Fiscal notes. Judicial confirmations. School for the Deaf. Data centers. ICE funding. Tax Day.

By Sherman Smith | Editor-in-Chief

TOPEKA — When Rep. Kristey Williams appeared before the House budget committee in late January to pitch her idea for hiring “fiscal integrity” auditors, she told lawmakers not to pay attention to how much the ploy would cost.

State budget analysts had determined the salary and benefits for two high-level employees, with operating expenses, would amount to $475,000. But Williams, an Augusta Republican, dismissed the inconvenient fiscal note as she preached about the need to root out wasteful spending.

“I don’t think it needs to be as high as what was estimated, but as we know, fiscal notes are often not accurate,” Williams said, without providing evidence to show how the cost could be lower.

House and Senate Republicans throughout this year’s legislative session routinely brushed aside concerns about the projected costs of policies as a way of hushing objections from their political adversaries. Some of them, like Williams, misrepresented the findings of a three-year-old audit that found fiscal notes are often inaccurate — primarily because nobody asks for an updated estimate after bills are amended.

TOPEKA — Two of three Kansans nominated to the U.S. District Court were questioned Wednesday during a joint U.S. Senate confirmation hearing about their role in the August 2023 raid by law enforcement officers of the Marion County Record that prompted international condemnation for trampling constitutional rights to freedom of the press.

Nominee Tony Mattivi, director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, was asked about the KBI’s part in the raid on the newspaper office and publisher’s home that resulted in settlements of $3 million to address legal claims against Marion County. A second nominee, Great Bend attorney Jeff Kuhlman, was hired to represent the Marion County Sheriff’s Office and Marion County public officials in lawsuits filed by the newspaper and staff members. Kuhlman’s clients were covered by the multimillion-dollar settlement.

TOPEKA — Sign language educator Petra Horn-Marsh used hand gestures and facial expressions to deliver a message of unequivocal distress to the Kansas State Board of Education.

Horn-Marsh, with more than 30 years of experience in the field of deaf studies, asked the 10-member state board to restart the search for a new superintendent at the Kansas School for the Deaf in Olathe. The fatal flaw in the current superintendent process, she said through an interpreter providing a voice translation, was the lack of deaf people on the search committee.

By Jan Kessinger

Kansas is not a state that waits for opportunities to find us. Our communities built the foundations that move the rest of the country and have always played a central role in powering the American economy.

WASHINGTON — Republicans in Congress are once again looking toward the complex budget reconciliation process as a way to achieve some of their policy goals without Democratic votes.

WASHINGTON — The 2026 tax filing season closed Wednesday with the Trump administration and Republicans on Capitol Hill hailing success under last year’s massive tax cuts law, while Democrats said any benefits have been wiped out by skyrocketing gas prices, inflation and more.

Thanks for reading Read & Reflect. Did you know our weekend digest is also free? Sign up here. And if you enjoyed today’s edition, please forward to a friend. Increasing our readership helps us cover more news.