in nearly $19 million above bullish estimates revised three months ago to reflect revenue growth.

The Kansas Department of Revenue said the state tabulated $502.5 million in tax revenue last month, which amounted to 3.9% more than anticipated by fiscal analysts. The total was $46 million, or 10.2%, beyond state revenue for February 2021.

“The positive trend in tax receipts continues with all of the major tax types — individual income tax, corporate income tax, retailer’s sales tax and compensating use tax — performing well,” said Mark Burghart, secretary of the state’s revenue department.

The department processed 15,000 more income tax filings and refunded $21 million more in February compared to the same month last year. Overall, the state has issued 281,000 refunds totaling $147 million in the current filing season.

Refunds for electronically filed returns can be expected to be deposited in taxpayers’ bank accounts in 4 days to 7 days, Burghart said.

“We are pleased to be able to get individual income tax refunds paid more quickly and into the accounts of taxpayers,” he said. “But for the larger number of refunds issued in February, individual income tax receipts also would have surpassed the February estimate.”

In February, state individual income tax collections in Kansas were $183.4 million. That was $6.6 million or 3.5% below the monthly estimate. Corporate income tax collections settled at $23.4 million or $12.4 million more than anticipated. The monthly total on corporate income tax was $15.2 million more than in February 2021.

Retail sales tax revenue outperformed predictions by $5.2 million or 2.8% for a monthly total of $195.2 million. That was $16 million, or 8.9%, more in retail sales tax revenue than experienced in February 2021.

Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat seeking re-election in November, said her administration had taken steps to promote fiscal responsibility and restore the state’s economy. She renewed a request that the Republican-led Legislature approve a bill removing grocery purchases from the state’s 6.5% sales tax.

“I urge the Legislature to work together to send me a clean bill eliminating the state’s tax on food immediately so that we can put this money back into the pockets of Kansas taxpayers,” Kelly said.

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/briefs/state-tax-revenue-tops-february-estimate-kelly-calls-for-food-sales-tax-exemption/.

New bookstore opens on Strawberry Hill

A new bookstore, Flagship Books, has opened at 600 Ohio Ave., in the Strawberry Hill area of Kansas City, Kansas. (Submitted photo)

A new independent bookstore, Flagship Books, has opened in the Strawberry Hill area of Kansas City, Kansas.

The new store, at 600 Ohio Ave., has moved from North Kansas City, Missouri, where it originally was opened in March 2021 by brothers Joel Melgren and Ty Melgren.

The location in Strawberry Hill is a larger storefront, and the new location opened during the final weekend of January.

There will be a wider selection of new and used books, plus some room to have book club meetings and other community events, according to the owners.

The store will tailor its selection to the needs and interests of the Strawberry Hill neighborhood and the KCK community by featuring titles by Kansas City-based writers and illustrators, as well as offering books in languages other than English. The store will include fiction, nonfiction and poetry in Spanish.

The books will include literary classics to popular contemporary fiction, such as “The Song of Achilles” and “Harlem Shuffle.” There will be best-sellers by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Jemar Tisby and Anthony Bourdain, as well as children’s books and a selection of books on food and mixed drinks.

The bookstore also will order books for customers.

Hours of the new store are noon to 6 p.m. Wednesdays, noon to 6 p.m. Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays, noon to 5 p.m. Sundays, and closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

The bookstore has a Facebook page at facebook.com/flagshipbooks, and is on Instagram at Instagram.com/flagship books. Customers may contact the bookstore at [email protected].