Legislative researchers predict a $492 million deficit in the Kansas budget for fiscal year 2012, which begins July 1. Much of the shortfall will be created when federal stimulus funds dry up next year. Hope for new federal money dried up when the House of Representatives went Republican with a bang on Nov. 2.
The Kansas Legislature went even farther to the tax-cutting right and Gov. Sam Brownback won a smashing 63 percent victory with his pledge to freeze spending.
But spending will have to be more than frozen if today’s fiscal estimates prove accurate.
It will be necessary to take all of the income from the penny sales tax increase and all of the funds earmarked for a new highway program, along with the gambling revenue which usually goes to economic development to keep spending level, according to outgoing Budget Director Duane Goossen.
But even if the governor and the lawmakers agree to make these temporary diversions, it still may be necessary to cut school aid or trim spending for education or social services in some other way, the bean counters say.
Without getting specific, Gov. Brownback says he wants to make “structural” changes in the way the state taxes and spends rather than shifting money around in the coming year to keep the budget balanced when it is obvious that the problem will re-emerge the following year.
He would like to reduce state income taxes, for example, to stimulate the economy. That’s a tactic that will make even more spending cuts necessary. He has yet to hint at which state function he wants to shrink.
Since he was elected to Congress in 1994, Gov. Brownback has consistently favored smaller government and held to the theory that cutting taxes and reducing government regulation will strengthen the private sector and make life cheerier for all. He and those who subscribe to this economic and political catechism have never had a better opportunity to give it full rein.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
