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

Coming up on Kansas week.

Plans for another Wichita school bond?

Vote any time soon.

Get a thumbs down from the district's own advisory group.

What is the potential impact on facilities and your pocketbook?

Also, more candidates announced for the 2026 governor's race.

Who is the frontrunner at this point and who else may jump in?

But first, Cheney Reservoir is almost back to normal after days of torrential rainfall.

Is it time to lift water restrictions on Wichita area residents?

Those are some of the big stories we'll discuss on this edition of Kansas Week.

Hello and welcome to Kansas Week I'm Jared Cirillo.

Heavy rainfall this month has led to staggering turnaround for Chaney Reservoir after dipping to record low levels, Wichita's primary water source is nearly back to normal.

Cake's Abby Ray examines what this means for outdoor watering restrictions, put in place nearly a year ago.

Seven feet of water has been added to Cheyney Lake in the past month, a massive difference from September of last year, when you can see more dirt than water.

People just weren't coming, so it was interesting.

I like, come out here and ride the bicycle around and you just did not see people out here.

It was kind of depressing to roam around the area.

Lee O'Dell birding bikes around Cheyney often, and he's seen the waters rise with people's hopes for the Parks and Wildlife Service.

I would hope it's a boost going into the summer months because this it happened at the best time here.

For the first time in three years, sailboats can launch here again, thanks to the massive influx of rain over the past month.

And now measurements show the Cheney Conservation Pool's more than 94% full.

But all the decisions when it comes to water restrictions, that's based off of a 12 month moving average of how full that is.

We have been in the 50s and 60s percentage wise for a very, very long time and just because we're at 90 some now are moving.

Average really hasn't changed that much.

That means the drought restrictions Wichita has been under since last summer will stay on the horizon unless the city chooses to stray from its original plan, which it has said as recently as this month it will not do.

And if Cheyney goes above 100% full, then you will probably see the Corps of Engineers starting to release water and that will go down the river.

And that's just part of the process here to discuss this and some of the week's other big stories.

I'm pleased to welcome Wichita City Councilwoman Maggie Ballard, former Wichita City Councilman Brian Fry, Sedgwick County Commissioner Jim Howell, and State Representative Angela martinez.

Thank you all for coming this afternoon.

Maggie, I'll start with you.

Since you're the current city council member, what does this mean?

The question was raised in the package.

Is this going to, result in water restrictions going away?

I would say the conversations that we've been having recently, while over the last year, but specifically over the last couple of weeks, as we've been seeing so much rainfall, is that moving average has only moved up 1.5%, or maybe almost 2%.

I think today they said it was 62%.

And while we have received the significant water that we needed, I think it's irresponsible to just switch gears so quickly.

So yeah, I'm just, continuing to gather information and, see what that looks like.

I've never experienced this before, at least when I was old enough to really focus and pay attention on these things.

So, yeah, I'm just going to kind of watch and see, see what happens.

Yeah.

Jim Howell, Sedgwick County Commissioner, should that should water restrictions ever go away?

We've dealt with this before.

I actually think that's the right question to ask because, you know, just because we had rain this week or this month is not removing the vulnerability of this community, cities of this size, communities of this size, and actually even beyond, because it's not just Wichita, it's a lot of other community communities as well, are very dependent on that source.

Populations of this size need to manage the water.

It has to be more than just, you know, a three year drought puts us into a crisis mode.

I think it needs to be a long term plan on how we're going to deal with, a higher water quantity available over time.

There's going to be a lot of other.

I know there's been discussions in the past.

They're all very expensive.

But at the end of the day, we think it's a crisis because we had a short drought and then we have an abundance.

Suddenly we list all of the concern.

We'll go back to where we were.

That doesn't really make sense.

Right.

And let's let's face it, Brian Fry, Cheyney Lake is a man made lake.

It's not designed by Nate.

Mother nature doesn't.

You know, it's it's supposed to be a creek.

So unfortunately, it does have a huge watershed that a lot of the flow comes into it from other parts north and northwest, which is great.

What absolutely shouldn't go away is the education and the conservation.

We need to continue to double down on that and continue to educate our, our residents that you got to take care of our precious resource because it's just not Wichita.

It is.

It's all the surrounding communities.

Cheyney reservoir was not built for the size of this community that it is today.

And while Wichita is fortunate that it has multiple water sources and we should continue to explore other opportunities, I think there's a a piece of land down by Winfield Dexter that could be a fantastic, additional water source, but that's very expensive and takes a lot of time.

In the meantime, continue to educate, continue to double down on conservation, being responsible, you know, going in the reuse discussions, this has all started up.

And that's a really great solution.

We need to explore that as well.

I'm sorry, Representative Martinez, you're the only state lawmaker on our panel today.

But from a state lawmaker standpoint, what what does all of this mean?

Well, I was just recently, this past session, assigned to the water committee.

So it's it's really new to me, too.

All I knew that was that we were on rotating a water rotating water schedule.

But being at the legislature and being on the water committee, I was able to hear about all the challenges that we have.

So, yeah, staying on a water, schedule is, is there's no doubt about it that we need to do that.

But I know with the passing of the sub, sub, Senate bill, HB 272 with the task force, they're going to, recommend and, you know, their findings are going to research and see what's what kind of what's going on.

And, how, we can best, you know, navigate around the water issues, issues and challenges that we have, make recommendations to the governor and so forth.

That's the drought task force that you're talking about, right?

Yes.

Okay.

Yes.

All right.

Well, that's a great point because other parts of the state have been dealing with drought much longer with us.

Yeah.

Hays, Kansas, Dodge City, Garden State.

We can learn from our fellow Kansans about how they're dealing with it.

Yeah, right.

All right.

We provide 17% of the water for the state.

So it's significant.

Yeah.

The 2026 race for Kansas governor is already hitting full stride on the Republican front.

A battle for the heart of the Republican Party is taking shape.

Former Governor Jeff Colyer is making a major push backed by nearly two dozen state senators and national conservative figures, he's vowing to slash budgets and stand shoulder to shoulder with Donald Trump.

But he is not alone.

Wichita business owner Joy Eakins has entered the race, launching what she calls her Kansas comeback campaign.

She's also aligning with the America First movement and focusing on workforce and cultural issues.

For others, including Secretary of State Scott Schwab, are running on the Republican side.

Meanwhile, State Senator Cindy Holsinger is the first to throw her hat into the ring on the Democratic side.

She's hitting the campaign trail hard on what she calls kitchen table issues.

Holsinger is warning against federal education cuts and an extreme MAGA style agenda, positioning herself as a protector of public schools and Medicare.

With the field becoming more crowded and clear, battle lines already drawn, the fight for the governor's office is set to define the future of Kansas.

Representative Martinez, I'll bring you in on this one.

From from a state lawmaker standpoint, what are you seeing happening in Topeka regarding the governor's race?

Well, I know that we have at least a couple of of Democratic candidates that will be announcing if they haven't yet.

I thought one did, but apparently not.

I don't know.

I mean, they're filled with Republican candidates.

As far as being, matched up with the Trump agenda, I don't think that's I have a problem with.

Yeah.

Right.

But, you know, we just need a candidate, no matter Republican or Democrat, who is, you know, going to do right for Kansans.

Yeah.

Jim.

Help!

Well, listen, Trump is very popular right now with with his party in Kansas.

And again, were talking about the next big race is a Republican primary.

And, you know, in previous races, you'll see, a lot of the candidates are just doing everything they can to be as conservative as possible to impress the conservative faction of our party, because that's typically who wins our primaries.

I think that's exactly why we have trouble sometimes with those same people when in the general elections.

You know, I think that's why Kris Kobach lost to Laura Kelly.

But at the end of the day, you know, just who he just trained to.

Trump makes a lot of sense right now.

This list of 23 people is significant.

I have to tell you that, this is actually a very impressive list.

I I'm surprised he got that much support so early.

So the state Republican Party issued a news release here within the last couple of days that had a list of 23 senators who have endorsed Jeff Colyer.

One of the people I noticed that's not on this list, though, is Ty Masterson's Senate president, Brian Fry.

What do you think about that?

So what's really interesting about that list is there's no one from south central Kansas on that list.

I think one, Mark Steffens is the closest to the Wichita Sedgwick County area.

I think that's telling.

That indicates that Ty Masterson is probably going to announce within the next week or two, and he would have strong support from south central Kansas.

Well, you're going to have probably ten Republican candidates going to be, and the the winner of the gubernatorial race is going to have to come through Sedgwick County.

It's no ifs, ands, or buts.

You're going to have to win.

Sedgwick County.

It's interesting that Jeff Colyer is going to need to find someone from Sedgwick County to be his running mate.

Maybe Lily woo, maybe Colleen Jennison.

Okay, he's going to have to find someone who's got name recognition and notoriety, recognizable voice, face in this community to pull because he's not going to get there with just this list of senators.

Maggie Ballard, Brian Frye just threw out the mayor of Wichita as a potential lieutenant governor candidate.

Sure.

Have you heard that yet?

I mean, we hear lots of rumors at City Hall, so, yeah, I don't I don't know, I mean, I haven't heard it from, you know, her certainly, or anything like that, but I have heard that rumor.

I just try to really focus on we have plenty of issues right here in Wichita that need a lot of attention.

So that's where my focus is at.

Understood?

Understood.

It's definitely going to be a busy race.

Will there be other Democrats filed for.

Yeah.

Who are those names?

Anybody?

I don't think we may even know who they are right now, but, again, Cindy Hauser, I guess is is is a pretty big name, actually, in this race, in a dinosaur, like.

There you go.

There you go.

Yeah.

Julie Lawrence.

Yeah, I've heard that one as well.

So it's going to be a wide open.

Seats tend to bring a lot of candidates.

Right?

Right.

Not to mention our lieutenant governor right now, David Horn.

And our next story now, plans for another school bond issue for the Wichita district have appear to be stopped dead in their tracks.

An advisory committee formed after February's failed $450 million vote is hitting the brakes, rejecting the district's push for a new election by 2026.

The reason?

A massive trust deficit with the in the community, committee members report that voters are angry and unconvinced of the need.

District leaders are now being told to focus on transparency and a clearer message before even thinking about asking taxpayers for more money.

For now, any new bond proposal appears to be off the table.

Maggie Ballard, I'll bring you in on this one first.

We don't have any school board members at the table today, unfortunately, but, from from a local standpoint.

What do you think about this?

We were talking a little bit about, the school bond issue that was just rejected here a few months ago.

Do you see this happening at all?

Well, I mean, I focus on it extra hard because a lot of the schools that were closing or being rebuilt, we're all in my district on the north end.

We lost Park Close last time.

We lost hardly.

So it was a huge hit to district six, and the overall school district.

But, a lot of my constituents were, you know, I'm a big advocate for neighborhood schools, and they they are really close together.

So, you know, maybe there's an opportunity for consolidation, but there was a lot of my constituents that had no idea what they were talking about.

Right.

I don't think the, I'm kind of a, an over, communicator, and I think they should have started a lot earlier.

Not necessarily opposed to, you know, looking at something, but there needed to be a lot more outreach, a lot sooner.

But that goes to show just how hard it is to educate the constituency, the voters on whether it's a school bond issue, whether it's a city issue.

It's really hard to get that word out.

No matter figuring out how people get their information.

Do they watch the news?

Do they watch PBS?

Do they read The Eagle Twitter?

You know, there's a million different ways, and you really have to try to tap on all.

Yeah.

Representative Martinez, I think that is a challenge, to get information out to where people understand it.

And care about it.

And that was part of what I had tried to do with just two different issues.

I'm finding as a representative that, people are kind of detached from, from public issues local, state, federal, whatever the case might be.

But, I'm a big proponent of neighborhood schools also.

So I was kind of torn with, building new schools.

And then I know I knew that some schools had had had renovations and things like that.

So, I, I don't know, but I, I agree with, with there needs to be more transparency in terms of what's being done and what, what they want to do.

So I don't know, it's it's a tough issue.

It's a tough issue.

Brian Frye what what are your thoughts here?

It's just hard because the trust issue is we heard so much about the lack of trust, in, in this not only with school board but city government as well, but with you got to make your case for return on investment.

What are you going to get for your tax dollars?

And there has been many challenges about the last bond issue, things that didn't happen or were supposed to happen, and then schools that were rebuilt or remodeled and then closed.

That creates a lot of distrust.

And looking for that return on investment.

Look, what has been the number one topic in this community for the last couple of years?

Taxes.

Yeah.

Whether it's sales tax or property tax or grocery tax, taxes, taxes, taxes.

And people get tired of it.

And so then they start looking at what my what is my money going to buy?

What's it going to do.

And they expect a return on that investment.

And if you're not doing it, it's really hard to make that communication clear.

Yeah Jim we know we actually have I think people would say we have three members of our of our seven member school board who are pretty conservative.

And Kelly Bell School, in my opinion, has been the most conservative and best school superintendent, which I've ever seen.

Yes.

And I do think there are some, some, some configuration challenges of our school system and closing some schools and creating some schools, I think is necessary, and bonds are how we do that.

I have a bit of a problem with the idea of maintaining buildings with bonds, because we trust the schools to maintain the buildings that we even trusted them with, to take care of those buildings with existing revenues and not have to do a bond issue to fix buildings that are dilapidated.

So I think there is a challenge of trying to get the word out to people exactly what this is going to be.

For that, we're essentially putting the right schools in the right locations.

As community continues to shift and grow, it's a necessity to do that.

That's how bonds are typically used.

And so but I will say this to your point, Brian, property taxes is a very hot topic.

And right now to to get this to, you must be able to spend another half $1 million roughly right on our schools right now and not know that there's going to be some type of commitment to achievement improvement that is going to be a hard sell.

Well, that goes back to the distrust issue that, you know, in in to the 2008 bond issue, the school district promised that graduation rates would rise, proficiencies would rise.

And that didn't happen in nearly every.

Yeah, reading, writing it didn't happen, unfortunately.

So please go ahead.

I would say some people were, very nervous about if they said no then, like, their grandkids or their, you know, their kids, like what happens, you know, if you say no.

And there was a lot of conversation that maybe they weren't necessarily opposed to, the schools getting more money, but maybe it needed to be, you know, the burnout is real.

And curriculum and things like that, and not necessarily just new buildings.

Like, how was that improving scores and stuff like that.

So there's a lot of different factors, but those were some of the things that I heard from my constituents.

And I will just add piggyback on what, Commissioner House and Kelly Bellfield is doing a fantastic job.

And I think if anyone can lead us through this transition and continue to focus on future ready centers and making sure that we're developing the students for tomorrow, he's the guy that can do that.

I agree, all right.

There was confusion at Kansas driver's license offices this week.

After a new court ruling late last week, the Kansas Court of Appeals reversed a lower court's injunction, a move that would allow transgender individuals to change the gender marker on their driver's licenses.

However, residents who sought to make that change on Monday were unable to do so.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach has instructed the department of Revenue not to implement these changes, stating his intention to appeal the decision to the Kansas Supreme Court.

Officials say the policy will remain on hold while the matter is still in litigation, leaving the rule in question until the state's highest court weighs in.

This is a tough call, state representative.

Martinez.

It's you know, we seem to be going back and forth here.

This is, unfortunately, a politicized argument.

It is.

What are your thoughts?

Well, it is politicized, highly politicized.

And I don't think that it really needs to be.

I think we have other issues that we need to focus on.

More, it I mean, I say, let that let the courts, you do their process and, I don't see why why, Attorney General Kobach has to pass the step.

And like I said, it's just it's a highly politicized, issue.

It doesn't really need to be.

It's a social issue.

This is a culture of people who who choose to to live one way and, to me, that's that's their prerogative.

What they I understand some of the risks that, that go on putting something like that on a, on a driver's license.

Yeah.

With the issue of transgender, you know, male or female, whatever the case might be.

I, I understand all that, but it's just an issue that I think that we, It doesn't need to be political.

All right, Maggie Ballard, you've been outspoken about LGBTQ issues.

Tell me.

Tell me your thoughts.

Yeah.

It's just to me, it's embarrassing that we are just continuing to, create issues that, you know, are not are not issues.

I mean, I wish we would just leave the LGBT community alone, but, you know, it's been on the local news significantly and it's just so unnecessary.

And like Representative Martinez says, we have really big issues that really need our focus.

And, you know, continuing to.

Point out this specific community, is is just really sad.

Commissioner, how do you agree disagree?

You know, I it's interesting.

Maybe I don't really understand the whole point here because, one of the comments that Kobach made was that gender and sex are basically the same terms.

And I think that's really been the the debate in this country.

Sex tends to talk about, you know, an adjective to describe your genitalia, if you will.

It's male or female.

And gender is a lot of other things.

It could be feminine and masculine and all kinds of other things.

And so, the debate has, to I guess I'm surprised that when he made the argument that they're interchangeable, I kind of didn't think that's where he was going to go.

He made the case that, you know, police have trouble identifying someone.

There's there's a there's a description of someone.

Their weight, their height, their hair color, their eye color, and their sex on the driver's license.

There's a way they can identify basically, this is reasonable.

Reasonably, the person is showing me the idea right now.

And when the sex doesn't make sense to you because you're what you.

I think if someone is identifying some other way, it's confusing.

That was his argument in the federal building.

So the question is, you know, is that a legitimate argument?

Well, the court said no.

And to be fair to the court here, according to the numbers on this story, it was 300, 380 people.

And and since like 2002, out of 9000, 9 million driver's licenses that have been issued, 380 people have, made the effort to make that make this change.

So it's a pretty small number, really.

So I think we're arguing about something that, to your point, it's not a huge issue.

And it's actually been settled since 2002.

Brian Frye any thoughts?

Yeah, I just I don't think we know all the different ramifications from a law enforcement standpoint, from workplace environment.

You mentioned flying, health care.

I mean, I think there's so many other considerations that we haven't been able to really vetted to really do the due diligence.

So let it go through the court process.

Let's figure this out.

I know different states have different rules and everybody can.

It's the, you know, the way we're built as a government.

But, I just think there's so much questions.

I don't know the answer him in our last story today, a new National Health Scorecard gives Kansas low marks, ranking its overall health system 33rd in the country.

The 2025 report from the Commonwealth Fund points to costly and unequal access to care as major drivers for the poor ranking.

It specifically notes that Kansas is one of just nine states that have not expanded Medicaid, and that those states scored worse than the national average.

The data reveals deep disparities, ranking Kansas 50th or last in the gap between lower and higher income residents ability to access care.

The report also highlights a stark racial gap, finding that black Kansans are at least three times more likely to die from preventable causes than other groups.

This is a startling it's very startling.

It's hard to hear.

Commissioner, how what are your thoughts?

Well, this debate of Medicaid expansion, it seems like it's never going to be solved.

Is it going to go away?

Yeah.

I don't know if we're going to get a Republican governor or not, but, Governor Kelly has really pushed hard as one of her biggest platform issues, and she couldn't get this done.

And, I don't think the legislature is likely to change a significant portion of their of the of the way the party's divided in that at least there's been it's been that way for a while.

It's kind of moving more to the conservative Republican position, over the last, say, five or 6 or 7 years or whatever.

So at the end of the day, is this likely to change right now?

I don't think so.

And, and to those states right now that have expanded Medicaid, the cost to the states is blown up.

It's way higher than they ever estimated.

And number of people accessing these services is way higher than the estimates.

And so, you know, the reality is, the reason that Kansas hasn't done this primarily is this a philosophy that working, adults, adults that can work and provide for themselves don't need an entitlement program.

Those that are truly, have no other options, children and older people that are destitute.

This this program is designed for them specifically.

And to add that many more people to that system that's already challenging, struggling is just going to really make the entire system work for everybody.

So I understand the debate.

I'm like, it's gonna get solved anytime soon.

Council member fry, it's interesting.

Commissioner Howell brought up the dynamics, the political dynamics in Kansas, which we have a Democratic governor, but both houses are super majority Republican.

So it's it's not changing anytime soon.

I think you're going to continue to see the push back on no Medicaid expansion from those leadership.

What's interesting is on this report, I can find just as many reports that show the opposite, that show the cost of Medicaid expansion is ridiculous.

It cost states so much.

You have much more people waiting for services that can't get to it.

So just as much counterargument to that.

Yeah, exactly.

Representative Martinez well, I have to I, I know we, we we talked earlier about property taxes about it's a school bond issue and people don't want to pay more taxes, but without Medicaid expansion just increases the cost of health care.

And, there's a lot of uncompensated costs that people accrue that don't have insurance.

So as taxpayers, we're paying that.

So, I think that's an argument, too.

I mean, where taxpayers need to know that their money's going for that also.

So I believe, I believe that we need to expand Medicaid.

It's just it's better for all people.

They're they're able to access health care.

When you're able to access health care, you know, there's they're healthier, they're able to work.

It it does have, it is designed for people who, art can work.

They're able bodied adults and they can they just can't afford, you know, the health care premium, but yet they make too much to, be on Medicaid, but can we afford it?

That's that seems to be the question.

Can we afford it as taxpayers?

Well, we're paying for a lot of it already.

I mean, there's people use the air as a revolving door or use EMS for transportation or I mean, you guys all know about the high Utilizar report 500.

You know, some people cost us 50 some million dollars.

I mean, why can we never get in front of anything and be on the prevention side?

Senate maybe we don't get to that point.

So I'm a big advocate for Medicaid expansion.

I think it's a huge missed opportunity for, our residents in and our state.

Right.

That's going to be the end of it.

And that's a wrap for this week.

Thank you so much to Maggie Ballard Brian Fry Jim Howell and Angela martinez for bringing it coming in today and their thoughts and analysis.

Also thanks to cake and CSN for sharing their videos with us.

I'm Jared Cirillo.

We'll see you next week.

Oh.