State employees speak out. Property taxes. Credit rating. Evergy lawsuit.

By Sherman Smith | editor-in-chief

TOPEKA — Lydia Shontz-Hochstedler was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021 at age 32. She accumulated thousands of dollars of medical debt that will take years to pay off.

As a state employee, news that Kansas officials are considering dropping Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas as a health plan administrator raised “serious concerns,” she said in a letter to Kansas Reflector.

Continuing costly care and ongoing prescription medications might be negatively affected if she is forced to change insurance carriers, Shontz-Hochstedler said.

“While I have been enrolled with various insurance providers, I have never paid less for my medical care than when I have been enrolled in a BCBSKS plan,” she said.

When news broke that the state could save nearly $240 million by choosing Aetna as the single health plan administrator and members of the Kansas State Employees Health Care Commission were considering the issue, state employees quickly expressed concerns.

TOPEKA — Kansas governor candidate Philip Sarnecki wants fellow Republicans to call a special session of the Legislature to address the state’s property tax crisis.

Sarnecki, a businessman seeking the GOP nomination in August, said the Legislature’s failure to find consensus during the just-completed 2026 regular session required extraordinary action. During the regular session, the House and Senate held to distinct ideas for moderating growth in property taxation. In April, Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the Legislature’s last-ditch bill that would have aggressively restricted spending increases by cities and counties and theoretically reduced pressure on property taxes.

“It’s time to get property tax reform done in special session,” Sarnecki said. “Seniors are getting taxed out of their homes, working families are having trouble making ends meet and young people can’t afford a house.”

Since the Legislature adjourned in April, several Republican senators raised the idea of a special session devoted to elimination of the 20-mill property tax collected by the state to fund K-12 public education. Property tax revenue for education would be replaced — in the middle of an election year — by adoption of a 0.75-cent increase in the statewide sales tax. Kansas’ current retail sales tax stands at 6.5%.

TOPEKA — The state of Kansas’ credit rating upgrade from stable to positive by a leading financial research firm set off a scramble among politicians claiming responsibility for the improved outlook.

Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, said the adjustment by Moody’s Investors Service was associated with her administration’s work to build a $2 billion emergency fund, spend surplus funding on one-time projects, pay the government’s bills on time and broadly restore faith in the state’s ability to manage its finances.

TOPEKA — Evergy and one of its contractors agreed to pay $2.6 million to employees to settle a class-action lawsuit filed over how company retirement funds were managed.

By Annie Persons

If you follow the Trump administration’s social media posts, you might spot its new mascot: a cartoon lump of coal with big eyes and babylike features. “Coalie” sparked a backlash almost as soon as Interior Secretary Doug Burgum debuted it for the Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation Enforcement in early 2026.

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