From the Alvin and Rosalie Sara Check studio PBS Kansas Presents Kansas Week.

A battle is brewing over Kansas power grid.

Why a plan for a massive new transmission line has landowners fighting back, and regulators warning of future blackouts.

Also, a new bill aims to cap property tax hikes.

But one Sedgwick County commissioner says the solution could actually violate the Constitution and raise taxes for thousands.

But first, empty desks at East High School as hundreds of students walk out in a defiant protest against ice.

We'll hear from teens who are taking a stand against immigration enforcement occurring across the country.

That's what we're talking about right now on Kansas Week.

Hello, and thank you for joining us, I'm Jared Cirillo.

Wichita High School students join a nationwide protest movement against immigration enforcement.

Students at East High School walked out of class Wednesday, drawing attention to this issue that they fear could impact a large number of families right here in Kansas.

Kate Devine was there.

Hundreds of these ties.

Students began walking out during seventh period Wednesday afternoon, lining the sidewalks.

Organizers say the walkout was meant to draw attention to fear some students say they live with every day.

You go to school every day and we really enjoy it, but people go here to get education and that's really important.

But also they're being like scared because what if they come to school one day and they get taken, their families get taken, they have nowhere to go back to.

We are in the middle of a huge protest going on here at East High School in Wichita, Kansas.

Over 100 kids are missing school right now just to protest those being detained across the country by Ice.

Students held signs, chanted and gathered outside the school as a protest continued.

By 15 year old freshman Lincoln Easterby organized a walkout.

He and his friends say turnout was higher than expected to drink more than we expected.

Yeah, we expected like 30 people.

Easter says he knows walking out means an unexcused absence, but believes the message matters more.

What we're fighting is so much more than just one absence.

One absence is not the end of the world, but what's happening right now can be the end of a nation.

The students are reacting to recent events that happened in Minneapolis, where investigators say an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed a protester.

Wichita Public Schools say the district doesn't sponsor the walkouts, and students who participate receive an unexcused absence and any associated consequences.

And as a community and as those kids, if they want to see us as in like as presidents one day, then it's really important for us to get our education.

And then if it's bothering us, they should really like, think about it.

But students at East High say they hope the walkout sparks conversation, even if it comes with consequences.

We're fighting something bigger than just an absence.

Any switch.

Shock.

Divine Kake news on your side.

And here to talk about this and some of the week's other big stories is Sedgwick County Commissioner Jim Howell and Democrat State Representative John Carmichael.

Thank you both for coming out on a very cold, blustery, snowy weekend.

It's going to be, I wish, more of our friends.

I hope your viewers understand there were more planned for today, but because of the weather, some folks didn't make up the weather.

Make sure you're stuck with us.

Chair.

Immigration.

Representative Carmichael, we're talking about, kids taking a stand here on something they find is important.

Could you tell me your thoughts first?

Actually, I think it's a good thing for, people in school to engage in a little civil disobedience when they feel strongly about a political issue.

That's part of the learning process.

They're also going to learn, just as I did when I was in high school and did walkouts and so on, that there are consequences that it's handled as an excuse to absence.

Unexcused?

Yes.

Unexcused.

That's the school board's policy.

Yes.

And that's the way it ought to be.

If you want to engage in civil disobedience, there is a sacrifice to be made.

And that's an important part of learning.

But the good thing is that young people are involved.

Whether you agree with them about Ice or not.

We want young people to be involved in the political process because Jim and I are getting old.

There's going to be a new generation.

Yeah, so that that's the way I look at that.

I kind of look at this as a, you know, if they were working at a job and they walked out of their job, do you think they would still have a job?

Why couldn't they protest after school?

Well, I don't disagree.

If I was organizing this, I would suggest to them, let's rally after school.

It is winter time.

It's cold outside, but conceptually.

Sure.

But we did this when I was in high school as well.

Political issues.

The death of Martin Luther King.

Actually, back when I was in fourth grade, we had a quote unquote walkout, although the school board eventually sanctioned it and said, yeah, you can't stay at home for the funeral of Martin Luther King.

So this is not anything new, but it's a good thing in our society.

Sedgwick County Commissioner Jim Howell, what are your thoughts?

Well, you know, immigration is one of those things that, as has been addressed by the Trump administration in a way maybe hasn't been addressed for in a very, very long time.

I think I think we've had chaos in this country.

We need to have a better system of how, how these people can become legal.

And again, I think many of the students that actually protested actually don't have an illegal immigration issue at all.

Most of them, I have no doubt, are actually U.S.

citizens, but I think they're sympathetic to the people who are struggling with this, administrative policy.

And, the situation in Minneapolis was, tragic that that happened the way it did.

And I know these Ice agents are doing their very best, but things go wrong once in a while and think that they somebody makes bad choices and it is popular and they're what they want to demonstrate.

I mean, any kids would say, let's get out of school.

And there's peer pressure.

There's enjoyment to be together and protest something together.

I don't know that everyone understands everything to the same level, but, I'm not.

I agree with John.

I think I think them demonstrating is really not the issue.

And it's fine that they did that.

That's okay.

Thanks.

Unexcused absence has no bearing on the graduation, but they register their opinion and I think has been noticed.

It's not just here.

It's really across the entire country.

And yeah, let's let's face it, the immigration protests that were happening at these schools are some of the highest schools in the city of Wichita that have the highest immigrant population, and it affects them the most.

That that's true.

And there may be there some people, some people in that school system that are genuinely scared and fearful of what's happening in this country.

But I think the majority of them don't actually have a legal status problem to deal with.

It just I think it's been, misunderstood that I think the vast majority of people in the Wichita area are don't have a says a citizenship challenge that they need to really worry about.

I think we might also observe, although not covered in cake story, that there were similar walkouts at East High.

Oh, that was East, excuse me, North High, which is my district, as well as heights, which is my alma mater.

So you know, and isn't this a and also a good opportunity to teach our high school students about the right way to do things, the right way to come into the country and do it legally?

Absolutely.

It's a learning experience, and I hope that it will be, in the end, beneficial for the students.

And that includes whatever consequences there may be for walking out of a day when you need to be in school or supposed to be in school.

And yes, your I agree with you.

If you walk out on your job over here at KP, they might not invite you back.

But it's a it's it's a different thing.

I think in the context.

I also see this is becoming a more of a Partizan issue because, you know, I think when you have huge someone who ran for this issue had huge support.

One of its biggest platform issues was about, you know, solving the immigration crisis of our country.

And I think he's doing it well.

He said he would do a lot of Republicans support what's going on.

I think there's some concerns about some of the Ice agent and some of the stories we're seeing there.

But overall, the fact that we're dealing with immigration in a way we're more and more serious about this as a country.

I don't think that that is surprising at all.

And again, unfortunately, it's become Partizan.

You know, we can have a big discussion about whether or not the techniques and the implementation is good or bad.

But I don't disagree with you, Jim, that that we're doing what needs to be done, at least here in Wichita.

And I hope that we don't see the types of events here in Wichita that we've seen in other communities.

Yeah, absolutely.

Our next story, a new proposal in the Kansas City, is aiming to put a lid on skyrocketing property taxes by capping annual valuation increases at 3%.

But Sedgwick County Commissioner Jim Howell, who's with us here today, says the bill would violate the state constitution and unfairly shift the burden.

He warns that under the plan, more than 83,000 properties could actually see a higher tax increase.

And under current law, the Senate Tax Committee is set to debate the proposal next Tuesday.

Jim, we'll start with you.

Since we are the topic of that story over the past week, I'm really grateful for this to come up and our discussion this evening.

So unfortunately, the news story didn't give the rest of the sentence that needed to be stated.

I'm using actual data from the Sedgwick County residential properties as used today, as a way to analyze what actually would happen under this bill.

So use actual Sedgwick County data from 2022, 23, 24, 25.

And I applied Senate Concurrent Resolution, or SCR 1616, to the law to see how that would actually change some numbers here.

And when I found out, was I had played out some different scenarios on property tax levy increases, what we actually did in 2025 versus, a couple of other numbers.

So what I'm finding out, though, almost without there's not really a scenario that plays out here that doesn't actually shift tax burden from some properties to another.

And it's so bad.

Yet if I want to just capture the same tax levy increase we actually captured in 2025, which was 4.29% tax increase in the tax levy, and based on consumer price index, about just under 3%.

And population growth and new construction, that's a kind of a reasonable number or 4.29%.

And in doing that and apply that to the actual data, we had 85,000 homes saw a tax increase they would not have had under current law.

So this is trying to solve a property spike, property valuation spike, but only deals with the assessed value side.

So not only are we actually seeing a tax increase for people who can least afford it, these are properties that don't increase in value very quickly.

But the other part of this is when you take the appraised value, divide by the assessed value effect of assessed value that's been capped.

The vast majority of these properties that hit that cap are actually going to be at a different assessment rate.

And the Constitution says with with clearness that we have to have a uniform, an equal, system of assessment.

And so this violates the Constitution.

And every single property has an effect, a different assessment rate.

So those are two big problems with this bill.

What they're trying to address is the spikes.

And I can tell you I just I offered three very easy solutions on how to address the spikes.

One is a taxpayer advocate help the taxpayer make those appeals.

The second one would be a hearing officer panel that would have binding authority to make a correction in a spike property.

That was unfair.

They would actually have not just an informal appeal, but a formal process in Sedgwick County to actually make that correction in Sedgwick County before you go to boda, and then and then and then, I forgot the third one also.

Hahahahaha.

But anyway, my point is there are some there are some great ideas.

I know it was a statistical outlier.

If you find a property that statistically is too high compared to the norms, you would have a second set of eyeballs and there was a trigger to actually force a second set of, persons.

Take a look at that.

So there are better ideas out there.

I've actually offered 16 different ideas, and SDR 1616 actually has these two really bad problems with this bill and something that you and I were talking about just before we went on the air here is homes that are undervalued, right?

There are a lot.

Has there ever been an actual real let's get down to the meat and potatoes and actual real reevaluation of properties in all of Sedgwick County.

What would that take?

Because there are yes, a lot of people complain about their values being too high.

And that's a great argument for those people that have that problem.

But there are a lot of properties that are undervalued, not included.

Let me let me just make a really clear point here.

What I'm advocating for is accuracy.

And the reason I say that is because when the appraisal system is done uniformly and equally and it's accurate on all different kinds of property within a classification, then the tax levy is divided amongst those properties in a fair and equitable manner.

And so the appraisal system is the is how we we use that to know how to divide the tax levy, the burden of tax.

And when someone's undervalued, they're underpaying their tax.

And someone's overvalued their victim and they're overpaying their taxes.

So we we want to get those to be as accurate as possible.

What this bill does is arbitrarily sets a cap which actually creates inequity because it's intentionally not accurate.

And that is that non accurate number essentially lowers the tax burden for that property.

But it shifts it over to somebody else.

So is that the right solution.

I'm an advocate for a better system.

Accuracy should be the goal.

And the bigger problem, the reason people's taxes go up is because government spends too much money.

I think we need to look at a spending cap.

There are better ideas out there.

But again, I think this is, well intentioned is just misguided.

It actually doesn't do what they think it does.

Yeah.

John Carmichael, it's hard to get in the weeds in these types of subjects.

Nobody knows tax valuations and numbers like Jim Hall.

And, it can be very confusing to a lot of people, absolutely no doubt about it.

But, you know, if you're here to look for me and Jim to, to snarl over this issue, it's not going to happen because we're basically on the same side here.

The specific proposal that Jim is discussing in the legislature is a bad idea for a whole bunch of reasons.

It doesn't accomplish the goal.

It impinges upon the constitutional requirement.

Regarding equal assessment, etc., it it artificially distorts, valuations.

At some point in time, it all catches up with us.

One way or another, we end up with some houses valued at less than they're supposed to be valued.

So this isn't the way to go about it.

Now, last session, and the session before a couple of things were accomplished.

First, the state of Kansas does not depend upon property tax revenue anymore to fund state government.

The levy that we impose is for school districts, the statewide 20 mill school levy.

But from the standpoint of state government, we're not living off of property tax anymore.

The property tax goes to schools and to local governmental units of one kind or another.

One of the things that we proposed last year, at least to members of my party, was to raise the residential exemption so that we wanted to make it so that if you lived in $150,000 or less house, that you didn't have a property tax obligation, because we excluded that.

If you lived more than $150,000, you pay taxes on the difference what was above.

My Republican colleagues didn't think that was the right thing to for they cut it back to $75,000.

So of course, the Democrats this year to tit for tat say, well, let's raise it to $500,000.

By the way, that's not my idea.

It's not going to happen.

Talking about this session on the 20 mils.

Right, right.

The exemption is not in the county.

Absolutely.

I appreciate you pointing that out.

It's not an exemption.

And by the way, that's one of the problems with the sales tax proposal we have here in Wichita is that they can't exclude, for example, food.

And and we're giving people a false promise when we get I brought my props with me today.

But when you get something in the mail like this, look at it real carefully because it's a false promise.

The actual impact as Diane Leffler explained a week or two ago, is that out of state, landlords reap the benefit and tenants pay the sales tax.

If you just do a quick calculation, if you spend $100 a week and you multiply it by 52 weeks, and then you put in a 1% sales tax and then you calculate the property tax decrease that these folks tell you they're going to do.

No matter what.

You're still you pay more, you end up upside down.

Not to mention it justifies a great deal more spending.

And it's spending on projects that the developer class has in mind, with no guarantee that the money is actually going to go to the things that the people want.

So, I had to go off in sales tax because it's related.

One last thing here.

You had mentioned that the state doesn't pay its bills with property tax only property tax mostly goes to schools.

So how from the state levy.

Yes.

How from the state levy.

How how does the state pay its bills for its departments and its employees.

Number one income tax.

The state income tax.

Now it's been substantially lowered, but we're still paying the bills.

What we have to be a little concerned about is that my Republican colleagues put in a ratchet provision that says, as tax revenues go up from the income tax, tax rate goes down accordingly.

We also fund state government through sales tax and then there's a number of other types of excise tax.

We have always in Kansas thought that there was some stability for what's called a three legged stool of taxation, income tax, property tax, sales tax, that we balance those things out.

So in good times and bad, the hope is that we have at least a steady revenue source to do the basic functions of government.

In good years, the county commissioners can build a new coliseum.

Nobody complains here.

Jim, one last thing you know, you know the state of Kansas still has income tax reform on its list of priorities this year.

That's how the third party does.

They'll tell the voters property taxes is the number one priority in the city Kansas.

But in reality the revenue is being applied towards income tax reform.

That 20 mills is not statute is not constitutionally required.

That's statutorily required.

That's how you guys choose to fund schools, which is required.

Right.

And you can use any source of revenue you want to.

The 20 mills is not right in you know we can lower that if you.

Oh absolutely.

And that's what needs to happen or at least hold yourself to okay.

So you all yourself to speak to CPA.

Get give me a spirit of inflation Jim.

Give me a second here because there are some proposals there to lower the 20 mill levy and backfill it with essentially income tax revenues.

Right.

But if you want to cut income taxes, you can't use the money to backfill for a property tax.

That's the problem.

And that's why they picked this item.

Give me a second.

You can't just print money at the state of Kansas for when you take over here.

You got to replace from over there or you got to cut spending over here.

And I think, Jim, I know you've worked hard to cut spending, but the fact is that there are essential governmental services that have to be provided.

And if we don't pay for it with a property tax, you could move it to a sales tax.

But as you've pointed out, that has its drawbacks.

People don't like the income tax.

Listen, I wish we could get through life without any taxes at all, but that's not the way it works.

Yep, a controversial plan to build a massive transmission line across for Kansas counties is also heating up, as landowners question who it really benefits.

Opponents argue that the 133 mile line will carve a scar across the state and disrupt farms merely to ship Kansas electricity to the east coast.

But state regulators told lawmakers this week that the line is critical to prevent blackouts here at home.

They cite a staggering 99% jump in electricity demand by 2035.

Officials say recent winter storms exposed the grid's fragility.

They warn that without new infrastructure to handle the surging load, Kansans could face rolling blackouts more than 100 days a year within the next decade.

And that's been the argument with this, this transmission line story.

There was another transmission line.

I was, I believe that was started in Barber.

I may be wrong medicine lodge area and none of the electricity from that transmission line is used in Kansas.

It shipped off to Missouri.

I've been on the Energy Committee now for 13 years and year after year after year, Evergy and in particular the Southwest Power Pool comes in and says, we're going to have dramatic load growth.

We've got to build more of this.

We got to build more of that, and we end up putting all of that into the right base.

What's going on right now is, is a almost a fear that data centers, for example, are going to have extremely high power demand.

And accordingly, we've got to build generation.

Now we've got to build transmission lines now to meet that need in the future.

What happens if the AI bubble bursts and we're left with transmission lines generating and no substantial load growth?

Now I brought another prop chair I've been on here quite where I've never used props before, but here's another one that came in the mail.

And this is from our friends at RFP.

An RFP and I are always on the same page, Americans for prosperity, right there.

Right on this one.

They are right on this one.

Those transmission lines, in part, are a function of requirements to the southwest power pool.

Southwest power pool started out to be Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas.

And I can't remember one other state in World War two.

Now they have expanded to the point there clear up in Canada.

They're going across the Rockies into the western part of the United States.

They want to build power lines to transfer power from here to there everywhere.

And they want to assess Kansans for the cost of building those power lines in other states or other countries.

We say we we were after them this last week when they showed up and I asked him, I said, why don't we just cut the wires?

We we have make more electricity in Kansas than we consume.

We are a net exporter.

We don't even tax our exporting power, by the way.

But I try to point out to them, we can just cut the wires.

They said, tell us, yeah, but if you do, you owe us $1.8 billion for everything that we've built over the past 60 years all over the country, because we built some of in Kansas, this bill may not get a hearing next week like was expected and hoped for, but they're trying to do something about these increasing southwest power pool requirements that end up with lines.

How are higher rates for Kansans?

No bid contracts for incumbent electric utilities who are members of the Southwest Power Pool.

It's a racket, and I think we have a commitment on the Energy Committee to do our best to stop it.

It's not going to be easy, Jim?

How?

We haven't even talked about the property rights here.

Well, go.

Yeah, sure.

Yeah, I would just say this.

I don't want Kansas to be unfairly hit with the the cost of this.

I don't think that's fair.

But the transmission lines, I think our country right now is using more and more and more electricity.

There's a pressure to move away from, you know, things that are fueled by other, other sources, like, you know, I'll just say this.

However it's generated wind.

They gotta get the water.

They gotta get the power to where it needs to go.

Right.

And then infrastructure is is critical.

I think we're I think we're or we're going to see in the future a greater demand as cars move back to electrical vehicles, for example.

I thought Trump had stopped that, Jim.

Well, I hope it was done, but but but you know, so I think the data centers is another great example.

Nobody wants any of this in their backyard, but they don't want what a what a provides.

They want the AI tools.

It's not going to go away.

You talk about AI bubble.

It's not going to happen.

Yeah.

Our last story today, it's being pitched as a way to get more people to vote.

But critics say it could create chaos at the polls.

Republican representative Pat Proctor wants to move all local elections for school boards and city councils to even numbered years, putting them on the same ballot as races for governor and president.

But an aide to the secretary of state warns lawmakers this week that the move would exponentially increase the number of ballot styles and create much longer ballots.

Officials worry that could lead to longer lines and voter fatigue, where overwhelmed voters simply pick candidates based on party lines rather than information.

Jim, how you and I have struggled with this local election, city Council, school board.

They've draw so few people, though, that it's an argument, actually, to put this in the even years, because you don't have a I think if you compare how many people are voting for a mayor or city council member in the odd years, versus what you'll see even with the drop off in an even year is drastically more and even year.

You know, everybody was everybody.

I was in the legislature when they moved elections from the spring to the fall.

And you just heard the people say how bad this was going to be.

I think the campaigns have been much more, much more vibrant.

And, Jim, I was one who complained.

And you were right on that issue.

Right?

This has worked out fine.

This.

Well, go ahead and say I, I really just think that the people who are upset about this idea, I don't know what they're really upset about, the length of the ballot is that people there's a lot of people will vote Claire to the end.

Yeah, absolutely.

I don't know.

You know, if they care, I think I think you get more try out with an even years.

So if that's where your goals have more turnout, a better selection process, even yours is going to be the better way to go.

I know it's a longer ballot, but it's really not a problem with 30s left.

First thing is, you need to listen to Scott Schwab, a good rock ribbed Republican or Secretary of state who says our elections are fair.

He says that this is a bad idea.

Clay Barker, who was there and testified, we all know Clay.

He's one of the smartest, best election lawyers in the state.

He explains in detail why this is a bad idea.

Down ballot drop off is important.

That means that if you have a long ballot, you have long lines.

People don't vote for the races at the bottom.

But what goes with all of this is that they want it also put on there, whether you're a Republican, a Democrat in a nonpartisan race, the end result of that is to reaffirm Republican majorities throughout the state.

So there you got it, John.

That's a wrap this week.

We'll see you next week.

Thank you.