TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on the Kansas Legislature’s debate over its budget problems and raising taxes to fix them (all times local):

3:45 p.m.

The Kansas Senate has rejected a proposal to raise additional revenue with a “flat” personal income tax that had Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s endorsement.

The vote Thursday was 37-3 against the bill. The only yes votes came from Republicans, President Susan Wagle of Wichita, Majority Leader Jim Denning of Overland Park and Sen. Gene Suellentrop of Wichita.

The proposed budget fix would have imposed a 4.6 percent rate for all filers starting next year. That is the top rate for higher-income earners, and the bill would eliminate the 2.7 percent rate now in place for lower-income filers.

It would have ended an exemption championed by Brownback for 330,000-plus farmers and business owners.

The measure would have raised about $652 million over two years.

HARVEY COUNTY – Prosecutors filed charges in Sedgwick County Wednesday against 31-year-old Myrta Rangel in connection with an October triple-murder in Harvey County.

Harvey County District Attorney David Yoder dismissed charges against Rangel and canceled a scheduled Thursday hearing, according to a media release.

“The joint decision of this office, and the Office of the Sedgwick County District Attorney, is that Sedgwick County is the best venue for pursuit of charges against Myrta Rangel,” according to Yoder.

Harvey County prosecutors had charged Rangel and 35-year-old Jereme Nelson each with one count of capital murder and three counts of first-degree murder.

In January, Nelson and Rangel were arrested in Mexico and returned to the U.S., before extradition to Kansas.

On October 30, Authorities found the bodies of 33-year-old Travis Street and 37-year-old Angela May Graevs, both of Moundridge, and 52-year-old Richard Prouty of Newton, outside a rural home near Moundridge. An 18-month-old child was found unharmed.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — School districts all over Kansas are experiencing delays in state assessment testing this week, forcing some to shut down the tests altogether.

Kansas State Department of Education spokeswoman Denise Kahler tells the Topeka Capital-Journal that state education officials have been in contact with the Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation to determine the delays’ cause. The center is a University of Kansas entity the education department contracts with to host the tests.

Kahler says she’s been told the issues are with the center’s information technology arm, the Kansas Interactive Testing Engine. The Testing Engine says the problem is with the servers, not the tests themselves.

The newspaper was unable to reach Testing Engine officials.

Annual state reading and math tests for third- through eighth-graders and 10th-graders is March 14 through April 28.

JEWELL COUNTY – A third earthquake this week hit north-central Kansas on Thursday.

The quake just after noon measured 3.0 and was centered approximately six miles southeast of Mankato, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The agency reported a 2.7 quake 9 miles southeast of Mankato just after 5:30 Wednesday morning.

Just after 1p.m. Tuesday a 3.4 quake was centered nine miles southeast of Mankato.

On Sunday, the USGS reported a 2.8 earthquake was centered approximately 2 miles southeast of Medicine Lodge at 6:15p.m.

The agency recorded 7 earthquakes in March including a 2.9 quake March 30, near Belle Plaine.

The USGS also recorded 6 earthquakes in February. They measured from 2.5. to 3.3.

There are no reports of damage or injury from Thursday’s quake, according to the Jewell County Sheriff’s Department.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Comedian Don Rickles has died at age 90.

Paul Shefrin, his longtime publicist and friend, said Rickles died Thursday of kidney failure at his Los Angeles home.

For more than half a century, “Mr. Warmth” headlined casinos and nightclubs from Las Vegas to Atlantic City. N.J., and appeared often on late-night TV talk shows.

SALINA – Four people were injured in an accident just after 2p.m. on Wednesday in Saline County.

A 2011 Ford Fusion driven by Laura Cates, 49, Salina, was westbound on Kansas 4 at Old Highway 81, according to Saline County Sheriff Roger Soldan.

The driver failed to yield at the intersection and pulled out in front of a 1999 Chevy pickup driven by 81-year-old Udena McKee.
Cates, McKee, a 7-year old and a 3-year-old in the Ford were transported to Salina Regional Medical Center.

Cates suffered a broken rib and facial injuries. The 7-year-old also suffered a possible rib injury, according to Soldan.

All were properly restrained at the time of the accident.

The pickup took out a sign at the intersection and just missed traveling into a neighbor’s yard, according to Soldan.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on the Kansas Legislature’s debate over its budget problems and raising taxes to fix them (all times local):

11:15 a.m.

The Kansas Senate has given first-round approval to a bill that would continue a statewide property tax for public schools for another two years.

Senators advanced the measure Thursday on a voice vote. The bill would raise $635 million for schools during the 2017-18 school year and another $663 million for 2018-19.

The Senate planned to take a final vote Friday to determine whether the bill goes to the House.

Kansas has imposed a statewide property tax to raise money for schools since 1992. The Kansas Supreme Court has said the state constitution prohibits lawmakers from imposing it for more than two years at a time.

The tax is $20 for every $1,000 of a property’s assessed value. The first $20,000 of a home’s value is exempt.

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10:30 a.m.

Republicans legislators in Kansas are divided over a proposal to raise additional revenue with a “flat” personal income tax despite GOP Gov. Sam Brownback’s endorsement.

The Republican-controlled Senate was debating an income tax bill Thursday, a day after Brownback said publicly that he would sign it or something similar.

GOP leaders conceded the bill might not pass.

The proposed budget fix would impose a 4.6 percent rate for all filers starting next year. That is the top rate for higher-income earners, and the bill would eliminate the 2.7 percent rate now in place for lower-income filers.

It would end an exemption championed by Brownback for 330,000-plus farmers and business owners.

The measure would raise about $652 million over two years. Kansas faces budget shortfalls totaling more than $1 billion.

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators are preparing to debate a proposal to raise additional revenue with a “flat” personal income tax that has the backing of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.

The state Senate was taking up an income tax bill Thursday, a day after Brownback said publicly that he would sign it or something similar.

The proposed budget fix would impose a 4.6 percent rate for all filers starting next year. That is the top rate for higher-income earners, and the bill would eliminate the 2.7 percent rate now in place for lower-income filers.

It would end an exemption championed by Brownback for 330,000-plus farmers and business owners.

The bill would raise about $652 million over two years. Kansas faces budget shortfalls totaling more than $1 billion through June 2019.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators are preparing to debate a proposal to raise additional revenue with a “flat” personal income tax that has the backing of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.

The state Senate was taking up an income tax bill Thursday, a day after Brownback said publicly that he would sign it or something similar.

The proposed budget fix would impose a 4.6 percent rate for all filers starting next year. That is the top rate for higher-income earners, and the bill would eliminate the 2.7 percent rate now in place for lower-income filers.

It would end an exemption championed by Brownback for 330,000-plus farmers and business owners.

The bill would raise about $652 million over two years. Kansas faces budget shortfalls totaling more than $1 billion through June 2019.

———–

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has endorsed a proposal to use a “flat” personal income tax to raise new revenue to fix the state’s serious budget problems.

The conservative Republican governor said in a statement Wednesday that he would sign a bill like one before the state Senate.

It would impose a 4.6 percent rate for all filers starting next year. That is the top rate for higher-income earners, and the bill would eliminate the 2.7 percent rate now in place for lower-income filers.

The bill would also eliminate an income tax exemption for 330,000-plus farmers and business owners that Brownback has championed.

Critics contend the bill would hit middle-class families hardest. It would raise about $690 million over two years. Kansas faces budget shortfalls totaling more than $1 billion.

By SAM ZEFF

The crowd filling the old Supreme Court room at the Kansas Statehouse expected a bit of a showdown Wednesday when the House K-12 Budget Committee discussed how much money to put into public education.

In the end, that debate lasted about 10 minutes and the committee stood pat on adding $150 million a year for five years for a total package of $750 million.

The plan aims to satisfy the Kansas Supreme Court, which ruled in early March that the current system is constitutionally inadequate and said without a fix it will shut down public schools June 30.

Rep. Melissa Rooker, a moderate Republican from Fairway, isn’t sure $750 million is enough for the court. She tried to add $22 million more in the first year of the plan, but that proposal failed Wednesday on an 8-8 vote.

“All in all, I’m happy that we put a five-year escalation of funding in place,” Rooker said. “We’ll leave it to the wisdom of the court to decide if that’s too much time to be appropriate or not.”

Rep. Larry Campbell of Olathe, chairman of the committee, acknowledged that uncertainty.

“No one in this building knows the right number,” he said. “Only those judges across the street know.”

The committee didn’t actually approve the bill. Campbell said he wants to wait until the Legislature hires a constitutional lawyer to review the bill and determine whether it will satisfy the justices.

Campbell said he’ll call for a vote when lawmakers return May 1 for their wrap-up session.

Rep. Scott Schwab, a conservative Republican from Olathe, didn’t even want to discuss putting money into the plan until a lawyer is on board. Schwab said the committee was “taking a shot in the dark” without having a lawyer comment on funding.

Campbell rejected that: “I think we need to have a position for an attorney to look at.”

The committee thought it had a lawyer when leaders offered the job to former Sen. Jeff King of Independence. However, King failed to gain enough support in the Legislative Coordinating Council, so leaders are now searching for an attorney.

While $750 million in new spending may be enough to satisfy the high court, having it doled out over five years could be a problem.

Rooker offered a bill early in the session that would have spent about the same amount of money but over four years. The Kansas State Department of Education has said the state needs to spend about $800 million over two years to meet the Supreme Court’s adequacy test.

“We would have hoped that they would have shortened the number of years. Five years is a long time,” said David Smith of the Kansas City Kansas School District, one of the districts suing the state. “Having a little more at the front end probably would have helped with constitutionality.”

The funding plan resembles the formula scrapped two years ago in favor of block grants.

Sam Zeff covers education for KCUR.org and the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @SamZeff. 

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A highway crash involving two semitrailers and a van near the Utah-Colorado border has killed two people, including champion cyclist Stephen Tilford.

Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Todd Royce says the first semitrailer drifted off Interstate 70 Wednesday and then overcorrected before rolling onto its side and blocking all eastbound lanes. A Mercedes-Benz van struck the semitrailer and 57-year-old Tilford of Topeka exited the van. He had been standing next to the vehicle when he was hit and killed by a second semitrailer.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports the driver of the second semitrailer, 70-year-old Stanley Williams of Grand Junction, Colorado, also died in the crash.

Tilford won a U.S. National Mountain Bike championship, four National Cyclocross titles and several other championships throughout his career.

BELTON, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say they have identified one set of human remains found in rural western Missouri as those of a 21-year-old woman who disappeared in September.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office says a medical examiner identified the remains as Jessica Runions, of Raymore, Missouri, who was last seen on Sept. 8 leaving a gathering in south Kansas City.

Her burned vehicle was found two days later. Runions left the gathering with 27-year-old Kylr Yust, who was later charged with burning Runions’ vehicle. A judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

The remains of a second person found in the same area have not been identified.

A mushroom hunter found the remains Monday in an area south of Belton and a second skull was found nearby Tuesday.