Government

After making little progress for weeks, public negotiations on taxes have continued in the Kansas Statehouse.

Legislative leaders and the governor had been meeting behind closed doors, but this week it appeared those talks had stalled.

House and Senate negotiators held a public meeting Wednesday and House members offered a new compromise.

The House and Senate have been divided on the issue of sales taxes.

The chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court and a prominent legislator are butting heads. At issue are allegations made the the justice.

He says the legislator, who's an attorney, tried to make a deal tying a pay raise for court workers to a constitutional amendment.

Chief Justice Lawton Nuss wrote a letter to a group of judges outlining the allegations. He said that Senate Vice President Jeff King told a group of judges in a meeting if they didn’t support a plan to overhaul how Supreme Court justices are selected, then the pay increase might not pass.

The Kansas Legislature's top Republican leaders are acknowledging that their private negotiations on tax issues have hit an impasse.

Senate President Susan Wagle of Wichita told fellow GOP senators Tuesday that her chamber and the House don't even agree on assumptions to use in projecting state revenues and spending.

The Kansas Senate has given first-round approval to a bill that would issue $200 million in additional state bonds to help pay for a federal research lab to be built in Manhattan.

A top Kansas Democrat is criticizing Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and GOP legislative leaders for holding private talks to resolve tax issues.