JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) — Someone in Michigan won an $842.4 million Powerball jackpot on the first day of 2024, the first time it has been won on New Year’s Day since the game’s start in 1992.

The winning numbers drawn were: 12, 21, 42, 44, 49 and red Powerball: 1.

Final ticket sales pushed the jackpot beyond its earlier estimate of $810 million to $842.4 million at the time of the drawing, making it the fifth-largest Powerball jackpot and 10th-largest U.S. lottery jackpot ever won.

The lucky ticket was sold at the Food Castle convenience store in Grand Blanc Township, near Flint. According to WJRT, Food Castle has been a fixture in the community for nearly 40 years.

“Usually, you hear stuff like that happening in different states,” store owner Bill Nannoshi told the station. “So, it’s great. It’s great for this community. I mean, Grand Blanc is an awesome place to work.”

Before the big win on New Year's, the jackpot had been growing since mid-October.

The chance of winning the Powerball jackpot is 1 in 292.2 million.

The lucky ticket holder will have the choice between an annuitized prize of $842.4 million, payable over 30 years, or a lump sum payment of $425.2 million. Both prize options are before taxes.

Other top-winning tickets include four sold in California, Connecticut, Florida and Maryland, that matched all five white balls to win $1 million prizes. Two tickets, from Florida and Texas, matched all five white balls and won $2 million prizes by including the Power Play option for an additional $1 per play.

JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) — Someone in Michigan won an $842.4 million Powerball jackpot on the first day of 2024, the first time it has been won on New Year’s Day since the game’s start in 1992.The winning numbers drawn were: 12, 21, 42, 44, 49 and red Powerball: 1.Final ticket sales pushed the jackpot beyond its earlier estimate of $810 million to $842.4 million at the time of the drawing, making it the fifth-largest Powerball jackpot and 10th-largest U.S. lottery jackpot ever won.The lucky ticket was sold at the Food Castle convenience store in Grand Blanc Township, near Flint. According to WJRT, Food Castle has been a fixture in the community for nearly 40 years.“Usually, you hear stuff like that happening in different states,” store owner Bill Nannoshi told the station. “So, it’s great. It’s great for this community. I mean, Grand Blanc is an awesome place to work.”Before the big win on New Year's, the jackpot had been growing since mid-October.The chance of winning the Powerball jackpot is 1 in 292.2 million.The lucky ticket holder will have the choice between an annuitized prize of $842.4 million, payable over 30 years, or a lump sum payment of $425.2 million. Both prize options are before taxes.Other top-winning tickets include four sold in California, Connecticut, Florida and Maryland, that matched all five white balls to win $1 million prizes. Two tickets, from Florida and Texas, matched all five white balls and won $2 million prizes by including the Power Play option for an additional $1 per play.

$842 million Powerball ticket: 1st time game has been won on New Year's Day

By JOHN P. TRETBAR Eagle Communications

Crude prices in Kansas are down 12% from a year ago. Rig counts are down 21%. 

Kansas Common crude starts the New Year at $62 per barrel at CHS in McPherson. That's down $2.25 per barrel from a month ago, and $8.50 per barrel lower than a year ago.

Crude prices on the Nymex ended the year at $71.65 per barrel Friday, down 12 cents on the day. That price is down more than eight dollars in the last year. Prices were still dropping by lunchtime Tuesday. 

The last Kansas Rig Count of the year from Independent Oil &amp; Gas Service was unchanged in western Kansas at 21 active rigs. The tally east of Wichita is up two at 16 rigs. The total is down 21% from a year ago. The Rotary Rig Count from Baker Hughes ended the year up two at 622 active rigs. The Texas tally was up three. New Mexico was down one.

Operators across Kansas completed 28 wells last week. Among them were 13 in western Kansas including one new well in Russell County.

Independent Oil and Gas Service reports 1,692 newly-completed wells through the end of the year, up about six percent over the total of 1,589 wells at the end of 2022. Kansas regulators okayed 1,284 new drilling permits across the state in 2023, down about 18% from the 1,581 permits recorded at the end of 2022.

Kansas operators pumped 76,646 barrels of crude oil per day in the eight months through August in the latest tally from the Kansas Geological Survey. That's down more than a thousand barrels per day from last year, but about thirty barrels per day higher than the tally through August of 2021. Barton County operators produced 4,125 barrels per day, up by 120 barrels per day from last year and up 300 barrels per day from the year before. Ellis County checks in with 5,985 barrels per day, up 600 barrels from last year, but down nearly 300 from the year before. Russell County produced over 3,600 barrels per day, increasing slightly over last year, but down slightly from two years ago. Stafford County is down from last year but ahead of the year before, pumping over 2,400 barrels per day.

Kansas crude production in August averaged 73,000 barrels per day, down 2.6% from September and nearly five percent lower than a year ago, when output averaged over 77,000 thousand barrels per day. Kansas ranks 12th among crude-producing states. Texas continues to lead the way, pumping 5.6 million barrels per day, more than all other states combined.

Each month, the government re-benchmarks its crude-production estimates, fine tuning weekly data for monthly reporting. December's re-benchmarking pumped up output to 13,330,000 barrels per day for the week though December 15, a record. Database adjustments added 189,000 barrels per day to the weekly report.

Weekly domestic crude-oil production set yet another all-time record, the sixth weekly all-time record in three months. The Energy Information Administration reports output of 13,337,000 barrels for the week through December 22. The weekly average has exceeded 13 million barrels per day for the last 12 weeks in a row, and before that only twice in history.

The government reported the biggest monthly crude-oil production total ever, over 410 million barrels for the month of October. That's an average of 13,248,483 barrels per day.

U.S. crude inventories dropped by nearly seven million barrels last week to 436.6 million barrels. EIA said U.S. stockpiles are about one percent below the five year average for this time of year.

The government says imports dropped to 6.3 million barrels per day, down nearly half a million barrels per day from the week before. The four week average is more than eight percent higher than the same four weeks a year ago.

The U.S. has become a net energy exporter in recent years, thanks in large part to the export of Liquefied Natural Gas. Last year European LNG imports rose to an all-time high and accounted for 64% of total U.S. exports, according to the Energy Information Administration. U.S. LNG exports averaged 10.6 billion cubic feet per day last year, increasing by nine percent compared with 2021. Energy Information Administration forecasts continuing growth this year. The report says our spike in exports was driven by strong European demand, high international natural-gas prices, and expanded U.S. liquefaction capacity.

U.S. shale executives are bracing for more big merger and acquisitions in the oil patch. A new report suggests some folks don't like the idea. According to a quarterly survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, U.S. energy producers are expecting more huge acquisitions after Chevron took over Hess Corp. and Exxon Mobil bought Pioneer Natural Resources. Together those two deals are worth more than $112 billion. Survey respondents expect more to come in the year ahead. According to a Bloomberg report that's not good news for the companies that provide crews and equipment to oil producers. One respondent suggests the move will impede growth in the oilfield service sector, and could lead to problems for small independent operators, like most of those in Kansas, who could be priced out of the market.

Hess Corp. was the high bidder in a U.S. auction for drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico, which raised a total of $382 million from oil giants before the Biden administration imposes a two-year hiatus for future sales. Reuters reports the total is the biggest return from an offshore lease sale since 2015.

Regulators in the number-three crude-producing state report October output dropped by 35-thousand barrels per day to just over 1.2 million. The North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources says completions were down, but rig counts and permits were up from the month before.

Venezuela has now signed a third joint venture for crude production since the U.S. eased sanctions. Spain's super-major RepSol follows Chevron and France’s Maurel &amp; Prom into Venezuela. The OPEC member boasts the world's largest proven oil reserves but faces what are among the world's biggest market obstacles, including sanctions, corruption and infrastructure decay.&nbsp;&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/5/1684775008059.jpeg" alt="Pixabay" />
 <figcaption>Pixabay</figcaption>
 </figure>By JOHN P. TRETBAR Eagle CommunicationsCrude prices in Kansas are down 12% from a year ago. Rig counts are down 21%. Kansas Common crude starts the New Year at $62 per barrel at CHS in McPherson. That's down $2.25 per barrel from a month ago, and $8.50 per barrel lower than a year ago.Crude prices on the Nymex ended the year at $71.65 per barrel Friday, down 12 cents on the day. That price is down more than eight dollars in the last year. Prices were still dropping by lunchtime Tuesday. The last Kansas Rig Count of the year from Independent Oil &amp; Gas Service was unchanged in western Kansas at 21 active rigs. The tally east of Wichita is up two at 16 rigs. The total is down 21% from a year ago. The Rotary Rig Count from Baker Hughes ended the year up two at 622 active rigs. The Texas tally was up three. New Mexico was down one.Operators across Kansas completed 28 wells last week. Among them were 13 in western Kansas including one new well in Russell County. Independent Oil and Gas Service reports 1,692 newly-completed wells through the end of the year, up about six percent over the total of 1,589 wells at the end of 2022. Kansas regulators okayed 1,284 new drilling permits across the state in 2023, down about 18% from the 1,581 permits recorded at the end of 2022.Kansas operators pumped 76,646 barrels of crude oil per day in the eight months through August in the latest tally from the Kansas Geological Survey. That's down more than a thousand barrels per day from last year, but about thirty barrels per day higher than the tally through August of 2021. Barton County operators produced 4,125 barrels per day, up by 120 barrels per day from last year and up 300 barrels per day from the year before. Ellis County checks in with 5,985 barrels per day, up 600 barrels from last year, but down nearly 300 from the year before. Russell County produced over 3,600 barrels per day, increasing slightly over last year, but down slightly from two years ago. Stafford County is down from last year but ahead of the year before, pumping over 2,400 barrels per day.Kansas crude production in August averaged 73,000 barrels per day, down 2.6% from September and nearly five percent lower than a year ago, when output averaged over 77,000 thousand barrels per day. Kansas ranks 12th among crude-producing states. Texas continues to lead the way, pumping 5.6 million barrels per day, more than all other states combined.Each month, the government re-benchmarks its crude-production estimates, fine tuning weekly data for monthly reporting. December's re-benchmarking pumped up output to 13,330,000 barrels per day for the week though December 15, a record. Database adjustments added 189,000 barrels per day to the weekly report.Weekly domestic crude-oil production set yet another all-time record, the sixth weekly all-time record in three months. The Energy Information Administration reports output of 13,337,000 barrels for the week through December 22. The weekly average has exceeded 13 million barrels per day for the last 12 weeks in a row, and before that only twice in history.The government reported the biggest monthly crude-oil production total ever, over 410 million barrels for the month of October. That's an average of 13,248,483 barrels per day.U.S. crude inventories dropped by nearly seven million barrels last week to 436.6 million barrels. EIA said U.S. stockpiles are about one percent below the five year average for this time of year.The government says imports dropped to 6.3 million barrels per day, down nearly half a million barrels per day from the week before. The four week average is more than eight percent higher than the same four weeks a year ago.The U.S. has become a net energy exporter in recent years, thanks in large part to the export of Liquefied Natural Gas. Last year European LNG imports rose to an all-time high and accounted for 64% of total U.S. exports, according to the Energy Information Administration. U.S. LNG exports averaged 10.6 billion cubic feet per day last year, increasing by nine percent compared with 2021. Energy Information Administration forecasts continuing growth this year. The report says our spike in exports was driven by strong European demand, high international natural-gas prices, and expanded U.S. liquefaction capacity.U.S. shale executives are bracing for more big merger and acquisitions in the oil patch. A new report suggests some folks don't like the idea. According to a quarterly survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, U.S. energy producers are expecting more huge acquisitions after Chevron took over Hess Corp. and Exxon Mobil bought Pioneer Natural Resources. Together those two deals are worth more than $112 billion. Survey respondents expect more to come in the year ahead. According to a Bloomberg report that's not good news for the companies that provide crews and equipment to oil producers. One respondent suggests the move will impede growth in the oilfield service sector, and could lead to problems for small independent operators, like most of those in Kansas, who could be priced out of the market.Hess Corp. was the high bidder in a U.S. auction for drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico, which raised a total of $382 million from oil giants before the Biden administration imposes a two-year hiatus for future sales. Reuters reports the total is the biggest return from an offshore lease sale since 2015.Regulators in the number-three crude-producing state report October output dropped by 35-thousand barrels per day to just over 1.2 million. The North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources says completions were down, but rig counts and permits were up from the month before.Venezuela has now signed a third joint venture for crude production since the U.S. eased sanctions. Spain's super-major RepSol follows Chevron and France’s Maurel &amp; Prom into Venezuela. The OPEC member boasts the world's largest proven oil reserves but faces what are among the world's biggest market obstacles, including sanctions, corruption and infrastructure decay.&nbsp;&nbsp;

News from the Oil Patch: Year over year crude prices down 12%

RILEY COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting at a house party and have made an arrest.

On Sunday, police arrested 18-year-old Marc Oliver on a warrant for requested charges of&nbsp;&nbsp;1st degree murder, aggravated battery, criminal discharge of a firearm and a probation violation, according to a media release from the Riley County Police Department.

In the early morning on October 21, the Riley County Police Department Communication Center received several 911 calls reporting gunfire. When officers arrived on scene, they found 2 male victims with gunshot wounds. A 3rd male victim later arrived at the hospital with a gunshot wound from the incident.&nbsp;

Within a week of the shooting, detectives arrested Cordarius Gowdy, 21; Damerius McGee, 18, both of Ogden and Christopher Stowers, 21, of Manhattan on probable cause offenses of attempted first-degree murder aggravated battery and one count of firing into an occupied dwelling.&nbsp;

Oliver was issued total bond of $1,000,000. All four suspects remain confined in the Riley County Jail.&nbsp;

RILEY COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting at a house party and have made an arrest.On Sunday, police arrested 18-year-old Marc Oliver on a warrant for requested charges of&nbsp;&nbsp;1st degree murder, aggravated battery, criminal discharge of a firearm and a probation violation, according to a media release from the Riley County Police Department.In the early morning on October 21, the Riley County Police Department Communication Center received several 911 calls reporting gunfire. When officers arrived on scene, they found 2 male victims with gunshot wounds. A 3rd male victim later arrived at the hospital with a gunshot wound from the incident.&nbsp;Within a week of the shooting, detectives arrested Cordarius Gowdy, 21; Damerius McGee, 18, both of Ogden and Christopher Stowers, 21, of Manhattan on probable cause offenses of attempted first-degree murder aggravated battery and one count of firing into an occupied dwelling.&nbsp;Oliver was issued total bond of $1,000,000. All four suspects remain confined in the Riley County Jail.&nbsp;

Police arrest 4th suspect for Kansas house party shooting

ATCHISON COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on alleged sex crimes.

On New Year's Day, police arrested 21-year-old Joseph J. Gill, 21, Atchison, according to Police Chief Mike Wilson.

Gill was jailed on $500,000 bond on a District Court warrant for rape and aggravated sexual battery.&nbsp; The arrest is in connection to a police investigation that began on October 25, 2020 focusing on a case involving a female victim.

He was also accused in a Municipal Court warrant for failure to appear in court.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/1/1704135951585.png" alt="Gill-photo Atchison Co." />
 <figcaption>Gill-photo Atchison Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>ATCHISON COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on alleged sex crimes.On New Year's Day, police arrested 21-year-old Joseph J. Gill, 21, Atchison, according to Police Chief Mike Wilson.Gill was jailed on $500,000 bond on a District Court warrant for rape and aggravated sexual battery.&nbsp; The arrest is in connection to a police investigation that began on October 25, 2020 focusing on a case involving a female victim.He was also accused in a Municipal Court warrant for failure to appear in court.

Kansas man arrested for rape case reported in 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — After months of extra duty at sea providing&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war" target="_blank">protection for Israel</a>, the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group will be heading home, the Navy announced Monday.

The Ford and its accompanying warships will be replaced by the amphibious assault ship the USS Bataan and its accompanying warships, the USS Mesa Verde and the USS Carter Hall. The three vessels had been in the Red Sea and have been transiting toward the Eastern Mediterranean over the last few days.

The Ford will sail for home “in the coming days,” the U.S. 6th Fleet, the European-based U.S. naval command that’s responsible for ships sailing in the Mediterranean, said in a statement

The Ford was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-american-carrier-strike-force-mediterranean-db05d535a9ebb931f684f758c9b6f628" target="_blank">sent to the Eastern Mediterranean</a>&nbsp;to be within striking distance of Israel since the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. The carrier&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ford-navy-israel-hamas-iran-25a387e50b4ad9054e8be753c59464e4" target="_blank">stayed in the Eastern Mediterranean</a>&nbsp;while its accompanying warships had sailed into the Red Sea, where they repeatedly intercepted incoming ballistic missiles and attack drones fired from Houthi-controlled Yemen. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-us-austin-b606e2bc61b57493cd2d322ebd1885d6" target="_blank">visited the Ford</a>&nbsp;last month.

Since it was extended in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Ford and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier have been part of a two-carrier presence bracketing the Israel-Hamas war, underscoring U.S. concerns that the conflict will widen. The Eisenhower has recently patrolled near the Gulf of Aden, at the mouth of the Red Sea waterway, where so many commercial vessels have&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/attacks-red-sea-navy-mission-missiles-286d51bfd65e741e839e185f0f4a455b" target="_blank">come under attack</a>&nbsp;in recent weeks.

On Sunday, helicopters from the Eisenhower and its destroyer the USS Gravely responded to a distress call from the container ship Maersk Hangzhou, which was under attack by four Iranian-backed Houthi small boats. As the helicopters responded, the boats fired at them with crew-served weapons and small arms and the helicopters returned fire, sinking three of the four boats and killing their crews, the U.S. Central Command said.

The incessant attacks on the commercial ships have led some companies to suspend transits through the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Gulf of Aden to the southern Red Sea and then the Suez Canal.

The Bataan’s accompanying warship the Mesa Verde is a transport dock ship, carrying approximately 2,000 Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Those Marines provide “forces capable of supporting a wide range of missions,” the U.S. 6th Fleet said. The Carter Hall is a dock landing ship, which carries amphibious landing craft and their crews. Both vessels and the Bataan can support rotary aircraft; the Bataan can also carry and support Marine Corps’ F-35 vertical takeoff fighter aircraft.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/10/1696803172229.png" alt="The USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group arrived in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea in mid October-photo U.S. Central Command" />
 <figcaption>The USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group arrived in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea in mid October-photo U.S. Central Command</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — After months of extra duty at sea providing&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war" target="_blank">protection for Israel</a>, the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group will be heading home, the Navy announced Monday.The Ford and its accompanying warships will be replaced by the amphibious assault ship the USS Bataan and its accompanying warships, the USS Mesa Verde and the USS Carter Hall. The three vessels had been in the Red Sea and have been transiting toward the Eastern Mediterranean over the last few days.The Ford will sail for home “in the coming days,” the U.S. 6th Fleet, the European-based U.S. naval command that’s responsible for ships sailing in the Mediterranean, said in a statementThe Ford was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-american-carrier-strike-force-mediterranean-db05d535a9ebb931f684f758c9b6f628" target="_blank">sent to the Eastern Mediterranean</a>&nbsp;to be within striking distance of Israel since the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. The carrier&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ford-navy-israel-hamas-iran-25a387e50b4ad9054e8be753c59464e4" target="_blank">stayed in the Eastern Mediterranean</a>&nbsp;while its accompanying warships had sailed into the Red Sea, where they repeatedly intercepted incoming ballistic missiles and attack drones fired from Houthi-controlled Yemen. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-us-austin-b606e2bc61b57493cd2d322ebd1885d6" target="_blank">visited the Ford</a>&nbsp;last month.Since it was extended in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Ford and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier have been part of a two-carrier presence bracketing the Israel-Hamas war, underscoring U.S. concerns that the conflict will widen. The Eisenhower has recently patrolled near the Gulf of Aden, at the mouth of the Red Sea waterway, where so many commercial vessels have&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/attacks-red-sea-navy-mission-missiles-286d51bfd65e741e839e185f0f4a455b" target="_blank">come under attack</a>&nbsp;in recent weeks.On Sunday, helicopters from the Eisenhower and its destroyer the USS Gravely responded to a distress call from the container ship Maersk Hangzhou, which was under attack by four Iranian-backed Houthi small boats. As the helicopters responded, the boats fired at them with crew-served weapons and small arms and the helicopters returned fire, sinking three of the four boats and killing their crews, the U.S. Central Command said.The incessant attacks on the commercial ships have led some companies to suspend transits through the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Gulf of Aden to the southern Red Sea and then the Suez Canal.The Bataan’s accompanying warship the Mesa Verde is a transport dock ship, carrying approximately 2,000 Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Those Marines provide “forces capable of supporting a wide range of missions,” the U.S. 6th Fleet said. The Carter Hall is a dock landing ship, which carries amphibious landing craft and their crews. Both vessels and the Bataan can support rotary aircraft; the Bataan can also carry and support Marine Corps’ F-35 vertical takeoff fighter aircraft.

US to bring home aircraft carrier after deployment defending Israel

Dr. William Sparks Benkelman passed away in the early morning of December 24, 2023. He was born on October 14, 1944, in St. Francis, KS to Charles Wilmot Benkelman and Melba (Sparks) Benkelman and grew up in McDonald, KS. He attended the University of Kansas and graduated from Southern College of Optometry in 1967. Bill married Susan Noble Hancock on June 8, 1965, and they enjoyed 53 years of marriage. The couple moved to WaKeeney in 1967 where Bill practiced optometry for 42 years.

Bill was a Free Mason for over 50 years serving as master, secretary, and treasurer. He was a life member of the American Optometric Association and Kansas Optometric Association. Bill and Susan were team members on 10 Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity trips to Central America, South America, and Africa. Bill was an active member of the First United Methodist Church, and he served as a board member and enjoyed singing in the choir. He was a Scoutmaster for Troop #165 for many years where he taught numerous young men the appreciation of the outdoors.

Bill was a man that loved the seasons. Spring meant harvesting asparagus and hunting wild morel mushrooms along with crappie fishing. Summer offered gardening, wiper fishing and spending time at the Cedar Bluff cabin. The 4th of July was his favorite holiday and he and Susan hosted many parties on this day. He made an annual trip for over 40 years to the Poudre River Canyon in Colorado to fly fish with family and friends. September 1st was the start of dove season and fall brought cutting firewood, more fishing, and the start of upland bird season. Winter was more hunting, fishing, reading, and playing cribbage in front of the wood stove.

Bill was a respected member of the community. His main goal in life was to make people laugh and he was known for his jokes, limericks, and impersonations. He was a genuine friend and mentor to people of all ages.

Bill is survived by his sons, Barry H. Benkelman and wife Susan K. of Lawrence, KS and John H. Benkelman and wife Dr. Heather Robben of Riga, KS; three grandsons, William L. of Laramie of WY, Jackson K. of Lawrence, KS, and Hans S. of Riga, KS; two brothers, Brent and wife Virginia of Manhattan, KS and Paul and wife Georgette of Wheatridge, CO; brother-in-law, John L. Hancock of Jacksonville, AL; and numerous nieces and nephews.

Bill was preceded in death by his mother and father and his wife, Susan H. Benkelman.

A funeral service will be held on Saturday, January 13, 2023, at 11am with visitation 9:30-10:30am before the service at the First United Methodist Church in WaKeeney.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials can be sent to the Lewy Body Dementia Association at lbda.org or Boy Scout Troop #165, 1621 N 6th, WaKeeney, KS 67672 or may be sent to Plumer-Overlease Funeral Home, 723 N 1st, Stockton, KS 67669.

Dr. William Sparks Benkelman passed away in the early morning of December 24, 2023. He was born on October 14, 1944, in St. Francis, KS to Charles Wilmot Benkelman and Melba (Sparks) Benkelman and grew up in McDonald, KS. He attended the University of Kansas and graduated from Southern College of Optometry in 1967. Bill married Susan Noble Hancock on June 8, 1965, and they enjoyed 53 years of marriage. The couple moved to WaKeeney in 1967 where Bill practiced optometry for 42 years.Bill was a Free Mason for over 50 years serving as master, secretary, and treasurer. He was a life member of the American Optometric Association and Kansas Optometric Association. Bill and Susan were team members on 10 Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity trips to Central America, South America, and Africa. Bill was an active member of the First United Methodist Church, and he served as a board member and enjoyed singing in the choir. He was a Scoutmaster for Troop #165 for many years where he taught numerous young men the appreciation of the outdoors.Bill was a man that loved the seasons. Spring meant harvesting asparagus and hunting wild morel mushrooms along with crappie fishing. Summer offered gardening, wiper fishing and spending time at the Cedar Bluff cabin. The 4th of July was his favorite holiday and he and Susan hosted many parties on this day. He made an annual trip for over 40 years to the Poudre River Canyon in Colorado to fly fish with family and friends. September 1st was the start of dove season and fall brought cutting firewood, more fishing, and the start of upland bird season. Winter was more hunting, fishing, reading, and playing cribbage in front of the wood stove.Bill was a respected member of the community. His main goal in life was to make people laugh and he was known for his jokes, limericks, and impersonations. He was a genuine friend and mentor to people of all ages.Bill is survived by his sons, Barry H. Benkelman and wife Susan K. of Lawrence, KS and John H. Benkelman and wife Dr. Heather Robben of Riga, KS; three grandsons, William L. of Laramie of WY, Jackson K. of Lawrence, KS, and Hans S. of Riga, KS; two brothers, Brent and wife Virginia of Manhattan, KS and Paul and wife Georgette of Wheatridge, CO; brother-in-law, John L. Hancock of Jacksonville, AL; and numerous nieces and nephews.Bill was preceded in death by his mother and father and his wife, Susan H. Benkelman.A funeral service will be held on Saturday, January 13, 2023, at 11am with visitation 9:30-10:30am before the service at the First United Methodist Church in WaKeeney.In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials can be sent to the Lewy Body Dementia Association at lbda.org or Boy Scout Troop #165, 1621 N 6th, WaKeeney, KS 67672 or may be sent to Plumer-Overlease Funeral Home, 723 N 1st, Stockton, KS 67669.

 William Sparks Benkelman

BY Zachary Roth&nbsp;&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://stateline.org/">Stateline</a>&nbsp;

With U.S. democracy plagued by extremism, polarization and a growing disconnect between voters and lawmakers, a set of reforms that could dramatically upend how Americans vote is gaining momentum at surprising speed in Western states.

Ranked choice voting, which asks voters to rank multiple candidates in order of preference, has seen its profile steadily expand since 2016, when Maine became the first state to adopt it. But increasingly, RCV is being paired with a new system for primaries known as Final Five — or in some cases, Final Four — that advances multiple candidates, regardless of party, to the general election.

Together, proponents argue, these twin reforms deliver fairer outcomes that better reflect the will of voters, while disempowering the extremes and encouraging candidates and elected officials to prioritize conciliation and compromise.

Ultimately, they say, the new system can help create a government focused not on partisan point-scoring but on delivering tangible results that improve voters’ lives.

Alaska, the only state currently using RCV-plus-Final Four or Final-Five, appears to be seeing some benefits to its political culture already: After years of partisan rancor, both legislative chambers are now controlled by bipartisan majorities eager to find common ground and respond to the needs of voters, say lawmakers in the state who have embraced the new system.

A slew of other states could soon follow in Alaska’s footsteps. Last year, Nevada voters approved a constitutional amendment that would create an RCV-plus-Final-Five system — for the measure to take effect, voters must approve it again next year.

Efforts also are underway to get RCV-plus-Final-Five on Arizona’s 2024 ballot, and RCV-plus-Final-Four in Colorado and&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/idaho-open-primary-ballot-initiative-reaches-50000-signature-milestone%C2%A0">Idaho</a>&nbsp;— where organizers announced earlier this month that they’ve gathered 50,000 signatures (they need around 63,000 to qualify). Even Wisconsin Republicans, who in the redistricting sphere have fought reform efforts tooth and nail, in December held a hearing for bipartisan legislation that would create RCV-plus-Final-Five, though its prospects appear dim.

Meanwhile, Oregon voters will decide next year whether to adopt RCV alone. And this year, Minnesota and Illinois lawmakers passed bills to study RCV, while Connecticut approved a measure that allows local governments to use it.

There are even flickers of interest at the national level. In December alone, two leading Washington, D.C. think tanks that often find themselves on opposite sides — the conservative American Enterprise Institute and the liberal Center for American Progress — each held separate panel discussions that considered RCV-plus-Final-Four/Five.

Katherine Gehl, the founder of the Institute for Political Innovation, and the designer of the Final Four/Five system, calls RCV-plus-Final-Five “transformational.” (Her organization now says advancing five candidates to the general works best, by giving voters more choices.)

“There’s a huge pressure on reformers to say, this is not a silver bullet,” said Gehl. “And OK, I get that.”

But, she added, “I think it’s as close to a silver bullet as you can come.”

Meanwhile, a backlash to change is brewing, with several Republican-led states banning RCV in recent years. A coalition of national conservative election groups last month&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://electiontransparency.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/11/ETI_WI_Coalition_Letter.pdf">warned</a>&nbsp;Wisconsin’s legislative leaders that RCV and Final Five are “intended to dramatically push our politics to the Left.”

Here’s how RCV-plus-Final-Four/Five works.

In the primary election, candidates from all parties compete against each other, with voters picking only their top choice, as in a conventional election. The top four or five finishers, regardless of party, advance to the general.

In the general, voters use RCV to pick the winner. They fill out their ballot by ranking as many of the candidates as they want, by order of preference.

If no candidate wins a majority of first-place votes, the candidate who finished last is eliminated, and his or her supporters’ second-place votes are allocated. If there’s still no candidate with a majority, the process is repeated with the next-to-last candidate. This continues until someone gains a majority and is declared the winner.

Supporters of the system say the Final Four/Five primary gives a voice to a broader share of voters, while the use of RCV in the general helps ensure a fairer result. Under the current system, two similar candidates together may win a clear majority but split voters between them, allowing a third candidate to win with a minority of votes.

But even more important, many advocates argue, is how the two reforms together can change how candidates and elected officials of all stripes approach their jobs, by adjusting the incentive structure they operate under.

Increasingly, many states and districts are solidly red or blue, meaning the general election is uncompetitive, and the key race takes place in the primary. That’s a problem, because the primary electorate is by and large smaller, more partisan and more extreme than the general electorate.

Right now, with politicians worrying more about the primary than the general, they’re more focused on playing to their base than on reaching beyond it and solving problems, critics argue. It isn’t hard to find evidence for this lately, both in Washington and in state capitals across the country.

By allowing multiple candidates to advance, Final Four/Five shifts the crucial election from the primary to the general. And RCV means the votes of Democrats in red districts and Republicans in blue ones still matter, even if their top choice remains unlikely to win.

Together, it means candidates are rewarded for paying attention to the entire general electorate, not just a small slice of staunch supporters. As a result, it encourages candidates — and elected officials, once in office — toward moderation and problem-solving, and away from extremism.

“People do what it takes to get and keep their jobs,” said Gehl, the Final Four/Five designer. “So if you change who hires and fires, which is to say, November voters instead of primary voters, and you change the system so that there’s real competition in November every time, even once you’re an incumbent, that forces accountability.”

The experience of Alaska, whose voters passed an RCV-plus-Final-Four system in 2020, offers an illustration.

At its first use in 2022, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an independent-minded Republican distrusted by the party’s conservative wing, was reelected. Mary Peltola, a moderate Democrat who kept in place her Republican predecessor’s chief of staff, was elected to the U.S. House, defeating Sarah Palin, the conservative Republican former governor. (Murkowski and Peltola endorsed each other).

Meanwhile, voters reelected Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a conservative Republican – suggesting, reformers say, that the system can produce a wide range of outcomes.

And more women ran in 2022 than in the five previous cycles combined — highlighting how allowing anyone to run, regardless of party, can boost opportunities for under-represented groups.

But the effect on how candidates and lawmakers have approached their jobs has been more dramatic still, advocates say.

Senate Majority Leader Cathy Giessel, a Republican, told the Center for American Progress event that, after angering GOP voters by working collaboratively with Democrats, she lost her 2020 primary, held under the old election system, to a staunch conservative. Giessel had been in office since 2011.

Giessel said that when she ran again last year under RCV-plus-Final-Four, her campaign didn’t even buy the database showing voters’ party affiliations that most candidates rely on to identify supporters, because she needed to target voters of all stripes. Helped by being the second choice of many Democratic voters in the general election, Giessel won back her seat.

“You’re requiring us as candidates to be much more authentic,” said Giessel of the new system. “We’re not speaking to a party platform anymore. We’re speaking to the citizens.”

Giessel now leads a bipartisan majority coalition, formed within days of the election. Members have focused on consensus issues that are priorities for voters, including boosting education funding, lowering the cost of energy and passing a balanced budget.

“We have seen much more collaboration on the budget,” said Giessel. “There’s a much more open process now, understanding that everyone needs to have input.“

An&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://rstreet.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/REALFINAL_policy-short-no-122-no-embargo.pdf">analysis</a>&nbsp;by the R Street Institute, a center-right Washington, D.C. think tank, found that Alaska’s new election system “gave citizens greater choice and elevated the most broadly appealing candidates, in turn improving representation.”

Reformers in Nevada — gearing up for next year’s campaign to pass RCV-plus-Final-Five a second time after it won with 53% of the vote last year — have noticed Alaska’s early success.

Over 40% of all registered voters in the Silver State aren’t affiliated with a major party, and the figure is growing. It was these voters’ frustration over being denied a voice in the state’s taxpayer-funded closed primaries that initially drove the push for reform, said Mike Draper, the communications director for Nevada Voters First, a political action committee that organized the ballot measure.

As in Alaska and elsewhere, there was also a related concern about politicians playing only to their base.

“Candidates and electeds, through no fault of their own, are not incentivized to … work to solve problems,” said Draper. “The primary incentive is to make sure they stay in the good graces either of the party, or of that fringe group that’s active in the primaries.”

Top figures in both major parties, including Nevada’s Republican governor and its two Democratic U.S. senators, oppose reform. A lawsuit brought by Democratic super-lawyer Marc Elias that aimed to keep the measure off the 2022 ballot was rejected by a judge.

Though elected Democrats in Nevada and some other blue states have come out against reform, the most vocal opponents have been red-state Republicans and national conservative groups. They argue it would confuse voters and further reduce confidence in election results.

Some even see a progressive plot. An October&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://thefga.org/research/ranked-choice-voting-partisan-plot-to-disrupt-elections/">analysis</a>&nbsp;by the conservative Foundation for Government Accountability called RCV a “scheme of the Left to disenfranchise voters and elect more Democrats.”

Florida, Tennessee, Idaho, Montana, and South Dakota — all Republican-controlled states — have passed legislation in recent years to ban RCV. Arizona’s GOP-controlled legislature also passed an RCV ban, but it was vetoed by Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat.

In Alaska, conservatives have launched a campaign to advance a ballot measure repealing their state’s reform. Palin, who has blamed the system for her loss to Peltola last year, calling it “wack,” is playing a prominent role in the effort.

Still, advocates say there are also signs of emerging interest among some Republicans in other states.

Last year, the GOP lost several winnable statewide races after primary voters nominated extremists like Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania and Kari Lake in Arizona. Now, some in the party think reform could allow them to advance more electable candidates.

“Even among Republicans, I’ve had my fair share of conversations where they are starting to recognize that the system isn’t putting forward candidates who are necessarily the best general election winners,” said Matt Germer, an associate director and elections fellow at the R Street Institute.

“So there’s even some growing interest among Republican electeds to say, hey, what we’re doing now is not growing our party. And if we really want to change our country, we’re going to need to grow our party, and that means appealing to enough voters to win elections.”

<a target="_blank" href="https://stateline.org/">Stateline</a>&nbsp;is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions:&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="mailto:info@stateline.org">info@stateline.org</a>. Follow Stateline on&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://facebook.com/statelinenewsroom">Facebook</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/stateline_news">Twitter</a>.

BY Zachary Roth&nbsp;&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://stateline.org/">Stateline</a>&nbsp;With U.S. democracy plagued by extremism, polarization and a growing disconnect between voters and lawmakers, a set of reforms that could dramatically upend how Americans vote is gaining momentum at surprising speed in Western states.Ranked choice voting, which asks voters to rank multiple candidates in order of preference, has seen its profile steadily expand since 2016, when Maine became the first state to adopt it. But increasingly, RCV is being paired with a new system for primaries known as Final Five — or in some cases, Final Four — that advances multiple candidates, regardless of party, to the general election.Together, proponents argue, these twin reforms deliver fairer outcomes that better reflect the will of voters, while disempowering the extremes and encouraging candidates and elected officials to prioritize conciliation and compromise.Ultimately, they say, the new system can help create a government focused not on partisan point-scoring but on delivering tangible results that improve voters’ lives.Alaska, the only state currently using RCV-plus-Final Four or Final-Five, appears to be seeing some benefits to its political culture already: After years of partisan rancor, both legislative chambers are now controlled by bipartisan majorities eager to find common ground and respond to the needs of voters, say lawmakers in the state who have embraced the new system.A slew of other states could soon follow in Alaska’s footsteps. Last year, Nevada voters approved a constitutional amendment that would create an RCV-plus-Final-Five system — for the measure to take effect, voters must approve it again next year.Efforts also are underway to get RCV-plus-Final-Five on Arizona’s 2024 ballot, and RCV-plus-Final-Four in Colorado and&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/idaho-open-primary-ballot-initiative-reaches-50000-signature-milestone%C2%A0">Idaho</a>&nbsp;— where organizers announced earlier this month that they’ve gathered 50,000 signatures (they need around 63,000 to qualify). Even Wisconsin Republicans, who in the redistricting sphere have fought reform efforts tooth and nail, in December held a hearing for bipartisan legislation that would create RCV-plus-Final-Five, though its prospects appear dim.Meanwhile, Oregon voters will decide next year whether to adopt RCV alone. And this year, Minnesota and Illinois lawmakers passed bills to study RCV, while Connecticut approved a measure that allows local governments to use it.There are even flickers of interest at the national level. In December alone, two leading Washington, D.C. think tanks that often find themselves on opposite sides — the conservative American Enterprise Institute and the liberal Center for American Progress — each held separate panel discussions that considered RCV-plus-Final-Four/Five.Katherine Gehl, the founder of the Institute for Political Innovation, and the designer of the Final Four/Five system, calls RCV-plus-Final-Five “transformational.” (Her organization now says advancing five candidates to the general works best, by giving voters more choices.)“There’s a huge pressure on reformers to say, this is not a silver bullet,” said Gehl. “And OK, I get that.”But, she added, “I think it’s as close to a silver bullet as you can come.”Meanwhile, a backlash to change is brewing, with several Republican-led states banning RCV in recent years. A coalition of national conservative election groups last month&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://electiontransparency.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/11/ETI_WI_Coalition_Letter.pdf">warned</a>&nbsp;Wisconsin’s legislative leaders that RCV and Final Five are “intended to dramatically push our politics to the Left.”<h2>Understanding the process</h2>Here’s how RCV-plus-Final-Four/Five works.In the primary election, candidates from all parties compete against each other, with voters picking only their top choice, as in a conventional election. The top four or five finishers, regardless of party, advance to the general.In the general, voters use RCV to pick the winner. They fill out their ballot by ranking as many of the candidates as they want, by order of preference.If no candidate wins a majority of first-place votes, the candidate who finished last is eliminated, and his or her supporters’ second-place votes are allocated. If there’s still no candidate with a majority, the process is repeated with the next-to-last candidate. This continues until someone gains a majority and is declared the winner.Supporters of the system say the Final Four/Five primary gives a voice to a broader share of voters, while the use of RCV in the general helps ensure a fairer result. Under the current system, two similar candidates together may win a clear majority but split voters between them, allowing a third candidate to win with a minority of votes.But even more important, many advocates argue, is how the two reforms together can change how candidates and elected officials of all stripes approach their jobs, by adjusting the incentive structure they operate under.Increasingly, many states and districts are solidly red or blue, meaning the general election is uncompetitive, and the key race takes place in the primary. That’s a problem, because the primary electorate is by and large smaller, more partisan and more extreme than the general electorate.Right now, with politicians worrying more about the primary than the general, they’re more focused on playing to their base than on reaching beyond it and solving problems, critics argue. It isn’t hard to find evidence for this lately, both in Washington and in state capitals across the country.By allowing multiple candidates to advance, Final Four/Five shifts the crucial election from the primary to the general. And RCV means the votes of Democrats in red districts and Republicans in blue ones still matter, even if their top choice remains unlikely to win.Together, it means candidates are rewarded for paying attention to the entire general electorate, not just a small slice of staunch supporters. As a result, it encourages candidates — and elected officials, once in office — toward moderation and problem-solving, and away from extremism.“People do what it takes to get and keep their jobs,” said Gehl, the Final Four/Five designer. “So if you change who hires and fires, which is to say, November voters instead of primary voters, and you change the system so that there’s real competition in November every time, even once you’re an incumbent, that forces accountability.”<h2>A success story from the Last Frontier?</h2>The experience of Alaska, whose voters passed an RCV-plus-Final-Four system in 2020, offers an illustration.At its first use in 2022, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an independent-minded Republican distrusted by the party’s conservative wing, was reelected. Mary Peltola, a moderate Democrat who kept in place her Republican predecessor’s chief of staff, was elected to the U.S. House, defeating Sarah Palin, the conservative Republican former governor. (Murkowski and Peltola endorsed each other).Meanwhile, voters reelected Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a conservative Republican – suggesting, reformers say, that the system can produce a wide range of outcomes.And more women ran in 2022 than in the five previous cycles combined — highlighting how allowing anyone to run, regardless of party, can boost opportunities for under-represented groups.But the effect on how candidates and lawmakers have approached their jobs has been more dramatic still, advocates say.Senate Majority Leader Cathy Giessel, a Republican, told the Center for American Progress event that, after angering GOP voters by working collaboratively with Democrats, she lost her 2020 primary, held under the old election system, to a staunch conservative. Giessel had been in office since 2011.Giessel said that when she ran again last year under RCV-plus-Final-Four, her campaign didn’t even buy the database showing voters’ party affiliations that most candidates rely on to identify supporters, because she needed to target voters of all stripes. Helped by being the second choice of many Democratic voters in the general election, Giessel won back her seat.“You’re requiring us as candidates to be much more authentic,” said Giessel of the new system. “We’re not speaking to a party platform anymore. We’re speaking to the citizens.”Giessel now leads a bipartisan majority coalition, formed within days of the election. Members have focused on consensus issues that are priorities for voters, including boosting education funding, lowering the cost of energy and passing a balanced budget.“We have seen much more collaboration on the budget,” said Giessel. “There’s a much more open process now, understanding that everyone needs to have input.“An&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://rstreet.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/REALFINAL_policy-short-no-122-no-embargo.pdf">analysis</a>&nbsp;by the R Street Institute, a center-right Washington, D.C. think tank, found that Alaska’s new election system “gave citizens greater choice and elevated the most broadly appealing candidates, in turn improving representation.”Reformers in Nevada — gearing up for next year’s campaign to pass RCV-plus-Final-Five a second time after it won with 53% of the vote last year — have noticed Alaska’s early success.Over 40% of all registered voters in the Silver State aren’t affiliated with a major party, and the figure is growing. It was these voters’ frustration over being denied a voice in the state’s taxpayer-funded closed primaries that initially drove the push for reform, said Mike Draper, the communications director for Nevada Voters First, a political action committee that organized the ballot measure.As in Alaska and elsewhere, there was also a related concern about politicians playing only to their base.“Candidates and electeds, through no fault of their own, are not incentivized to … work to solve problems,” said Draper. “The primary incentive is to make sure they stay in the good graces either of the party, or of that fringe group that’s active in the primaries.”Top figures in both major parties, including Nevada’s Republican governor and its two Democratic U.S. senators, oppose reform. A lawsuit brought by Democratic super-lawyer Marc Elias that aimed to keep the measure off the 2022 ballot was rejected by a judge.<h2>‘A scheme of the Left’?</h2>Though elected Democrats in Nevada and some other blue states have come out against reform, the most vocal opponents have been red-state Republicans and national conservative groups. They argue it would confuse voters and further reduce confidence in election results.Some even see a progressive plot. An October&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://thefga.org/research/ranked-choice-voting-partisan-plot-to-disrupt-elections/">analysis</a>&nbsp;by the conservative Foundation for Government Accountability called RCV a “scheme of the Left to disenfranchise voters and elect more Democrats.”Florida, Tennessee, Idaho, Montana, and South Dakota — all Republican-controlled states — have passed legislation in recent years to ban RCV. Arizona’s GOP-controlled legislature also passed an RCV ban, but it was vetoed by Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat.In Alaska, conservatives have launched a campaign to advance a ballot measure repealing their state’s reform. Palin, who has blamed the system for her loss to Peltola last year, calling it “wack,” is playing a prominent role in the effort.Still, advocates say there are also signs of emerging interest among some Republicans in other states.Last year, the GOP lost several winnable statewide races after primary voters nominated extremists like Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania and Kari Lake in Arizona. Now, some in the party think reform could allow them to advance more electable candidates.“Even among Republicans, I’ve had my fair share of conversations where they are starting to recognize that the system isn’t putting forward candidates who are necessarily the best general election winners,” said Matt Germer, an associate director and elections fellow at the R Street Institute.“So there’s even some growing interest among Republican electeds to say, hey, what we’re doing now is not growing our party. And if we really want to change our country, we’re going to need to grow our party, and that means appealing to enough voters to win elections.”<a target="_blank" href="https://stateline.org/">Stateline</a>&nbsp;is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions:&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="mailto:info@stateline.org">info@stateline.org</a>. Follow Stateline on&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://facebook.com/statelinenewsroom">Facebook</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/stateline_news">Twitter</a>.

How a new way to vote is gaining traction in states — and could transform US politics

Mary Beth Wagner, 85, Rush Center, Kansas, passed away Friday, December 29, 2023, at Hays Medical Center, Hays, Kansas.

Mary Beth was born July 1, 1938, in La &nbsp;Crosse, Kansas, the daughter of Cyril P. and Marie B. (Jira) Schmidt. &nbsp;She was a lifelong resident of Rush County, Kansas. &nbsp;A 1956 graduate of La Crosse High School, La Crosse, Kansas, she was co-owner of Red’s Recreation, and &nbsp;an administrative assistant for many years before her retirement.

Mary Beth loved her family, and especially enjoyed attending her grandchildren’s activities, no matter what they might be. &nbsp;She was a talented seamstress, the family genealogist, and enjoyed her flower garden and house plants.

On June 9, 1961, she married Lloyd W. “Red Fox” Wagner at Junction City, Kansas. &nbsp;He preceded her in death October 29, 2013.

Survivors include: &nbsp;three sons, Tracy Wagner (Sue), La Crosse, Kansas, Terry Wagner (Julie), Rush Center, Kansas, and Ted Wagner (Lisa), Pawnee Rock, Kansas; one daughter, Tanya Pierce (Dean), La Crosse, Kansas; one step son, Preston Wagner (Maribeth), La Crosse, Kansas; two step daughters, Linda L. Redona (Raul), Palm Springs, California, and Tammy Wagner, Rush Center, Kansas; grandchildren, Ashley Boone (Spencer), Matthew Wagner (Dekota), Sarah Riedel (Aaron), Marissa Wagner, Tessa Pierce, Cole Pierce, Blake Pierce, and Danielle Wagner; great grandchildren, Milo, Coen, Adalyn, Lane and Maverick; step grandchildren, Melissa, Nicole, Amber, Jessica, Chris, Patrick, Saria, and Caladonia; 26 step great grandchildren; four &nbsp;brothers, Gary Schmidt, La Crosse, Kansas, Richard Schmidt, La Crosse, Kansas, Joe Schmidt, Wamego, Kansas, and John Schmidt, Hoisington, Kansas; and her faithful companion and best friend, Poncho.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; son, Travis Wagner; step son, Mark Wagner; three step grandchildren, Jason Wagner, Samuel Kelley, and Kacy Addams; three brothers, Mark Schmidt, Michael Schmidt, and Galen Schmidt; and two sisters, Judy Addams, and Debbie Hollis.

Visitation will be Tuesday, January 2, 2024, from 4:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. at the Janousek Funeral Home, La Crosse, Kansas, with the family receiving friends from 6:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M. &nbsp;

Church visitation will be Wednesday, January 3, 2024, from 9:00 A.M. to 9:50 A.M. at Hope Lutheran Church, Rush Center, Kansas.

Funeral service will be Wednesday, January 3, 2024, at 10:00 A.M. at Hope Lutheran Church, Rush Center, Kansas, with Rhonda Templing, S. A. M. officiating. &nbsp;Interment will be in Hope Lutheran Cemetery, Rush Center, Kansas.

In lieu of flowers or plants, the family requests memorials to Hope Lutheran Cemetery, Rush Center, Kansas, or the Rush County EMTs.

Condolences or remembrances may be left for the family at www.janousekfuneralhome.com.

Arrangements were by Janousek Funeral Home, 719 Pine Street, P O Box 550, La Crosse, Kansas 67548, 785/222-2517.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/12/1704057138412.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Mary Beth Wagner, 85, Rush Center, Kansas, passed away Friday, December 29, 2023, at Hays Medical Center, Hays, Kansas.Mary Beth was born July 1, 1938, in La &nbsp;Crosse, Kansas, the daughter of Cyril P. and Marie B. (Jira) Schmidt. &nbsp;She was a lifelong resident of Rush County, Kansas. &nbsp;A 1956 graduate of La Crosse High School, La Crosse, Kansas, she was co-owner of Red’s Recreation, and &nbsp;an administrative assistant for many years before her retirement.Mary Beth loved her family, and especially enjoyed attending her grandchildren’s activities, no matter what they might be. &nbsp;She was a talented seamstress, the family genealogist, and enjoyed her flower garden and house plants.On June 9, 1961, she married Lloyd W. “Red Fox” Wagner at Junction City, Kansas. &nbsp;He preceded her in death October 29, 2013.Survivors include: &nbsp;three sons, Tracy Wagner (Sue), La Crosse, Kansas, Terry Wagner (Julie), Rush Center, Kansas, and Ted Wagner (Lisa), Pawnee Rock, Kansas; one daughter, Tanya Pierce (Dean), La Crosse, Kansas; one step son, Preston Wagner (Maribeth), La Crosse, Kansas; two step daughters, Linda L. Redona (Raul), Palm Springs, California, and Tammy Wagner, Rush Center, Kansas; grandchildren, Ashley Boone (Spencer), Matthew Wagner (Dekota), Sarah Riedel (Aaron), Marissa Wagner, Tessa Pierce, Cole Pierce, Blake Pierce, and Danielle Wagner; great grandchildren, Milo, Coen, Adalyn, Lane and Maverick; step grandchildren, Melissa, Nicole, Amber, Jessica, Chris, Patrick, Saria, and Caladonia; 26 step great grandchildren; four &nbsp;brothers, Gary Schmidt, La Crosse, Kansas, Richard Schmidt, La Crosse, Kansas, Joe Schmidt, Wamego, Kansas, and John Schmidt, Hoisington, Kansas; and her faithful companion and best friend, Poncho.She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; son, Travis Wagner; step son, Mark Wagner; three step grandchildren, Jason Wagner, Samuel Kelley, and Kacy Addams; three brothers, Mark Schmidt, Michael Schmidt, and Galen Schmidt; and two sisters, Judy Addams, and Debbie Hollis.Visitation will be Tuesday, January 2, 2024, from 4:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. at the Janousek Funeral Home, La Crosse, Kansas, with the family receiving friends from 6:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M. &nbsp;Church visitation will be Wednesday, January 3, 2024, from 9:00 A.M. to 9:50 A.M. at Hope Lutheran Church, Rush Center, Kansas.Funeral service will be Wednesday, January 3, 2024, at 10:00 A.M. at Hope Lutheran Church, Rush Center, Kansas, with Rhonda Templing, S. A. M. officiating. &nbsp;Interment will be in Hope Lutheran Cemetery, Rush Center, Kansas.In lieu of flowers or plants, the family requests memorials to Hope Lutheran Cemetery, Rush Center, Kansas, or the Rush County EMTs.Condolences or remembrances may be left for the family at www.janousekfuneralhome.com.Arrangements were by Janousek Funeral Home, 719 Pine Street, P O Box 550, La Crosse, Kansas 67548, 785/222-2517.

Mary Beth Wagner

Government rental assistance, a boon during the pandemic, has dwindled. Some states are working on their own solutions.

By CASEY QUINLAN,&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/02/19/rural-hospitals-gird-for-unwinding-of-pandemic-medicaid-coverage/">States Newsroom</a>

Maine’s housing authority received $35 million in 2023 — the first time in 54 years it has received a direct appropriation from the state budget — to help build more affordable rental housing for communities that have struggled to keep up with high housing prices.

The state’s program provides funding to developers for affordable housing projects with between five and 18 units, a size that housing advocates say is sorely needed in many rural communities. That includes construction for new housing, reuse of buildings for housing and rehabilitation of existing housing.

Mark Wiesendanger, director of development at MaineHousing, said that as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates it was difficult for the independent state agency to support itself at the level the program needed, but that political leaders saw the value of their work and were able to make the historic investment because of a&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.pressherald.com/2023/08/17/state-budget-surplus-provides-another-65-million-for-affordable-housing/">$141 million budget surplus</a>.

Wiesendanger said there’s a lack of housing across the income spectrum in the state, which has some of the oldest housing stock in the nation. He said some of the housing needs to be condemned and replaced, and that much of it is inefficient to heat. To make matters worse, when the pandemic began and many people with the ability to telecommute moved to the state, the population shift drove up housing prices and wages didn’t keep up.

“[The coast of Maine] is a very expensive place to live,” he said. “Folks that work there as fishermen or people who work in the local restaurants, local mechanics and firefighters, have a hard time paying to live in those towns.”

The scenery may be different from state to state but the housing landscape is much the same across the country: People are struggling to find a home they can afford. Legislators, state agencies and the Biden administration this year proposed a raft of legislation and programs to tackle the problem. Advocates say states need to do even more to prioritize housing needs.

From January 2019 to January 2023, the average rent in a U.S. city shot up 19.38%&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUUR0000SEHA">according to</a>&nbsp;St. Louis Fed data. In 22 states and the District of Columbia, people need a wage above&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://nlihc.org/oor">$26 an hour</a>&nbsp;to afford a two-bedroom rental home, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. According to rental data from CoreLogic, a company that analyzes property, financial and consumer information, the median renter household pays $500 more than it did in 2020.

The combination of high mortgage rates and low housing inventory contributed to those soaring rental prices which hit just as the federal programs and protections put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic ended.

Andrew Aurand, senior vice president for research at the National Low Income Housing Coalition, said long-standing problems in the housing market were exacerbated by rental inflation in 2021 going into 2022.

“We saw that massive increase in rental inflation that fortunately has flattened now and rent prices have stabilized, but the damage has been done in terms of higher rents for those lowest income renters,” he said. “ … General demand for rental housing has increased quite significantly over the past decade. And so that has squeezed the lowest income renters even more as demand for rental housing has been pretty significant. It’s taken quite a while for supply to catch up.”

As rents went up, the number of people without a home also increased. U.S. homelessness, as measured by a single night in January 2023, rose 12% from last year,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.hud.gov/press/press_releases_media_advisories/HUD_No_23_278">according to</a>&nbsp;a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development report released on Dec. 15.

But as Aurand noted, the situation is starting to show signs of improvement.

There has been an&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNDCON5MUSA">increase</a>&nbsp;in privately owned housing units under construction this year, from 932,000 in January 2023 to 988,000 in November 2023. In 2022, the Biden administration&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/05/16/president-biden-announces-new-actions-to-ease-the-burden-of-housing-costs/">released a plan</a>&nbsp;to increase the housing supply, which included expanding federal financing of loans for affordable multifamily development homes and&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/07/27/biden-harris-administration-announces-actions-to-lower-housing-costs-and-boost-supply/">removing a cap</a>&nbsp;for larger loans to build and rehabilitate certain homes.

But Mari Castaldi, director of state housing policy at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, said that it’s up to states and localities to prioritize housing. States have recognized this, with lawmakers introducing more than&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.ncsl.org/state-legislatures-news/details/targeting-policies-that-help-families-stay-afloat">2,500 bills</a>&nbsp;related to housing and homelessness this year in 49 states and D.C., Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam, according to the National Conference for State Legislatures. This is almost twice the number of bills the legislatures introduced in 2022. Ninety-three bills specific to rental assistance were introduced in 27 states this year compared to 56 bills in 12 states in 2022. Expect more of the same in the coming year.&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://newjerseymonitor.com/2023/12/20/legislative-plan-to-overhaul-affordable-housing-prompts-applause-warnings/">New Jersey lawmakers</a>&nbsp;introduced an affordable housing “fix” just ahead of Christmas, and New Hampshire legislators have&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2023/12/21/a-deep-need-lawmakers-propose-slew-of-2024-bills-to-address-housing-shortages/">prefiled numerous bills</a>&nbsp;aimed at adding more affordable housing for their session that starts on Jan. 3.

“What we’re seeing is that more and more, given the political dynamics in Washington, D.C., and particularly the debates around the debt ceiling, the prospects for sorely needed expansion of investments in affordable housing resources is uncertain at best,” Castaldi said. “We’re seeing, really out of necessity, and based on the needs in their community, states are starting to step in and try to begin filling those massive gaps.”

Affordable housing solutions across the U.S.

The number of these programs varies greatly from state to state. New York, Minnesota, California, Massachusetts and Illinois had the most rental housing programs in the U.S., with more than 17 programs, according to an October National Low Income Housing Coalition&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/2023-10/state-and-local-investments-rental-housing-report.pdf">report</a>, and Oklahoma, Alabama, Idaho and Montana were among the states with the fewest, with one to seven programs. The organization found zero programs in Arkansas and Wyoming but cautioned that this may simply mean there is no online information about them, not that they absolutely do not exist in these states. The Arkansas Development Finance Authority told States Newsroom that it administers a state Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program similar to the federal program that encourages affordable rental housing development.

Aurand said some states and cities are also finding creative ways to support affordable housing efforts, and Denver is one example. The city’s marijuana tax revenue provided&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.westword.com/marijuana/denver-crosses-500-million-marijuana-tax-revenue-18073791#:~:text=Dispensary%20sales%20mirrored%20the%20same,fund%20local%20affordable%20housing%20programs.">$8.7 million</a>&nbsp;for affordable housing assistance this year. One downside of this approach, however, is that it is dependent on those sales, which have been&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/next/next-with-kyle-clark/where-does-denver-marijuana-money-go/73-34246b01-9e80-417f-b832-145affa468c3#:~:text=Denver%20hit%20%24500%20million%20in,sale%20on%20January%201%2C%202014.&amp;text=DENVER%20%E2%80%94%20Every%20time%20someone%20lights,couple%20cents%20in%20tax%20revenue.">falling</a>.

The funding for these programs comes down to the political will to fund programs as well as funding existing resources to support them, housing advocates said.

“Generally speaking, the states with the largest number of programs tend to be more socially progressive in terms of government programs, so I do think that plays a factor,” Aurand said. “Given that we focus on extremely low-income renters, it takes a lot of resources to adequately serve the lowest income population to meet their needs.”

States can also come up with solutions that are more tailored to their particular housing needs. Wiesendanger, of MaineHousing, explained that although the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Low Income Housing Tax Credit program is helpful for addressing rental affordability in Maine, it has its drawbacks. It can be hard for some developers to use the program to build more affordable rental housing, he said.

“It requires a certain amount of scale to work because there’s so many fixed costs in those projects — design fees, legal fees, things of that nature,” he said. “ … So in these rural areas where, let’s say, they need 15 units in a town, but these projects really need to be 20, 30, 40, 50 units to work, it’s really hard to make that program work there.”

He said the Maine program also comes with fewer requirements so that less sophisticated developers can use it.

Minnesota’s approach to affordable rental housing targets many different populations with smaller programs, such as Bridges Rental Assistance, which focuses on people and families where at least one person has a serious mental illness. The program assists them while they wait to get into another housing program, such as Section 8 housing. The Homework Starts with Home program is designed to help children stay in their school through supporting their family’s housing.

Housing advocates in Minnesota would still like to see larger programs, however, to serve the full needs of people in the state. According to Minnesota Housing Partnership’s analysis of 2021 census data, more than three-quarters of low-income people in the state are spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs, which means they are “cost-burdened.” Fifty-seven percent of Black renters were cost-burdened compared with 45% of white renters. Sixty-three percent of seniors had to spend more than 30% of their income on housing.

Elizabeth Glidden, deputy director of Minnesota Housing Partnership, said she’s seeing more political support for rental assistance in Minnesota than in other states. She said these conditions may have been influenced by a very large&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://minnesotareformer.com/2023/06/05/how-minnesota-will-spend-1-billion-on-housing/">budget surplus</a>, which she said has made it easier to bring more attention to housing. But she added that she has also seen more bipartisan support for affordable housing than in the past.

“Does that mean that we are meeting the need? It doesn’t mean that we are meeting the need. It just means that there has been over time and across bipartisan lawmakers, you’re seeing more attention that has been spent on meeting housing needs than some other locations around the country,” she said.

The Family Homeless Prevention and Assistance Program, which helps tenants with rent deposits and rent payments, is an example of that shift, since the program once was funded at $20 million for two years to serve the entire state but has been dramatically expanded this year. In March, the Senate voted to provide $50 million for the program, which received&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kttc.com/2023/03/29/mn-senate-allocates-50m-homelessness-aid/">bipartisan support</a>, and Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Tim Walz signed the bill into law later that month.

Jewelean Jackson, 74, has lived in Minneapolis for about 50 years, and is an advocate for changing housing policy in the city. Jackson has received housing assistance that she said was vital to ensuring that she didn’t become unhoused again. Jackson said she has been living in a one-bedroom apartment for the past three years. Before getting the apartment she spent eight years living in shelters or her car, but was able to avoid living in an encampment, she said. She was worried about losing housing again when her rent increased from about $270 a month to almost $500 a month in 2022 but was able to stave off eviction from December 2022 to March 2023 with rental assistance funds.

“Society always all of a sudden discovers that it has this heart when there’s a tragedy,” Jackson said of changes in housing policy that started with the COVID-19 pandemic. “And so as a result of COVID, it has loosened the system’s strings. It has not been as difficult to get in and out of some of the programs and people have been a little bit more sympathetic as a result of COVID. But we’re a far cry from being where we need to be in terms of homelessness in this country, including Minnesota.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1600338481812.png" alt="&nbsp;When pandemic rental funding and protections ended rents soared across the country and many people became homeless for the first time. New programs proposed by states and Biden administration aim to reverse that trend. Google image" />
 <figcaption>&nbsp;When pandemic rental funding and protections ended rents soared across the country and many people became homeless for the first time. New programs proposed by states and Biden administration aim to reverse that trend. Google image</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Government rental assistance, a boon during the pandemic, has dwindled. Some states are working on their own solutions.</h2>By CASEY QUINLAN,&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/02/19/rural-hospitals-gird-for-unwinding-of-pandemic-medicaid-coverage/">States Newsroom</a>Maine’s housing authority received $35 million in 2023 — the first time in 54 years it has received a direct appropriation from the state budget — to help build more affordable rental housing for communities that have struggled to keep up with high housing prices.The state’s program provides funding to developers for affordable housing projects with between five and 18 units, a size that housing advocates say is sorely needed in many rural communities. That includes construction for new housing, reuse of buildings for housing and rehabilitation of existing housing.Mark Wiesendanger, director of development at MaineHousing, said that as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates it was difficult for the independent state agency to support itself at the level the program needed, but that political leaders saw the value of their work and were able to make the historic investment because of a&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.pressherald.com/2023/08/17/state-budget-surplus-provides-another-65-million-for-affordable-housing/">$141 million budget surplus</a>.Wiesendanger said there’s a lack of housing across the income spectrum in the state, which has some of the oldest housing stock in the nation. He said some of the housing needs to be condemned and replaced, and that much of it is inefficient to heat. To make matters worse, when the pandemic began and many people with the ability to telecommute moved to the state, the population shift drove up housing prices and wages didn’t keep up.“[The coast of Maine] is a very expensive place to live,” he said. “Folks that work there as fishermen or people who work in the local restaurants, local mechanics and firefighters, have a hard time paying to live in those towns.”The scenery may be different from state to state but the housing landscape is much the same across the country: People are struggling to find a home they can afford. Legislators, state agencies and the Biden administration this year proposed a raft of legislation and programs to tackle the problem. Advocates say states need to do even more to prioritize housing needs.<h2>The problem renters are facing</h2>From January 2019 to January 2023, the average rent in a U.S. city shot up 19.38%&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUUR0000SEHA">according to</a>&nbsp;St. Louis Fed data. In 22 states and the District of Columbia, people need a wage above&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://nlihc.org/oor">$26 an hour</a>&nbsp;to afford a two-bedroom rental home, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. According to rental data from CoreLogic, a company that analyzes property, financial and consumer information, the median renter household pays $500 more than it did in 2020.The combination of high mortgage rates and low housing inventory contributed to those soaring rental prices which hit just as the federal programs and protections put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic ended.Andrew Aurand, senior vice president for research at the National Low Income Housing Coalition, said long-standing problems in the housing market were exacerbated by rental inflation in 2021 going into 2022.“We saw that massive increase in rental inflation that fortunately has flattened now and rent prices have stabilized, but the damage has been done in terms of higher rents for those lowest income renters,” he said. “ … General demand for rental housing has increased quite significantly over the past decade. And so that has squeezed the lowest income renters even more as demand for rental housing has been pretty significant. It’s taken quite a while for supply to catch up.”As rents went up, the number of people without a home also increased. U.S. homelessness, as measured by a single night in January 2023, rose 12% from last year,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.hud.gov/press/press_releases_media_advisories/HUD_No_23_278">according to</a>&nbsp;a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development report released on Dec. 15.But as Aurand noted, the situation is starting to show signs of improvement.There has been an&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNDCON5MUSA">increase</a>&nbsp;in privately owned housing units under construction this year, from 932,000 in January 2023 to 988,000 in November 2023. In 2022, the Biden administration&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/05/16/president-biden-announces-new-actions-to-ease-the-burden-of-housing-costs/">released a plan</a>&nbsp;to increase the housing supply, which included expanding federal financing of loans for affordable multifamily development homes and&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/07/27/biden-harris-administration-announces-actions-to-lower-housing-costs-and-boost-supply/">removing a cap</a>&nbsp;for larger loans to build and rehabilitate certain homes.But Mari Castaldi, director of state housing policy at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, said that it’s up to states and localities to prioritize housing. States have recognized this, with lawmakers introducing more than&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.ncsl.org/state-legislatures-news/details/targeting-policies-that-help-families-stay-afloat">2,500 bills</a>&nbsp;related to housing and homelessness this year in 49 states and D.C., Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam, according to the National Conference for State Legislatures. This is almost twice the number of bills the legislatures introduced in 2022. Ninety-three bills specific to rental assistance were introduced in 27 states this year compared to 56 bills in 12 states in 2022. Expect more of the same in the coming year.&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://newjerseymonitor.com/2023/12/20/legislative-plan-to-overhaul-affordable-housing-prompts-applause-warnings/">New Jersey lawmakers</a>&nbsp;introduced an affordable housing “fix” just ahead of Christmas, and New Hampshire legislators have&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2023/12/21/a-deep-need-lawmakers-propose-slew-of-2024-bills-to-address-housing-shortages/">prefiled numerous bills</a>&nbsp;aimed at adding more affordable housing for their session that starts on Jan. 3.“What we’re seeing is that more and more, given the political dynamics in Washington, D.C., and particularly the debates around the debt ceiling, the prospects for sorely needed expansion of investments in affordable housing resources is uncertain at best,” Castaldi said. “We’re seeing, really out of necessity, and based on the needs in their community, states are starting to step in and try to begin filling those massive gaps.”<h2>Affordable housing solutions across the U.S.</h2>The number of these programs varies greatly from state to state. New York, Minnesota, California, Massachusetts and Illinois had the most rental housing programs in the U.S., with more than 17 programs, according to an October National Low Income Housing Coalition&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/2023-10/state-and-local-investments-rental-housing-report.pdf">report</a>, and Oklahoma, Alabama, Idaho and Montana were among the states with the fewest, with one to seven programs. The organization found zero programs in Arkansas and Wyoming but cautioned that this may simply mean there is no online information about them, not that they absolutely do not exist in these states. The Arkansas Development Finance Authority told States Newsroom that it administers a state Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program similar to the federal program that encourages affordable rental housing development.Aurand said some states and cities are also finding creative ways to support affordable housing efforts, and Denver is one example. The city’s marijuana tax revenue provided&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.westword.com/marijuana/denver-crosses-500-million-marijuana-tax-revenue-18073791#:~:text=Dispensary%20sales%20mirrored%20the%20same,fund%20local%20affordable%20housing%20programs.">$8.7 million</a>&nbsp;for affordable housing assistance this year. One downside of this approach, however, is that it is dependent on those sales, which have been&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/next/next-with-kyle-clark/where-does-denver-marijuana-money-go/73-34246b01-9e80-417f-b832-145affa468c3#:~:text=Denver%20hit%20%24500%20million%20in,sale%20on%20January%201%2C%202014.&amp;text=DENVER%20%E2%80%94%20Every%20time%20someone%20lights,couple%20cents%20in%20tax%20revenue.">falling</a>.The funding for these programs comes down to the political will to fund programs as well as funding existing resources to support them, housing advocates said.“Generally speaking, the states with the largest number of programs tend to be more socially progressive in terms of government programs, so I do think that plays a factor,” Aurand said. “Given that we focus on extremely low-income renters, it takes a lot of resources to adequately serve the lowest income population to meet their needs.”States can also come up with solutions that are more tailored to their particular housing needs. Wiesendanger, of MaineHousing, explained that although the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Low Income Housing Tax Credit program is helpful for addressing rental affordability in Maine, it has its drawbacks. It can be hard for some developers to use the program to build more affordable rental housing, he said.“It requires a certain amount of scale to work because there’s so many fixed costs in those projects — design fees, legal fees, things of that nature,” he said. “ … So in these rural areas where, let’s say, they need 15 units in a town, but these projects really need to be 20, 30, 40, 50 units to work, it’s really hard to make that program work there.”He said the Maine program also comes with fewer requirements so that less sophisticated developers can use it.<h2>Finding the political will</h2>Minnesota’s approach to affordable rental housing targets many different populations with smaller programs, such as Bridges Rental Assistance, which focuses on people and families where at least one person has a serious mental illness. The program assists them while they wait to get into another housing program, such as Section 8 housing. The Homework Starts with Home program is designed to help children stay in their school through supporting their family’s housing.Housing advocates in Minnesota would still like to see larger programs, however, to serve the full needs of people in the state. According to Minnesota Housing Partnership’s analysis of 2021 census data, more than three-quarters of low-income people in the state are spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs, which means they are “cost-burdened.” Fifty-seven percent of Black renters were cost-burdened compared with 45% of white renters. Sixty-three percent of seniors had to spend more than 30% of their income on housing.Elizabeth Glidden, deputy director of Minnesota Housing Partnership, said she’s seeing more political support for rental assistance in Minnesota than in other states. She said these conditions may have been influenced by a very large&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://minnesotareformer.com/2023/06/05/how-minnesota-will-spend-1-billion-on-housing/">budget surplus</a>, which she said has made it easier to bring more attention to housing. But she added that she has also seen more bipartisan support for affordable housing than in the past.“Does that mean that we are meeting the need? It doesn’t mean that we are meeting the need. It just means that there has been over time and across bipartisan lawmakers, you’re seeing more attention that has been spent on meeting housing needs than some other locations around the country,” she said.The Family Homeless Prevention and Assistance Program, which helps tenants with rent deposits and rent payments, is an example of that shift, since the program once was funded at $20 million for two years to serve the entire state but has been dramatically expanded this year. In March, the Senate voted to provide $50 million for the program, which received&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kttc.com/2023/03/29/mn-senate-allocates-50m-homelessness-aid/">bipartisan support</a>, and Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Tim Walz signed the bill into law later that month.Jewelean Jackson, 74, has lived in Minneapolis for about 50 years, and is an advocate for changing housing policy in the city. Jackson has received housing assistance that she said was vital to ensuring that she didn’t become unhoused again. Jackson said she has been living in a one-bedroom apartment for the past three years. Before getting the apartment she spent eight years living in shelters or her car, but was able to avoid living in an encampment, she said. She was worried about losing housing again when her rent increased from about $270 a month to almost $500 a month in 2022 but was able to stave off eviction from December 2022 to March 2023 with rental assistance funds.“Society always all of a sudden discovers that it has this heart when there’s a tragedy,” Jackson said of changes in housing policy that started with the COVID-19 pandemic. “And so as a result of COVID, it has loosened the system’s strings. It has not been as difficult to get in and out of some of the programs and people have been a little bit more sympathetic as a result of COVID. But we’re a far cry from being where we need to be in terms of homelessness in this country, including Minnesota.”

States and Biden administration push efforts to aid renters

Across 21 states, nearly 40 percent of those who lost Medicaid coverage are children

BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/nadahassanein/">NADA HASSANEIN</a> <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/">Kansas Reflector</a>

Eight months&nbsp;after states started&nbsp;dropping millions of low-income families&nbsp;from&nbsp;Medicaid rolls, grassroots groups say they are leading the push to&nbsp;re-enroll people denied coverage for bureaucratic reasons.

Nationwide, more than&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/medicaid-enrollment-and-unwinding-tracker/#:~:text=At%20least-,11%2C967%2C000,-Medicaid%20enrollees%20have">12.5 million</a>&nbsp;people have lost coverage since April. That’s when the federal pandemic provision that had required states not to drop anyone from the rolls expired and states restarted income eligibility checks.

Federal officials over the summer allowed states to exercise&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/06/12/hhs-takes-additional-action-to-keep-people-covered-as-states-resume-medicaid-chip-renewals.html">flexibility</a>&nbsp;to avoid potentially unnecessary coverage losses, and mailed letters to governors warning that high numbers of removals for procedural reasons and long wait times could violate federal rules.

Still, as of Dec. 13,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/medicaid-enrollment-and-unwinding-tracker/#:~:text=with%20available%20data%2C-,71%25%20of%20all%20people,-disenrolled%20had%20their">71</a>&nbsp;percent&nbsp;of the people who were dropped lost their coverage through “procedural” disenrollments — that is, they were missing paperwork or otherwise didn’t complete the renewal process by a specified date — according to health policy research organization KFF.

Many of those people&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/medicaid-enrollment-and-unwinding-tracker/">may be eligible</a>&nbsp;for coverage, but struggle to get the paperwork through state bureaucracies.

Children, young adults, and&nbsp;Black and Hispanic people are overrepresented on the Medicaid rolls, compared with their share of the overall population. A federal Office of Health Policy&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/404a7572048090ec1259d216f3fd617e/aspe-end-mcaid-continuous-coverage_IB.pdf">brief</a>&nbsp;published in August 2022 ahead of the unwinding estimated&nbsp;that&nbsp;nearly one-third of those predicted to lose coverage would be Hispanic and another 15 percent Black — groups with health disparities that were magnified during the pandemic. About 60 percent of Medicaid enrollees are Black, Hispanic, Asian or multiracial.

More than 2.4 million children have lost coverage. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued another warning, mailing letters to governors of nine states — Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Dakota and Texas — with the highest&nbsp;rates of children dropped from the rolls.

Officials urged those states,&nbsp;which together have dropped&nbsp;60 percent of the children&nbsp;who have lost Medicaid coverage nationwide,&nbsp;to&nbsp;use flexibility provided by federal officials to “help prevent children and their families from losing coverage due to red tape,”&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/12/18/biden-harris-administration-releases-new-medicaid-chip-renewal-data-showing-role-statepolicychoices-play-keeping-kids-covered.html?preview=4hqrnHT295UmVM4R">noting</a>&nbsp;the efforts are “especially important for children and families of color.”

The department also noted that the 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid — Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming — “have disenrolled more children than those that have expanded combined.”

Federal officials also announced that relaxed rules that allowed automatic renewals will be continued through the end of 2024 to give states more time and keep more families covered.

States have released online tools to help local leaders and providers offer guidance on how to enroll. Texas, for example, created “<a target="_blank" href="https://www.hhs.texas.gov/providers/medicaid-business-resources/end-continuous-medicaid-coverage-ambassador-toolkit">ambassador</a>” toolkits in Spanish and English, with social media graphics and flyers geared toward families and older residents on how to set up an online account to re-enroll. Utah said it developed billboard and radio ads along with its own toolkits and flyers in 13 languages.

Still, grassroots groups say they are doing the heavy lifting.

These advocates’ outreach efforts go “beyond the walls of the capitol,” said Dr. Dena Hubbard, a neonatologist at Children’s Mercy hospital in Kansas City who chairs&nbsp;the public policy committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics’&nbsp;Kansas&nbsp;chapter.

“(They’re) going to people, meeting people where they are in their communities, knowing what they need, knowing where they are, and helping them get the services they need,” she said. “I strongly feel that grassroots is where it’s at.”

Karina Gonzalez’s 18-year-old son only has enough psychiatric medication to get him through the end of December.

The Kansas City, Kansas, mother of four is worried about what will happen next. Her family was dropped from Medicaid coverage in October, and the kids haven’t been able to go to any doctor’s appointments, she said.

Gonzalez’s household relies on the income of her husband, who works in construction.

“It has affected us,” Gonzalez said in Spanish as her 16-year-old daughter translated. She said she feels “frustrated and nervous,” especially amid flu season.

Gonzalez received a letter the first week of October saying the family was no longer covered. She said she didn’t know why they were dropped and struggled with the online KanCare system, which isn’t available in Spanish. That’s when she reached out to El Centro, a community health advocacy group that assists Kansas Latino families. Spanish-speaking patient navigators there have been helping her collect and submit documentation to get re-enrolled, she said.

Matt Lara, chief of staff of&nbsp;the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said aside from the online portal, applicants and families renewing whose first language isn’t English can call and be connected with a language assistance line.

“Kansas is not a Medicaid Expansion state, which means that our eligibility threshold for non-disabled, non-pregnant adults is incredibly low,” Lara said in an emailed statement on the rate of children losing coverage. “As a result, over&nbsp;2/3 of our enrollees are children, and that results in them being the largest cohort of members losing eligibility.”

In Utah, Oreta Tupola is the program coordinator for the Utah Community Health Workers Association. Her community health workers have been helping families in the Latino and Pacific Islander community reapply.

Families have been calling her from the emergency room after taking a relative there and finding out they no longer have coverage. Many clients of her community health workers suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, and take essential medications for the conditions.

“We started getting calls now from our clients saying, ‘I went to the doctor, or I’m at the ER, and I can’t get in. They won’t see me,’” Tupola said. “(They’d say) ‘I didn’t know I didn’t have coverage.’ Or one of the women that called me said, ‘Hey, I’m trying to go pick up my medicine and when I went to get my medication, that’s when I found out that I don’t have Medicaid anymore.’ Now we’re scrambling to get them back on and approved, which is another long process.”

Many of those who lost Medicaid coverage could qualify for it. Utah has the second-highest rate of people who lost coverage for administrative or paperwork reasons at 94%, following New Mexico at 95%.

New Mexico’s Health Services Department told Stateline in an email that it is using multilingual awareness campaigns along with some of the relaxed federal rules, such as a 30-day delay in procedural terminations, which extends the renewal deadline. As a result, the department asserts it is “seeing minimal eligibility closures.”

Last week, in two columns published in the monthly peer-reviewed health care journal Health Affairs, health policy experts addressed the unwinding.

“It should no longer be acceptable to maintain policies and practices that make it so difficult for people to enroll and retain their coverage,”&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/content/forefront/unwinding-should-call-action-fix-fragmented-system">wrote</a>&nbsp;experts from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research and policy institute that advocates for left-leaning policies. They said the process has cast a light on the nation’s “fragmented” health care system.

Allison Orris, a co-author and senior fellow at the center, said in an interview the continuous enrollment period showed the benefits of minimizing red tape on a larger scale.

The churn “is magnifying some of the challenges that have always existed in systems,” she said. “The pandemic really laid bare a lot of fractures across many social services programs, and in Medicaid, we know that there have always been a high number of people who were eligible for Medicaid but not enrolled — and that is likely a sign that it was too hard to get enrolled and to stay enrolled in coverage.”

Craig Wilson, director of health policy at the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, co-authored the second&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/content/forefront/medicaid-unwound-disenrolled-deserve-epilogue">column</a>. Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://ccf.georgetown.edu/2023/08/17/medicaids-coverage-role-in-small-towns-and-rural-areas/">reports</a>&nbsp;Arkansas has the largest share of rural children covered by Medicaid. About&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/medicaid-enrollment-and-unwinding-tracker/">59</a>&nbsp;percent&nbsp;of Medicaid enrollees lost coverage in Arkansas.

Wilson is calling for a multistate assessment to compare states’ eligibility redeterminations, who was most affected geographically and demographically, and where and whether they found other coverage — or fell through coverage gaps.

“There are some opportunities to learn from what happened here that can be applied in future situations,” especially for at-risk communities, he told Stateline. “If there are states that did some things differently, and were more precise, in identifying people who were either eligible or ineligible, and having them go in the appropriate direction.”

In Arkansas, 77 percent of the people dropped from Medicaid lost their coverage for procedural reasons, while 23 percent were dropped because they were deemed ineligible, according to KFF. Children account for more than a third of those who lost coverage in Arkansas.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/12/1703786411770.jpeg" alt="&nbsp;Children’s Defense Fund program director Graciela Camarena assists Lucia Salazar with filling out Medicaid and SNAP application forms for her family in Pharr, Texas, in November. States began dropping millions of low-income families from Medicaid rolls in April, and grassroots groups say they are taking the lead on getting people re-enrolled. (Michael Gonzalez/The Associated Press)" />
 <figcaption>&nbsp;Children’s Defense Fund program director Graciela Camarena assists Lucia Salazar with filling out Medicaid and SNAP application forms for her family in Pharr, Texas, in November. States began dropping millions of low-income families from Medicaid rolls in April, and grassroots groups say they are taking the lead on getting people re-enrolled. (Michael Gonzalez/The Associated Press)</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Across 21 states, nearly 40 percent of those who lost Medicaid coverage are children</h2>BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/nadahassanein/">NADA HASSANEIN</a> <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/">Kansas Reflector</a>Eight months&nbsp;after states started&nbsp;dropping millions of low-income families&nbsp;from&nbsp;Medicaid rolls, grassroots groups say they are leading the push to&nbsp;re-enroll people denied coverage for bureaucratic reasons.Nationwide, more than&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/medicaid-enrollment-and-unwinding-tracker/#:~:text=At%20least-,11%2C967%2C000,-Medicaid%20enrollees%20have">12.5 million</a>&nbsp;people have lost coverage since April. That’s when the federal pandemic provision that had required states not to drop anyone from the rolls expired and states restarted income eligibility checks.Federal officials over the summer allowed states to exercise&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/06/12/hhs-takes-additional-action-to-keep-people-covered-as-states-resume-medicaid-chip-renewals.html">flexibility</a>&nbsp;to avoid potentially unnecessary coverage losses, and mailed letters to governors warning that high numbers of removals for procedural reasons and long wait times could violate federal rules.Still, as of Dec. 13,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/medicaid-enrollment-and-unwinding-tracker/#:~:text=with%20available%20data%2C-,71%25%20of%20all%20people,-disenrolled%20had%20their">71</a>&nbsp;percent&nbsp;of the people who were dropped lost their coverage through “procedural” disenrollments — that is, they were missing paperwork or otherwise didn’t complete the renewal process by a specified date — according to health policy research organization KFF.Many of those people&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/medicaid-enrollment-and-unwinding-tracker/">may be eligible</a>&nbsp;for coverage, but struggle to get the paperwork through state bureaucracies.Children, young adults, and&nbsp;Black and Hispanic people are overrepresented on the Medicaid rolls, compared with their share of the overall population. A federal Office of Health Policy&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/404a7572048090ec1259d216f3fd617e/aspe-end-mcaid-continuous-coverage_IB.pdf">brief</a>&nbsp;published in August 2022 ahead of the unwinding estimated&nbsp;that&nbsp;nearly one-third of those predicted to lose coverage would be Hispanic and another 15 percent Black — groups with health disparities that were magnified during the pandemic. About 60 percent of Medicaid enrollees are Black, Hispanic, Asian or multiracial.More than 2.4 million children have lost coverage. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued another warning, mailing letters to governors of nine states — Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Dakota and Texas — with the highest&nbsp;rates of children dropped from the rolls.Officials urged those states,&nbsp;which together have dropped&nbsp;60 percent of the children&nbsp;who have lost Medicaid coverage nationwide,&nbsp;to&nbsp;use flexibility provided by federal officials to “help prevent children and their families from losing coverage due to red tape,”&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/12/18/biden-harris-administration-releases-new-medicaid-chip-renewal-data-showing-role-statepolicychoices-play-keeping-kids-covered.html?preview=4hqrnHT295UmVM4R">noting</a>&nbsp;the efforts are “especially important for children and families of color.”The department also noted that the 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid — Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming — “have disenrolled more children than those that have expanded combined.”Federal officials also announced that relaxed rules that allowed automatic renewals will be continued through the end of 2024 to give states more time and keep more families covered.States have released online tools to help local leaders and providers offer guidance on how to enroll. Texas, for example, created “<a target="_blank" href="https://www.hhs.texas.gov/providers/medicaid-business-resources/end-continuous-medicaid-coverage-ambassador-toolkit">ambassador</a>” toolkits in Spanish and English, with social media graphics and flyers geared toward families and older residents on how to set up an online account to re-enroll. Utah said it developed billboard and radio ads along with its own toolkits and flyers in 13 languages.Still, grassroots groups say they are doing the heavy lifting.These advocates’ outreach efforts go “beyond the walls of the capitol,” said Dr. Dena Hubbard, a neonatologist at Children’s Mercy hospital in Kansas City who chairs&nbsp;the public policy committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics’&nbsp;Kansas&nbsp;chapter.“(They’re) going to people, meeting people where they are in their communities, knowing what they need, knowing where they are, and helping them get the services they need,” she said. “I strongly feel that grassroots is where it’s at.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/12/1703786487819.jpeg" alt="&nbsp;Gov. Laura Kelly unveils her new Medicaid expansion proposal during a Dec. 14, 2023, news conference at Holton Community Hospital. Kansas is one of 10 states that haven’t expanded Medicaid. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>&nbsp;Gov. Laura Kelly unveils her new Medicaid expansion proposal during a Dec. 14, 2023, news conference at Holton Community Hospital. Kansas is one of 10 states that haven’t expanded Medicaid. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>‘Frustrated and nervous’</h2>Karina Gonzalez’s 18-year-old son only has enough psychiatric medication to get him through the end of December.The Kansas City, Kansas, mother of four is worried about what will happen next. Her family was dropped from Medicaid coverage in October, and the kids haven’t been able to go to any doctor’s appointments, she said.Gonzalez’s household relies on the income of her husband, who works in construction.“It has affected us,” Gonzalez said in Spanish as her 16-year-old daughter translated. She said she feels “frustrated and nervous,” especially amid flu season.Gonzalez received a letter the first week of October saying the family was no longer covered. She said she didn’t know why they were dropped and struggled with the online KanCare system, which isn’t available in Spanish. That’s when she reached out to El Centro, a community health advocacy group that assists Kansas Latino families. Spanish-speaking patient navigators there have been helping her collect and submit documentation to get re-enrolled, she said.Matt Lara, chief of staff of&nbsp;the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said aside from the online portal, applicants and families renewing whose first language isn’t English can call and be connected with a language assistance line.“Kansas is not a Medicaid Expansion state, which means that our eligibility threshold for non-disabled, non-pregnant adults is incredibly low,” Lara said in an emailed statement on the rate of children losing coverage. “As a result, over&nbsp;2/3 of our enrollees are children, and that results in them being the largest cohort of members losing eligibility.”In Utah, Oreta Tupola is the program coordinator for the Utah Community Health Workers Association. Her community health workers have been helping families in the Latino and Pacific Islander community reapply.Families have been calling her from the emergency room after taking a relative there and finding out they no longer have coverage. Many clients of her community health workers suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, and take essential medications for the conditions.“We started getting calls now from our clients saying, ‘I went to the doctor, or I’m at the ER, and I can’t get in. They won’t see me,’” Tupola said. “(They’d say) ‘I didn’t know I didn’t have coverage.’ Or one of the women that called me said, ‘Hey, I’m trying to go pick up my medicine and when I went to get my medication, that’s when I found out that I don’t have Medicaid anymore.’ Now we’re scrambling to get them back on and approved, which is another long process.”Many of those who lost Medicaid coverage could qualify for it. Utah has the second-highest rate of people who lost coverage for administrative or paperwork reasons at 94%, following New Mexico at 95%.New Mexico’s Health Services Department told Stateline in an email that it is using multilingual awareness campaigns along with some of the relaxed federal rules, such as a 30-day delay in procedural terminations, which extends the renewal deadline. As a result, the department asserts it is “seeing minimal eligibility closures.”<h2>Assessing the changes</h2>Last week, in two columns published in the monthly peer-reviewed health care journal Health Affairs, health policy experts addressed the unwinding.“It should no longer be acceptable to maintain policies and practices that make it so difficult for people to enroll and retain their coverage,”&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/content/forefront/unwinding-should-call-action-fix-fragmented-system">wrote</a>&nbsp;experts from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research and policy institute that advocates for left-leaning policies. They said the process has cast a light on the nation’s “fragmented” health care system.Allison Orris, a co-author and senior fellow at the center, said in an interview the continuous enrollment period showed the benefits of minimizing red tape on a larger scale.The churn “is magnifying some of the challenges that have always existed in systems,” she said. “The pandemic really laid bare a lot of fractures across many social services programs, and in Medicaid, we know that there have always been a high number of people who were eligible for Medicaid but not enrolled — and that is likely a sign that it was too hard to get enrolled and to stay enrolled in coverage.”Craig Wilson, director of health policy at the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, co-authored the second&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/content/forefront/medicaid-unwound-disenrolled-deserve-epilogue">column</a>. Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://ccf.georgetown.edu/2023/08/17/medicaids-coverage-role-in-small-towns-and-rural-areas/">reports</a>&nbsp;Arkansas has the largest share of rural children covered by Medicaid. About&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/medicaid-enrollment-and-unwinding-tracker/">59</a>&nbsp;percent&nbsp;of Medicaid enrollees lost coverage in Arkansas.Wilson is calling for a multistate assessment to compare states’ eligibility redeterminations, who was most affected geographically and demographically, and where and whether they found other coverage — or fell through coverage gaps.“There are some opportunities to learn from what happened here that can be applied in future situations,” especially for at-risk communities, he told Stateline. “If there are states that did some things differently, and were more precise, in identifying people who were either eligible or ineligible, and having them go in the appropriate direction.”In Arkansas, 77 percent of the people dropped from Medicaid lost their coverage for procedural reasons, while 23 percent were dropped because they were deemed ineligible, according to KFF. Children account for more than a third of those who lost coverage in Arkansas.Meanwhile, about 71 percent of Arkansans whose coverage was renewed retained coverage via the federal rule that allows states to use previous income records.<h2>Children without coverage</h2>Across 21 states reporting coverage losses by age brackets, 2.4 million, or 40 percent, of the people dropped from the rolls were children, according to KFF’s&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/medicaid-enrollment-and-unwinding-tracker/#:~:text=2023%2C%20at%20least-,2%2C376%2C000%20children,-had%20been%20disenrolled">analysis</a>.After Texas at 61 percent, Gonzalez’s Kansas ranks second among those 21 states in the proportion of children losing coverage, (55 percent), followed by Idaho (48 percent), Missouri (47 percent), Alaska (43 percent) and Minnesota (42 percent).Of the 21 states, Massachusetts had the lowest proportion of&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/medicaid-enrollment-and-unwinding-tracker/#:~:text=2023%2C%20at%20least-,2%2C376%2C000%20children,-had%20been%20disenrolled">children disenrolled</a>&nbsp;at 18 percent, followed by California at 21 percent. Some states, such as&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2023/12/13/nc-unwinding-medicaid-children/">North Carolina</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.wuky.org/local-regional-news/2023-11-16/as-pandemic-era-medicaid-extensions-expire-kentucky-is-the-first-state-to-offer-automatic-renewal-for-minors">Kentucky</a>, are keeping kids with pending renewals covered for another year while the states work on eligibility redeterminations.But experts such as Wilson worry that lack of communication from state Medicaid offices for another year will cause further confusion around coverage.“Many of those folks may not have had any communication with the Medicaid office in three or more years,” he said. “With a rather transient population, it’s going to become much more of an issue when the span of eligibility rate determination is much longer.”For now, some grassroots groups are relying on general outreach, such as putting up flyers and setting up tables at community events.Tupola, of the Utah Community Health Workers Association, said she wishes state Medicaid offices supported those on the ground like her organization, especially after national attention on the benefits of grassroots vaccination campaigns throughout the pandemic.“I think we don’t ever get called to the table until … the numbers are high, people are dying, or people are losing coverage,” she said.“You need to bring us in from the very beginning.”<a target="_blank" href="https://stateline.org/2023/12/21/grassroots-groups-help-medicaid-recipients-regain-lost-coverage/">This story</a>&nbsp;was produced by Stateline, a States Newsroom affiliate.