Kansas sinking under a false vision of purpose

opinions

February 25, 2011 - 12:00 AM

Squeeze a balloon to make it narrow. It responds by bulging elsewhere in exact proportion. No surprise.
Increase spending on special education in Kansas schools by $26 million. Take the money from another state spending slot, such as KPERS. KPERS reserves fall and must be replaced. Surprised?
Budget balloon squeezing is all the rage in Topeka these days.
Gov. Sam Brownback wants the Legislature to cut spending enough so that they build up reserve funds of about $35 million at the beginning of the next fiscal year, July 1.
But the federal government has warned the lawmakers that if they don’t increase spending on special education by $26 million, Kansas will lose that much in federal spending EVERY YEAR from this point forward.
The House passed a spending bill ignoring the federal warning and producing the surplus the governor seeks. The Senate said no. It didn’t think losing $26 million in federal funding every year for the foreseeable future was very smart. Better do as Uncle says. So their spending bill boosted special ed funding as required.
Now comes the squeezing. The Senate has suggested delaying a scheduled $69 million quarterly payment by the state to the pension fund which would free up the $26 million required and produce an ending cash balance of about $83 million. Since that wouldn’t be new money, it would have to be replaced in fiscal ’12, causing more budget balancing problems a few months from now.
The House had another plan. Cut state aid to the school districts by another $40 a student and spend the money on special ed to stave off the federal cuts. Reducing state aid by another $26 million would mean a total reduction of $272 per student, or a drop of about 7 percent over the current year.

GOV. BROWNBACK and the Legislature have a king-sized budget challenge, to be sure. Using current numbers, next year’s budget deficit is projected at $492 million. Much of that is because the federal stimulus funds the state used to replace recession-caused revenue losses stopped coming. The rest of the shortfall is because tax revenues haven’t recovered to 2007-08 levels.
The governor and the Legislature — which is dominated by Republicans many of whom share Gov. Brownback’s anti-tax conservatism — seem determined to cut their way out of this mess.
If they continue on that route, education in Kansas will be in tatters.
Funding the public schools, K-12, takes about 52 percent of the state budget. Higher education requires another 15-17 percent. The remainder is spent on what most Kansans consider essential services: health care for the poor, including the elderly in nursing homes; providing for those with disabilities; building and maintaining highways; the state court system; law en-forcement; prisons; the state parks.
Meaningful budget reductions can only come from these areas. If a half-billion budget deficit is covered with spending cuts, the face of Kansas will be changed beyond recognition and many of today’s young Kansas families will pack up and leave.
That doesn’t have to happen. Kansas is not an impoverished state. We can afford excellent schools, outstanding universities and compassionate treatment for those in need. Kansas can raise the money required to meet the needs of its citizens as well in 2011 as those needs were met in 2007.
It simply is not true that Kansas must give up and accept a self-imposed penury.
We can decide to go forward, then get together and write a plan to do just that. What else is a state government for, anyway?

 

— Emerson Lynn, jr.

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