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TUESDAY • FEBRUARY 10 • 2015
House bill introduced to expand Medicaid in Kansas By Peter Hancock Twitter: @LJWpqhancock
Topeka — An estimated 169,000 Kansans would gain health care coverage through Medicaid under a bill introduced in the Kansas House on Monday, although it faces a steep climb in a Legislature
dominated by conservative Republicans. Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence, chairs the Vision 2020 Committee, which introduced the bill. “It is a Kansas plan and not just an acceptance of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare,” Sloan said.
$1.5B in bonds eyed for KPERS fund gap
The bill would take advantage of a provision in the federal health care law that allows states to expand their Medicaid programs to cover all individuals in households with incomes up to 183 percent of the poverty level, or $36,753 a year for a family of three.
The law provides that the federal government would pay all of the cost of the expansion through 2015. After that, federal support tapers down to 90 percent of the cost by 2020. The bill introduced Monday came after weeks of hearings in Sloan’s commit-
Associated Press
Junction City — More than 2,000 Kansas residents attended a town hall meeting Monday showing support for Fort Riley as military officials consider personnel cuts at the base. The Army is planning to downsize personnel from a war-time high of 570,000 to 450,000 at the end of 2017 and 420,000 by 2020. Fort Riley employs more than 25,000 military and civilian workers, and fort officials have said that as many as 16,000 could be dismissed or redeployed. Please see FORT, page 5A
2 of 3 victims in shooting ID’d as KU students; suspects at large By Caitlin Doornbos Twitter: @CaitlinDoornbos
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo
JAY BEASON, OF KANSAS CITY, MO., a worker with McCown Gordon Construction, mixes cement Monday at Cordley Elementary School as the mural “A Thousand Miles Away” by Lawrence artist Dave Loewenstein towers over him. Beason and other workers were adding brick to the exterior of the addition next to the mural that is being constructed as part of the $92.5 million school bond issue that was passed in 2013. The mural portrays an Underground Railroad scene with abolitionists the Rev. Richard Cordley, bottom left, along with his wife, Mary, and a slave named Lizzie, whom the couple had taken into their home.
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The Jayhawks look to grow their lead atop the Big 12 standings as they take on the Red Raiders at 8 p.m. tonight in Lubbock. Page 1C
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One victim from Sunday evening’s shooting was released from the hospital Monday, while the other two victims, both Kansas University students, remain hospitalized, Lawrence police spokesman Sgt. Trent McKinley said. The three men were injured around 4:30 p.m. Sunday after an altercation in a home at 1621 W. 19th Terrace culminated in gunfire, McKinley said. On Monday evening,
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Sloan
By Nicholas Clayton
Twitter: @LJWpqhancock
Please see BONDS, page 5A
Please see MEDICAID, page 2A
Politicians, residents argue against reductions at Fort Riley
Mixing up history
By Peter Hancock
Topeka — Kansas lawmakers are considering an unusual plan to shore up the state’s troubled pension system that amounts to borrowing $1 billion to $1.5 billion in the bond market in order to pay down a roughly $9 billion long-term funding gap. The plan involves issuing what are called “pension obligation bonds” and Gov. Sam investing the Brownback is proceeds of proposing the those bonds state issue $1.5 into the billion in pension Kansas Pubobligation bonds. lic Employees Trust Fund where they would yield earnings along with the trust fund’s other investments. On the other end of the deal, however, state taxpayers would be responsible for paying off the pension bonds while, at the same time, continuing to contribute into the pension system. “It’s already been done once, so it can work,” said KPERS Executive Director Alan Conroy. In 2004, the state issued $500 million in pension bonds, and it is still paying about $33 million a
tee that included testimony from hospital administrators and other health care providers who said expanding Medicaid would bring additional revenue into the state and expand the state’s economy.
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Please see SHOOTING, page 5A
Vol.157/No.41 20 pages