Counties Cut Spending to Hold Down Taxes

Court Preserves Mail-Ballot Grace Period

Trump Rallies Voters for Masterson

Stormont Vail Adds Alzheimer’s Therapy

Wichita Breaks Ground on Delano Development

Counties Cut Spending to Hold Down Taxes

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Kansas counties are using savings, delaying projects and cutting outside programs to hold down property taxes. Reno County commissioners on July 29 cut $100,000 from money set aside for road equipment, postponed a $150,000 annex remodel and reduced economic-development funding as they try to lower a proposed 40.22-mill tax cap by more than half a mill before a Sept. 9 hearing. Riley County commissioners cut funding for large outside agencies by 15%, rejected a $95,760 investigator position and moved $5.15 million out of planned building and equipment projects to keep the tax rate steady. Douglas County proposed a $199.2 million 2027 budget with its fifth straight tax-rate reduction, while Sedgwick County proposed its fourth by cutting 0.725 mills. These choices may lower tax pressure now, but some equipment and maintenance costs will return in future budgets.

Citizen Journal review of more than 1,000 government meetings · Reno County · Riley County · Lawrence Journal-World · KWCH · Hutchinson Tribune

Court Preserves Mail-Ballot Grace Period

TOPEKA, Kan. — The Kansas Supreme Court declined July 30 to hear Secretary of State Scott Schwab’s emergency appeal of an injunction preserving the state’s three-day grace period for mail ballots. Ballots postmarked by the Aug. 4 primary may be counted if county election offices receive them by Aug. 7, rather than by 7 p.m. on Election Day Aug. 4 as a 2025 law would require. Douglas County District Judge Carl Folsom temporarily blocked the new deadline after voting-rights groups argued that rejecting timely mailed ballots because of delivery delays outside voters’ control violated the Kansas Constitution. The court’s majority said the injunction maintains the parties’ positions until a full decision, while Justices Caleb Stegall and K.J. Wall dissented over the prospect that ballots could be counted before their legality is resolved. The ruling sets the rules for the approaching statewide primary but leaves the broader constitutional dispute unsettled.

WIBW · KCUR

Trump Rallies Voters for Masterson

TOPEKA, Kan. — President Donald Trump joined a statewide telephone rally July 29 to support Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson’s Republican campaign for governor ahead of the Aug. 4 primary. During a roughly five-minute address, Trump highlighted the Andover lawmaker’s more than 20 years in the Legislature, including the past six as Senate president, and urged Kansans to vote early. Masterson’s campaign said hundreds of thousands of Kansas residents received invitations to listen and also released a number that allowed any Kansan to join the live call. The event reinforced Trump’s May endorsement as Masterson competes in a contested Republican field to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. The primary winner will face the Democratic nominee in the Nov. 3 general election, making the late campaign appearance significant as advance voting continues statewide.

Kansas Reflector · High Plains Public Radio · FOX4

Stormont Vail Adds Alzheimer’s Therapy

TOPEKA, Kan. — Stormont Vail Health announced July 30 that it will begin offering the Alzheimer’s drug Kisunla, with its first infusions scheduled for August. The Topeka health system will become the fourth Kansas provider of the therapy, joining Wamego Health Center, Hutchinson Regional Medical Center and the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas. The once-monthly intravenous treatment is intended for patients with confirmed amyloid deposits who have mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia caused by Alzheimer’s disease. Kisunla removed amyloid plaque and slowed cognitive and functional decline by about 22% over 18 months in the overall clinical-trial population, but it is not a cure and does not restore lost memory. Because the treatment can cause brain swelling or bleeding that is often symptomless but can be serious or fatal, patients require scans and continued monitoring as access expands.

WIBW · U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Wichita Breaks Ground on Delano Development

WICHITA, Kan. — Wichita leaders held a ceremonial groundbreaking July 30 for a $133 million mixed-use riverfront development in the Delano neighborhood. Kansas City-based EPC Real Estate Group plans a seven-story, 160-room Marriott Tribute Portfolio hotel at McLean Boulevard and Maple Street, across from Equity Bank Park. The project also calls for 192 residences above 10,000 square feet of street-level retail, structured parking, Arkansas River improvements, meeting space, a riverfront lobby bar and a rooftop restaurant and lounge. EPC expects the hotel and residences to open in 2028 if construction proceeds as planned. The groundbreaking moves a project discussed for nearly two decades into construction and advances efforts to add housing, businesses and tourism amenities along Wichita’s west riverbank.

KWCH

Sources

1. Citizen Journal review of more than 1,000 government meetings / Reno County Commission, July 29 / Reno County Commission / Riley County Commission / Riley County Commission / Lawrence Journal-World / KWCH / Hutchinson Tribune
2. WIBW / KCUR
3. Kansas Reflector / High Plains Public Radio / FOX4
4. WIBW / U.S. Food and Drug Administration
5. KWCH

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