KANSAS

New governor’s budget repairs may spark GOP opposition

TOPEKA, Kansas – The state’s incoming Democratic governor uses words like “decimated” to describe what’s happened to state government over the past decade and will be looking to add staff, boost spending and rethink contracts that outsourced jobs to private companies.

Yet the same electorate that chose Gov.-elect Laura Kelly out of displeasure with her Republican predecessors opted in more-localized races to push the Legislature further to the right. Upon taking office in January, she will face GOP supermajorities and conservative leaders, setting up political fights over proposals seen as expanding state government’s footprint.

It’s not just big initiatives, such as more spending on public schools or expanding the state’s Medicaid health coverage for the needy. After advisers fanned out to state agencies, Kelly said she’s concerned about a shortage of social workers to serve troubled children, how the state processes tax payments and even whether it can clear highways well in a winter storm.

She promised during her campaign not to increase taxes; she is not backing off that pledge, and GOP leaders have said they intend to hold her to it. But during a recent interview, she also made it clear that she believes extra money and staff are needed to fix things.

“I am not sure we knew how bad it was,” said Kelly, a veteran state senator from Topeka and a key player in legislative budget debates. “We have seen our agencies just hollowed out.”

Some Republicans agree that parts of state government, particularly prisons and services for abused and neglected children, need attention. But conservatives also see an annual budget that has grown 22 percent over the past decade to $17 billion, with much of the new spending driven by Kansas Supreme Court mandates to boost education funding.

GOP legislators slashed personal income taxes in 2012 and 2013 at then-Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s urging, as a fiscal experiment and economic stimulus. After persistent shortfalls, lawmakers reversed most of the tax cuts in 2017.

Kelly made Brownback a key issue in the campaign, even after he resigned in January for an ambassador’s post. His successor, Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer, who narrowly lost the GOP primary in August, said he “walked into a very difficult situation,” but, “I think we need to look at where we’re going and what we’ve accomplished.”

While Kelly talks of “triage” to fix the most urgent problems, Republican legislators said their constituents want government that’s lean and efficient.

“Accountability drives their greatest concern regarding the size of government,” said Rep.-elect Kellie Warren, a Kansas City-area Republican. “They want to see that their tax dollars are being used wisely, efficiently – where is it going and can we do more with less?”

MONTANA

Ruling that blocked grizzly bear hunts appealed

BILLINGS, Montana – U.S. government attorneys have filed notice that they are appealing a court ruling that blocked the first public hunts of grizzly bears in the Northern Rockies in decades.

The appeal challenges a judge’s ruling that restored threatened species protections for more than 700 bears in and around Yellowstone National Park.

Protections for the animals had been removed in 2017. When the ruling from U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen came down in October, Wyoming and Idaho were on the cusp of hosting their first public hunts for grizzly bears in the Lower 48 U.S. states since 1991.

Federal biologists contend Yellowstone-area grizzlies have made a full recovery after a decades-long restoration effort. They want to turn over management of the animals to state wildlife agencies that say hunting is one way to better address rising numbers of bear attacks on livestock.

But wildlife advocates and the Crow Indian Tribe successfully sued to stop the hunts. Their attorneys persuaded Christensen that despite the recovery of bears in Yellowstone, the species remains in peril elsewhere because of continued threats from climate change and habitat loss.

The Yellowstone population has rebounded from just 136 animals when they were granted federal protections in 1975.

Grizzlies in recent years have returned to many areas where they were absent for decades. That has meant more dangerous run-ins with people, such as a Wyoming hunting guide who was killed this fall in a grizzly attack.

Christensen’s ruling marked the second time the government has sought to lift protections for Yellowstone bears only to be reversed in court.

The agency initially declared a successful recovery for the Yellowstone population in 2007. But a federal judge ordered protections to remain while wildlife officials studied whether the decline of a major food source – whitebark pine seeds – could threaten the bears’ survival.

The Fish and Wildlife Service concluded last year it had addressed that and all other threats.

The appeal signals that at least for now the court battle over grizzlies will grind on.

WYOMING

Governor supports examining sales tax system

CASPER, Wyoming – Leaders here are hoping the state legislature will revise Wyoming’s sales tax collection and distribution system – and Gov. Matt Mead said recently that he agrees the current system should be examined.

The city mistakenly received an additional $1.7 million in sales tax distributions after a Sweetwater County vendor incorrectly reported its taxes in Natrona County. The error occurred from October 2013 to December 2015 and was later detected during a routine audit.

After the state learned about the mistake, it deducted the money from Casper’s monthly sales tax distribution in July. Casper officials then took a loan from the state that gave the city up to five years to pay back the money.

The Department of Revenue currently has a self-reporting system that relies on vendors to correctly report tax information.

At a recent Casper City Council work session, some council members said there need to be consequences for vendors who file in the wrong county to encourage businesses to be vigilant with their taxes.

But the governor said he would be hesitant to punish businesses for making an innocent error.

“They are trying to do the right thing, and they have a made a mistake, so I think a system that provides clarity to them and the state may be the best way to do it,” said Mead, who in January will hand over the office to Gov.-elect Mark Gordon.

NEW MEXICO

State reports highest graduation rate in 2018

SANTA FE – New Mexico education officials say the rate of high school students who are earning diplomas is the highest it has ever been.

Gov. Susana Martinez, who is wrapping up her second and final term, announced that the 2018 class marked the highest graduation rate in the state’s history at 73 percent.

While that’s still below the national average, state officials say last year’s numbers mark a 10 percent increase since 2011.

Martinez said New Mexico students have made improvements even as the state has raised academic standards and graduation requirements. The Republican says they’re better prepared to enter the workforce and college.

Gov.-elect Michelle Lujan Grisham and fellow Democratic lawmakers have vowed to reform the state’s education system in 2019.

MONTANA

Lawmaker proposes state rock and roll song

HELENA, Montana – Montana has a state song, a state ballad and a state lullaby.

And, for goodness sake, Democratic Rep. Jacob Bachmeier of Havre would like to see the 2019 Legislature declare the “Hippy Hippy Shake” Montana’s official rock and roll song.

It was written in 1959 by Chan Romero when he was a 17-year-old student at Billings Senior High School.

Romero, who now lives in Southern California, tells the Great Falls Tribune his song has been featured in seven or eight movies and has been recorded by about 20 groups, including the Beatles. He says he’d be proud to have his song honored by the Legislature.

The bill’s introduction borrows from the song’s lyrics in saying: “WHEREAS, Montanans shake it to the left and shake it to the right and do everything with all of their might.”