Lack of budget rankles Thompson

Since the Legislature adjourned last week for its month-long break, Rep. Kent Thompson has tried to put the state’s problems — mostly finances — out of his mind.
No luck.
“It’s always there,” Thompson said, referring to decisions legislators will have to make when they return for the wrap-up session on April 29.
He is distressed that the House, in his mind, ignored its duties and didn’t settle on a budget for fiscal year 2016 that starts July 1. Also, House members never had a chance as a whole to debate the budget and consider any means of putting into balance what the Senate passed.
The Senate version, with a $130 million deficit after cuts and one-time transfers, did have hearings in the House Appropriations Committee, but nothing was forwarded to full membership.
“Gene (Suellentrop, committee chairman and Republican from Wichita) said it will be May before any decisions were made,” Thompson said.
Legislators, the majority of whom are Republicans, said almost in chorus they would wait until the April 20 revenue estimates are announced before making serious overtures on how to deal with the revenue shortfall.
Then, Thompson added, “it will be interesting to see what tax bills the (appropriations) committee works. That will give a clue as to what the administration wants considered and what it has the votes to pass.”
When work on next year’s budget started the projected shortfall was $650 million. Cuts and transfers proposed by the Senate reduced that to the current $130 million deficit.
Early in the session, at Gov. Sam Brownback’s suggestion, increasing taxes on tobacco and alcohol was considered, and still is in the hopper. Thompson said that could raise as much as $100 million in the next year — if sales weren’t lost to neighboring states, mainly Missouri.
That could change income dynamics, he allowed, particularly since about 50 percent of Kansas’ population lives within 60 miles of Missouri, where “sin” taxes are lower. Also, a large number of those residents live in the Kansas City metro, which requires only a short drive to Missouri.
Discussion of an increase in the statewide sales tax continues to surface, Thompson said, although no specific proposals have been made. He suggested it might find traction if revenue estimates don’t show pronounced improvement.
Senate Bill 178 still has a glimmer of life; it would dramatically increase property taxes on agricultural land. Efforts to pass it have been met by strong opposition from farmers, who traditionally have been referred to as being land-rich but cash-poor.
“Other than that, I don’t know what might happen,” Thompson said, with an after thought that he found it remarkable an unbalanced budget was passed by the Senate and was left to the wrap-up sessions for definitive action. “I don’t think that has ever happened before.”

NOTHING ELSE of significance is expected to seize legislators when they trek back to Topeka late this month.
To date, a last-ditch effort to attach a Medicaid funding amendment to another bill hasn’t occurred, Thompson said.
“If it does, it would have to be put with a germane bill, something to do with health care,” and, he said, leadership has been careful not to put any bills up for debate that might be a conduit for the Medicaid issue.
Two years ago Gov. Brownback turned down a component of the Affordable Care Act that would have had the federal government pay 100 percent of Medicaid costs, and increase substantially the number of recipients in the state.
House committee hearings focused on the Medicaid issue this session and drew considerable positive testimony, including from a small-town doctor who said Medicaid payments being withheld threatened her practice and small hospital administrators who said their facilities were cash-strapped by the decision. One year of 100 percent federal reimbursement remains; afterward it would be 90 percent.
The bill to reverse the Medicaid decision wasn’t passed out of committee, meaning it wasn’t eligible for debate on the House floor.