Mike Shields

Managing Editor, KHI News Service & Strategy Team Leader

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Mike Shields, Managing Editor of the KHI News Service, directs news content and special communications projects. Before joining KHI, he was the city editor at the Lawrence Journal-World. He has covered Kansas government as a reporter for Harris News Service and other news organizations for almost three decades. He has won multiple state and national awards, including the Burton W. Marvin Kansas News Enterprise Award in 1993. Shields earned bachelor’s degrees in journalism and history from Wichita State University and has a special interest in Geographic Information Systems. He is fluent in Spanish.

Work by Mike

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Gavels drop on 2012 Legislature

Longest ever wrap-up session ends after a budget plan is finally approved

The Kansas Legislature ended its longest ever wrap-up session Sunday after both chambers agreed to a budget plan. Read more here for updates on various health-related items settled in the budget.

Legislature grinds on

No headway on budget or taxes

Legislators continued to grind away on budget, taxes and redistricting but seemed to make little, if any, progress toward reaching agreements between the House and Senate. The governor repeated his pledge to sign a massive tax cutting bill in the absence of an alternative. But House budget negotiators late Friday introduced a new proposal suggesting that a tax deal might still materialize before the last gavel is dropped.

House poised to vote on compromise tax bill

Budget director compares two tax plans to Miss America contest: "two beautiful options"

Budget Director Steve Anderson, speaking on behalf of Gov. Sam Brownback, urged House GOP members to consider an alternate tax plan crafted by House and Senate tax negotiators, saying members now have "two beautiful options" to choose between. House members later voted 66-49 to consider the alternate, assuming the Senate also agrees to consider the bill..

Legislature ends Day 95 without budget accord

Some progress made but final deal high-centered over tax differences

The big stare-down between the Kansas House and Senate continued through the session's 95th day. Budget negotiators tentatively settled most of a long list of differences but couldn't find agreement on public school spending. House bargainers said they couldn't settle on a compromise until parallel negotiations over tax cuts were settled.

Budget and tax negotiators deadlocked

Another day at the Legislature without progress on taxes or budget

The Legislature's budget impasse broadened to include the revived negotiations over tax cuts.

Senate offer would shift domestic violence program to Governor's Office from SRS

House and Senate budget negotiations continued another day with a final spending plan still unsettled

Senate budget negotiators have proposed a major change in how the state funds programs for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. But the offer made during House-Senate budget negotiations was among the dozens of items still on the table when talks ended Monday. The bargaining teams agreed to resume talks at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

Legislature stalls; session heads into another week

Governor praises tax plan but others call it product of "war" within the Kansas GOP

As the second week of the Legislature's wrap-up session drew to a close, House and Senate budget negotiators continued to chip away slowly at their differences. Kansas Senate leaders began talking publicly about the factional "war" they are in with the governor and House. And the governor talked about being excited about a tax bill on his desk that critics say will leave the state budget under water.

Little progress made during budget negotiations

House and Senate bargainers to resume talks Friday

House and Senate budget negotiators met four times today but found little to agree upon. They agreed to resume talks at 9 a.m. Friday.

House agrees to big Senate tax cut package

What once seemed a worst-case scenario comes closer to reality

In what passes for high drama at the Kansas Statehouse, the House and Senate today simultaneously took up dueling tax plans. The afternoon showdown was fought in a flurry of parliamentary maneuvers that ended when the House passed a measure so big that even some of the most ardent tax cutters conceded it would need fixing sooner or later.

Kansas House approves spending plan

Stage set for negotiations with Senate

After more than nine hours of debate, members of the Kansas House late Tuesday approved a state spending plan, setting the stage for a new round of negotiations with the Senate. The chambers are divided on a variety of budget details and the House plan would spend about $165 million less from the state general fund than the Senate has approved. According to rough estimates, the House budget would leave a fiscal 2013 ending balance of about $700 million without taking into account tax-cutting proposals.

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