Various KPR news

this elegant graves announced that he would be asking his cabinet secretaries to eliminate three percent of a worker's next fiscal year in an effort to rein in government spending now governor graves is saying those caps and not enough and this lady is directed graves is demanding that agencies reduce their existing budgets by one and a half percent and they get two percent reduction in full time employees by the end of june at a statehouse news conference graham said the cuts were necessary after a series of unexpected events over the last few months conspired to dramatically alter the state's financial situation including changes in federal regulations that cost the state more than seventy million dollars of the twenty five million dollar underestimate the state would bring in in tax revenue things together have managed to create one two three million dollars change in the picture and it puts in jeopardy your ability to meet the ending balance requirements of seventy percent of the end of the current fiscal year graves as we can

see as demanded to make up with apple's revenue will affect all state agencies except for the weekend's universities community colleges and public schools those areas have gotten many fans have already been hit hard by budget cuts over the years meanwhile the government insists these latest changes wont impact the services that kansans expect from state government which also says it's unlikely that any state workers will be laid off as a result of this directive that agency's eliminate two percent of their full time jobs during the course of a year target numbers to shoot or and in fact i think it's in keeping with the sort of the spirit of the legislature's intentioned have us work to downsize state government after the graves announcement agency heads were busy calculating how the changes would impact than that the state's largest agency of the department of social and rehabilitation services

around two hundred jobs would be eliminated by june along with that would go more than eight million dollars in state funds despite those losses and flores spokesman sean going to get his agency is fully behind the governor's move here all right either the public health and environment which would lose about eighty jobs as a result of the great scouts spokesman greg crawford was equally conciliatory heated agency officials had already been anticipating employee reductions we have been looking at just those kinds of turnovers as a vehicle to lessen the impact of any particular but it actually comes down the pike while agency heads appear to support the governor's budget reduction efforts democratic state senator marsha plenty of topeka says the cuts will hurt agencies and will put a strain on already overworked state

employees but i can't help thinking that the funding reductions could have been avoided all together or in the situation where you know because of a reduction in revenue and we made it official last year to reduce their revenue by giving tax breaks particularly the johnston county and very narrowly defined group and he said that grapes have not pushed the elimination of the sales tax on labor used to new construction and on utilities used a lot of fracturing the state would not be in its current financial bind at a statehouse news conference graves conceded that point what about anyone knows that on the table you might be close to where we need to be but they keep in mind the moral problem they were sound good public policy decision to state and certainly at the time they were made we didn't know that we were going to have revenues fall on the tail end of the fiscal year we didn't know about the

federal budget cuts if there is a lesson to be learned from this great says this latest financial crunch may now take the steam out of legislative demands to make more or scale tax cuts next session at the state house this is mccain's reporting or agencies of government with the exception of universities community colleges and public schools are subject to these latest budget cuts graves is calling for one and a half percent reduction in each agency budget over the next nine months is also top cabinet heads to eliminate two percent of their full time employees by jim graves is convinced that can be achieved without mass layoffs of state workers you had a hundred people during the course of the year those are reasonable target numbers or and in fact i think it's in keeping with the sort of the spirit of the legislature's intention have less work to downsize state government graves says without bees cats the state will not have enough cash in its treasury balances win the nineteen ninety six budget

hearings kansas law mandates that a reserve of money be set aside equal to seven and a half percent at state spending the governor says the state's present financial bind was called by a series of unexpected expenses over the last few months including changes in federal regulations that cost the state more than seventy million dollars twenty five million dollars miscalculation in what the state expected to bring in tax revenue at the state house this is mccain's record folks are your radio report the other day seems that kansas senator bob dole or rather presidential candidate no it's not been supported by kansas in the same gender expression as his rivals are been supported by their home state lamar alexander arlen specter bill graham and b wilson are rolling in dough from the volunteer state that keystone instead the lone star state the golden state

seems the sunflower state is the opposite of the golden state have been carved up only six hundred thousand dollars in individual contribution so far why that's less than twenty five cents per kansan and this from a state that was once proud to bursting out of its native son why when the young robert dole came back from world war ii to as a wounded he wrote his hometown of russell kansas took up a collection to send that boy college ball has had big money backers in the state all through his career first in the house then in this and so what's happened now well up old samir kansans to find out why does he need my support ask claude anderson who runs the co op that archer daniels midland withdraw there's i mean we are an agricultural state taken over by agribusinesses with the help of that agribusiness senate are used to bring home the bacon

for years now he lived high on the whole i once liked him said omar peterson who runs a year kansas drive thru pharmacy and carwash and i once sent him money but now i don't know if he's always talkin about character and coming up the hard way and about his traditional american so let him win one the traditional old fashioned way on the strength of whatever character he has left after all those years in washington dc he'll need to do more than attack hollywood for immortality and latino immigrant citizens are not learning english said mabel leader who is admittedly an inveterate watcher of spanish language soap operas and a frequent traveler to mexico nobody barnhill the proprietor the demolition derby museums and hears this core issues are wont to be of gold

money as a gambler and then he's not as your bet set by what he's lost every bit he's made for office outside of kansas what in horseshoes when we go on that's not a ringer and not only are we call it a double meaning almost there why does any buyer money set pod hopkins owner of the mini mart he went to washington with five hundred dollars and now he's worth millions i'm always giving him the one thing every american can spend equally my vote but not going to do anything different now oh oh oh humble one of years master gardeners said it doesn't make sense to spend money on an old plant why you wouldn't fertilizer stock of corn when the year is drooping now already depict no sir you would just judge the court thought i was gonna get below anything either

but talk is cheap i can spare my two cents worth here's a penny for one thought senator when you forget your roots it can't expect the home folks in the sec and banning and those outside kansas and what do we know that you don't have the independent review panel appointed by university of kansas chancellor robin hemingway has spent the last three months delving into every aspect of operations at the k u medical centers heart transplant program they found that the kansas city kansas facility did turn away old dona hearts offered it for many of last year to march of this year i won most organs were refused a valid medical reasons or twenty two separate occasions hearts were turned down because of the lack of trained nurses or the other availability of a surgeon the report found no occasion did any staff member ever tell patients awaiting a transplant but the reason they were not getting one was because the

facility did not have the staff to perform such an operation the report did not apportion blame to any individuals the panel concluded simply that there had been a complete breakdown of communication between medical staff administrators at the hospital with attorney tom hammond who led the investigation team says he's not convinced that the heart transplant program which has been closed since april should now be reopened he says with two other hospitals providing heart transplants locally it may not be prudent financially to continue to offer the procedure at the state house this is mccain's reporting fb a panel of medical professionals and public officials appointed by university of kansas chancellor robert hemingway has spent the last three months delving into every detail of the k u medical center heart transplant program despite the work that went into that report their findings don't break any major new ground what the report

does is basically validate earlier news accounts surrounding the problems at the kansas city kansas facility it's revealed the picayune medical center did indeed take away every don't know scott offered it for many of the last year to march of this year forty five counts in all while many the organs were turned down for valid medical reasons the report reveals that on four occasions the cops were turned down because of a shortage of trained nursing staff and on eighteen occasions because a surgeon was not available and he may have been involved in the program tom hammond the wichita attorney a member of the kansas board of regents led the paddles three month investigation he says all no occasion did any staff member at the hospital and i tell a patient was waiting for heart transplants that the reason that we're not getting what it was because they did not have the stuff to perform such an operation

the group are so vigilant responsibility with advocacy for the patients or their families patients on the heart transplant waiting with their own records might have maps were not informed were to go on a non medical reasons iman says it became clear from their investigation that there was a complete breakdown in communication between medical staff and management at the hospital he also said there appeared to be a complete lack of understanding of the seriousness of the problem it was common knowledge the fact that plants plants were not a crime and a heart for being turned out of the rain nineteen ninety four was not by nurses and the european commission you're welcome university of kansas chancellor robert henning wages and grim

faced as helen remembered his panel's findings before a meeting of the kansas board of regents the body that has ultimate control over operations at the medical center what hemingway was not at the helm when the allegations first surfaced became chancellor told the border regions he would take full responsibility for any changes that may need to be made you know you know hemingway said the publicity surrounding the k your heart transplant program had impacted public confidence in other aspects of the hospital's medical services he told the region support that making sure a patient well being with safeguard it would be his major priority and that is what we must keep the health professionals who were trained that we have no tolerance for anything less than the best patients their application care is not good enough we should be the best nation here this latest report demands more chance for having women is promising better patient care it's recommended that the k u medical

center streamline its administrative structure i am crying heart transplant staff and reevaluate some of its common personnel reported that in the finger pointing or apportion blame to any one individual in fact no one from the medical center is actually named in the report the uk eu medical center executive vice chancellor dog hagen says he's not considering filing any staff as a result of the panel's findings and smoother and higgins hoping that the key medical center can put this episode behind him and get on with reopening the heart transplant program which has been closed since april the chairman of the investigative panel compound though isn't convinced that should happen here that the border regions to take a fellow look at whether the medical center the need such a program and whether there are the funds available to continue staff in such a costly enterprise i'm fifteen years old and with

today with hospital specializing i think it's something that the administration and its bordered at the bank decisions it can be everything to everybody eu officials are far from done answering questions about the medical center's heart transplant program the kansas legislature has been conducting its own investigation also not they will deliver their report on tuesday at the state house this is mccain's recording the last few weeks a special panel of experts appointed by kansas governor bill graves has been traveling around the state teaching residents views on the issue of taxes the panel has been everywhere from garden city to fort scott while there are many different kinds of complaints about the state's tax structure the most passionate testimony has come from kansans frustrated by the state's property tax i guess i'll have to confess my mother's and i probably taxes maybe anybody around here have done everything

but what they should do with probably find a way to make them small enough to ignore then came a retiree from topeka out recently testified before the tax panel at one of their public hearings of the kansas statehouse or the ghost came to boast about property taxes in the way they were fast lane says it's unfair that the amount of property tax money pays on his home and set off on properties yields is based solely on what government officials knew of the property may be worth on the open market a decision which he says is open to a lot of individual interpretation what i'm afraid of the piece of property you would most politicians have a different racial your head toward work with because as lawmakers may well be taking notice of the feelings of kansas voters like dan kane was no serious talk of eliminating property taxes altogether

there's a major push being made to drastically reduced property taxes across the state senate majority leader joe reminder of cases advocated a measure that would cut six hundred million dollars with attacks each yet i completely eliminating the thirty five to a levee that is imposed on state property taxpayers to fund schools make up about massive loss of revenue already is proposing increasing state sales and income taxes every a property owner with fear reduction than a property tax bill of some place between thirty and thirty five percent lowering property taxes for all kansans while at the same time not costing the state it may sound like a solution leading political heaven but the proposal doesn't sit well with the head of the kansas house taxation committee phil kline i was concerned that the momentum plan that would use taxes in kansas and he says it really shifts the tax burden from one group to another simply playing a show by shifting health problem that

much crime says the mer m plant may also end up costing many kansans more in taxes every year some groups he says the savings associated with lowering property taxes to offset the increased costs paid in sales and income taxes klein says that would be clear winners and losers that when this would be the new work kansans world a lot of land and probably don't get high and don't have the opportunity to go to them all that often the losers would be mostly urban kansans who have less probably attend have higher salaries and spent a lot of money eating out and shopping mr gary klein is concerned that his home constituency in johnson county would be hit hard and hear them say is to propose his own solution to the property tax issue is proposing lowering property taxes by a six hundred million dollars just to do a different says he doesn't

intend to raise sales and income taxes to pay for it climate with his idea may sound strange but he's convinced after looking at state revenue estimates that if his plan was based in the west we all four years they would be enough natural growth in state revenues to make up for the six hundred million dollar loss he has more money and more the numbers add up graves says that while the state does bring in around one hundred and twenty five two hundred and fifty million dollars in extra tax revenue every year from natural economic growth much of that additional money has already been earmarked for specific programs such as expanding prison space finding increased schooling moment and beating the additional financial demands that are being placed on kansas as congress reforms federal

programs running because we're going to be using resources uses through your weed growing in more revenue despite the governor's rhetoric it's expected that kansas lawmakers will work hard to try and cut property taxes in fellowship of fall next year whether it's illegal or even to a compromise proposal governor graves has been known to back down on his position on tax issues before the start of the last session he said that would not be enough money to pay for a cup tax reduction several months later he was helping to pass the measure it's a great to be on their considerably more pressure to provide tax reductions next year it's three year old one hundred and sixty five state senators and representatives will be up for reelection at the state house is as mccain's reporting we'll reach last week namely that a shortage of heart surgeons

and skilled nursing staff or the k u medical center was responsible for twenty two don't know hearts being turned down for many of the last year to march of this year a study confirmed that patients awaiting hearts were not told of the staffing shortages two people died while awaiting hearts but the conclusion the investigation was that neither patient died as a result of the administrative problems at the hospital like the two previous investigations the legislative study revealed the medical center officials knew about the staffing difficulties but underestimated their seriousness and completely failed to take appropriate action to deal with the weather reporter differs though is in finding that became medical centers problems were not isolated to adjust its heart transplant program basically we heard in the heart transplant program that's legislative order to ellen sip who led the investigation to be completed study recommends major changes throughout the medical center including making sure all staff clearly understand that job responsibilities and who to report problems too

as when the heart transplant program should be reopened like ilias studies the legislative investigation questions whether there's the demand and the resources to do that last week the head of the kansas board of regents said it would be highly unlikely that the k u heart transplant program would ever reopen its doors to patients again at the state house this is mccain's reporting all your mind well i guess the bottom line of the book and also comment on the book with in the american political theater really is that we have one that you shoveled very effective a player in that effort let's look for a moment at one section of the book where you claim quote indoors or thirty five years in office he has failed to pass

one single piece of legislation that has painted people's lives and bears his name rather than promoting the public could use a doll has spent his most powerful years in the lead protecting corporate welfare and grilling the privilege is on big business was a strong statement that open and i know that all the talk about the the appearance of elected officials being influenced by special interest group money or what evidence do you have that bob dole was actually being bought by that money well the bulk of which you basically circumstantial evidence of voting for beijing to keep the money for example we are on trucking company them on i was in a strong campaign contributor and olympic bound for them mr gallo

thank you the gallup poll and don't worry at all about what some twelve thousand dollars campaign contribution and they more dollar to the treasury are going to repeal a federal role concerning campaign labeling and so i've been like israel were after nineteen eighty eight campaign where he did not leave much money from american jews were pro israel he was pretty surreal on the bill billions of coffee and then now this year yum you can do for the american jewish community and head football now pro israel they work for example make jerusalem into the country how far senator dole no different than anyone else on capitol hill use a new book that the whole system is for sale just like buying apples and oranges would you reached the same conclusion that you think if you were writing a book about that phil gramm about ted kennedy well i'm not that familiar with

them in the guild really have a question but i i think that everyone there is basically player and put them in true force of a politician franken will it come out of corporate pacs obama countered with the only one thousand dollars maximum contribution some others and i went well until of course for monthly contributions from particular interest but the league probably more let's move on if i can to another section of the book if they open where you say quote bob dole's only real concern seems to be raising money he has contempt for common voters and he believes in nothing you continued dos so motivation in political life is a desire to acquire power and prominence people need to take a hard look at the kind of man bob dylan we have good initials were making those remarks you know so they have been looking for we're awed by all the two agents had been it spent thirty two years as legal counsel

to senator dole back in nineteen seventy nine and that nineteen eighty but none of contact with the senator do you think to make the kinds of a sweeping statement you're making that vocal based on interviews with numerous reasons that i've known him for example lobbyist and also on the children aged twenty years people are foreclosure relief are more knowledgeable why did you write the book is billed and do you have any bad blood with his widow let me believe fi you with their legal counsel perhaps back in nineteen eighty well even non farm equipment bp's job partly political and i did not have any personal elegant parisian yourself we're talking about basically public policy issues but you are you can't get that close to mr dau it from the covenant you say this is an unauthorized biography good candidate all refused to cooperate with you in writing this book

i attempted to get an interview with him and turned out of course you know if let's say they deliver the chance to read the book and i don't know i'm not aware of the bill would you be pleased with it you'd think well i mean they're appointed to political for them on the way to work is what makes something that people can either like about like thing to have to put a lot of people i interviewed them to fight and that none of the fairly pejorative which carries very adept clear symptom should be gone i mean it's perfectly legal and medicaid and linking illegal growers so that's what we're looking at the no a corporate interests and the interest of the individual we'll put them on audio and others would think that i'm not all right and that they might use your i take it dave mr bill does become president then he will be inviting you to his inauguration probably not as they open thank you very much for joining us and you

republican house speaker tim shellenberger requested the audit back in july and it's only now that the legislature's postponing committee has decided to grant that request the audit will seek answer two main questions how does the legislature's functions and expenditures compare with those of other states and help of those functions in expenditures be streamlined the chairman of the legislature's post audit committee chairman oliver says the answer those questions will take outside help particularly as the agency responsible for conducting the legislature's investigations the division of post audit would be one of the area's being looked at as part of the performance review and representative allowed to say the word please with legislative leaders about contracting with an outside consultancy firm to befall me one that no one expects that to be cheap but house speaker tim shellenberger hopes the probe will pay for itself as he points out weighs the state can more effectively tightened its financial belt at the state house this is mccain's

reporting fb currently more than one out of every ten tax dollars in kansas is spent on the six regions universities in lawrence manhattan wichita in korea expert and hays that works out at four hundred and eighty five dollars per year for every man woman and child in kansas the university's make it such a huge proportion of the state budget that they have become an easy target for legislators who next session of bent on trimming government spending and slashing unnecessary employees some lawmakers are even questioning whether cancer should be continuing to find six separate regions schools at all in kansas with the population that we have to happen in total residents that six universities is quite a lot and i'm sure there are lots of states with higher populations with fewer universities and they're doing quite well so i

would have any trouble eliminating university or maybe two that's representative darlene cornfield a wichita republican who's a member of the house appropriations committee a powerful body which helps set the budgets for every agency of government including universities cornfield is among a growing number of legislators questioning the region's budget and whether that repeated demands for more money are justified you'll see that most of the state legislators especially in the house feel like the state spends more on them an adequate amount of money on an education whether it's higher or a k through twelve cornfield know has statistics to back up a point according to a recent survey of states compiled by the horns based morgan quick no research company kansas now ranks second in the nation in the proportion of its tax dollars spent on higher education it's a startling figure and one which is sure to be constantly quoted by

legislators next session to justify cuts in university budgets but border regions director steven jordan urges caution in interpreting those figures jordan says the reason why so much of the state's budget goes towards higher education is because kansas sends proportionately more of its students to college than almost anywhere else in the country kansas has historically have exceedingly high participation rates in post secondary education was in the country about seventy percent of the high school graduates in kansas she has to go on to some form of postsecondary education so if you could suggest that if you're going to support the patient you have to support it with a higher overall level of commitment of state resources although really what you have to then do is is look at how does that translate in dollars or they'll proceed on that school kansas doesn't fare so well in fact that ranks twenty fifth in the nation overall jordan says kansas could raise the amount of money it spends on each individual student without getting more state aid if it simply restricted access to its universities

to fewer students that's something he says kansas lawmakers have traditionally resisted doing better really been sort of are populist in kansas about every student is airing an opportunity to succeed or fail and as a result of that we have this long standing belief that any student who has a high school degree from kansas reserves the option to go to the regents university it's like kansas is the only state in the nation right now that does not have any entrance requirements for its universities beyond the high school diploma that may soon change though governor graves is supportive of the idea of restricting access to universities through higher admission standards it's believed the move would free up funds that the region's universities which currently have to provide courses such as a remedial math and english for unprepared freshmen students graves spokesman mike matson says the region's schools will need every dollar they can get the governor exempted the region's from his latest round of spending cuts that he has proposed but for fiscal year ninety seven all bets are

off with limited state of the region schools will be left with two main choices raise tuition costs further or current existing programs studies show that kansas can simply defended jacking up its students these regions universities are still among the cheapest of the nation to attend but the kansas board of regents steven jordan says the issue of increasing tuition fees comes down once again to whether the state has a commitment to providing access to higher education to its citizens regardless of their ability to pay theoretically you can assure high access to post secondary education while having moderate to higher tuitions by having employers financial aid program that assures that any student would need is admitted the problem that we've had kansas those we have not had a state funded financial aid program of any significance and currently we can only give a nine hundred dollar award tuesday's whose family income is fourteen thousand five hundred dollars republicans were desperately in need of assistance so that we want to

pursue a higher tuitions strategy and still maintain access we're going to have to significantly increase our commitment is doing financially ends representative phil kline who heads the house taxation committee says he doesn't see the legislature expanding student aid but it really at a time when congress is taking steps to remove itself from the student a business altogether klein the republican from shawnee is convinced the only way the region's universities will find the money to survive is to get what he calls the fact in their own operations what they have failed to do is really take a detailed look at the motion of the various institutions we have a lot of complication of programs and services within the region's institutions which i don't believe are necessary and that they've political courage they're going to have to sit down and decide which institution for example she'll be academic flagship campus which institution shall have this particular program that will attract students and they've been unwilling to do that so we say that for example in future we won't provide say a teaching programs and k u k state in

their fort hays university i may get a billy goat in emporia state where they have a great reputation for teaching all about me getting into wichita state to go into engineering to make might be possible but i would go toward leadership regents director steven jordan says it would be unfair to conclude that the regions schools are resisting every effort to make apps action being taken at the university of kansas is just one example of that he says and a new chancellor robert hemenway you is trying to trim three million dollars from their budget to streamlining administration jordan says more widespread efficiency efforts are also being looked at he says the border regions is seamlessly studied whether they should be a consolidation of the six universities in an effort to save on costs does that mean the total closure of institutions i don't know if that really means that as much as we need to have the number of administrative units that we have some institutions might be affiliated with other institutions in a relationship in which they could share resources your faculty

and sheer coursework over distance robert sweeney who was a senior policy analyst at the american association of state colleges and universities says kansas is not unique in having to make some of these tough decisions about the future of its educational institutions from oregon to pennsylvania he says state legislatures have been slashing away at higher education budgets this year the state of new york saw their university budgets slashed a whopping ninety percent and that they're taking major card and everything from very substantial question increase the last few years american plate no one is so fauci was he suggesting that the kansas regions institutions take hits like that but it's clear that universities here have every right to think the worst not only is the state now demanding more accountability but the federal government is also making changes that is certain to have enormous ramifications for the future funding including cuts in student aid and a major reduction in federal research money which currently brings in more than eighty million dollars in revenue to just play

you add k state university's alone how well the region's institutions react to this changing political climate remains to be seen experts seem to agree though that whether it's for better or worse the six state university's of kansas are about to be transformed on the state house is as mccain's reporting this guy was telling me about a disease in which things called louie bodies show up in your brain cells it said pretend you're grandmama tell me about louis bodies he says their little cytoplasmic conclusions that's it a great moment of fun or schools the mine employs pretending with scientists a lot i wanted to speak to me as if i were a rotary luncheon yet few scientists will do that or seemed to know how exclude early southern italian professor in chemical in petroleum engineering from this indictment she has a touch for teaching science to knuckle heads whatever research projects stems from

changes in the way the drugs are being made today most drugs are produced by mixing chemicals together scientists are in the first stages of using cells as living factories to make drugs the idea is to tabor with the machinery of those factors so the cells will exude chemicals as naturally as we humans produce sweat from which drugs can then be fashioned some of these cells are forced to live inside liquid filled contraptions called airlift power reactors oxygen has bubbled into the bottom to buy a reactor causing the fluid to move the motion forces the cells which are mounted on glass beads altitude when the bids reached the fluid surface the top of the bar reactor the bubbles break in the liquid it's denser the beach then tumble down through a second to round and round of the beat the cells these are so tiny that they pour like a liquid and the cells are small are still so that libya's they looked like arabs riding on the bowling ball southern says

it's a perfect metaphor to help a science ignoramus see now the bubbles can damage the cells they can rip the membrane which is the cellular equivalent of skin little bubble pops in the vicinity of the beat is like a large beach ball exploding right next to the hands and southern says this i can almost hear the cub louis in the wake of the models can rip the cell membrane southern end where a glasgow a kansas state university scientists are working together to protect the cells from assassination funded by the national science foundation they're learning how to keep chinese hamster ovaries cells alive in the minefield of bubbles the purpose of the research is to produce design specifications for airlift power reactor manufacturers so that wants to be able to tell them that if they use the cell that has a membrane of a particular the us and bubbles of a specific diameter in a contraption that has such and such dimensions that will seize cellular death counts of this or that magnitude and that's a

tall order she says has learned to discuss it simply it's an act of preferred courtesy to those of us who were easily wounded as we attacked the tall sloping phrases like cytoplasmic inclusion what the scientists to propose popularizer is discussed a simplification be where the taxpayers were delivered