TOPEKA — Kansas House fiscal hawks debated Wednesday whether the chamber’s budget bill did enough in the upcoming fiscal year to grapple with the reality of the state spending $500 million more annually than collected in tax revenue.
The GOP-led chamber rejected amendments proposed by Democrats to substantially raise state aid to K-12 special education programs and to earmark $2.5 million to pay cafeteria meals for 30,000 lower-income public school students.
In addition, a House majority blocked a proposal to compel legislators to publicly reveal whenever they signed nondisclosure agreements with a company or organization involved in state economic development projects or contracts.
House Bill 2434, approved Thursday by the House on a 68-53 vote, would spend $10.8 billion from the state general fund in the fiscal year starting July 1. That would be a decline from $10.9 billion in the current fiscal year, but surpass the $10.3 billion spent in fiscal 2025. For comparison, state general fund expenditures in Kansas totaled $6.6 billion in fiscal year 2018.
“We’re moving in the right direction,” said Rep. Troy Waymaster, a Bunker Hill Republican and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. “It’s going to take some time. It’s going to take awhile to right the ship.”
The Kansas Senate has been developing an alternative budget. Eventually, a compromise bill must be crafted by negotiators from both chambers and presented to Gov. Laura Kelly.
Despite a state rainy day fund with a balance of approximately $2 billion, the governor and legislators from both political parties share anxiety about the combination of massive state income tax cuts and growth in state expenditures.
Structural imbalance
Rep. Henry Helgerson, a Wichita Democrat known for warning colleagues of budgetary doom, said the House’s unwillingness to align actual expenditures with revenue forecasts was a bad omen. He said it would be unwise to accept a provision in the House bill to allow spending of interest earned on the state’s rainy day fund.
“This is a precursor to a tax increase or it is a precursor to taking the budget stabilization funds and distributing it for continued spending,” he said.
Rep. Sean Tarwater, R-Stilwell, said failure to tame the Legislature’s addiction to its saving account to balance the budget could end badly.
“In a few years, we’re going to be into that rainy day fund in a big way if we’re not careful,” he said.
In response, Waymaster said the 2026 budget would take a step toward bringing revenue and expenditures in line. He said the 2027 Legislature would handle another piece of the financial puzzle by overhauling the formula for funding public schools. House and Senate members ought to make “necessary changes” in the formula to stem the growth rate, he said.
“Are we going to be able to cut it? No, but I think there are some parameters that can be put in place so it’s not just a continual large increase that goes into K-12 annually,” Waymaster said.
Into the details
Under the House bill, no provision was made for state employee pay increases. It cut 1.5% from operating budgets, excluding the judicial and legislative branches, prisons, state hospitals, law enforcement and public universities. The bill granted KC2026, a nonprofit planning FIFA World Cup events in the Kansas City area, authority to spend $28 million in state funding.
The House package included $5.5 million for the state’s Blueprint for Literacy, $5 million for nuclear research at Kansas State University and $5 million for Alzheimer’s research at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
The bill set aside $10 million until the Kansas Department for Children and Families confirmed candy and soft drinks could no longer be bought with U.S. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamp, benefits. In addition, $21 million for extension services was frozen until formation of a reorganization plan to better meet needs of the agriculture sector.
