Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle says she and fellow Republican leaders thought they had an agreement among GOP senators on budget-balancing proposals, but said Thursday, "Things fell apart last night."
That led to Republican leaders in the Senate cancelling a floor debate on the education funding cuts and income tax increases planned for Thursday after it became clear they didn't have the 21 votes needed to support the cuts.
It was a sign that GOP leaders were having at least a little trouble selling a proposal to trim aid to public schools by $128 million by June 30. The cut would be about $279 per student.
“We’re at a point where there really are very few options left, so the choices are all bad, but within those choices, the worst choice would be about going back on commitments [lawmakers] made particularly to public education both k12 and higher education [when introducing block grants,]” said Kansas City Kansas School District’s David Smith. “Put forward a comprehensive plan that will provide enough revenues going forward to provide sustainable revenues for the state that will not cut schools.”
Some GOP senators believe the cut in aid to public schools is too steep with only months left in the school year, while Republicans who back the proposal believe districts could dip into their cash reserves to tide themselves over temporarily.
“I want to see the numbers. I want to see where we’re at, and I want a structurally fixed budget to where we’re not doing one time money. This does not work for me,” said first year Republican Sen. John Skubal of Overland Park. “If I had my way I would dial back to what we had in 2012, maybe make some modifications, look at the lower end and see that we’re not taxing people too much but, you know, if governments worth anything we have to fund it.”
Wagle said any package to balance the state budget through June 2019 will include spending cuts, tax increases and internal government borrowing.
The state is facing a projected shortfall in its current budget of about $320 million and total budget gaps of nearly $1.1 billion through June 2019.
Senate Republican leaders said Thursday the chamber would not consider any legislation until members agreed on proposals to balance the budget. Though 21 Republicans votes are needed to pass the budget on a partisan line, the budget would need 27 votes to withstand a veto from Governor Sam Brownback.
“The pressure is on now. If you have anything that you’re trying to get through committees, you’ve got important bills for your constituents and so forth, they are going to die. Anything you want to do up here isn’t going to happen unless we get this done, unless we fall in line and get the budget bill and the tax bill passed,” said Leavenworth Sen. Steve Fitzgerald.
The Senate also planned to debate a separate bill that would bring in $660 million of revenue over two years by increasing rates and eliminating an income tax exemption for more than 330,000 farmers and business owners.
Democratic Senator David Haley from Kansas City, Kansas said Democrats are ready for the debate.
“It’s kind of disappointing. It’s a hurry up and wait situation when so many Kansans are curious right now to whether we’ll continue with the failed experiment or are we going to make some real progress toward plugging our budget hole,” said Haley.
The governor already has criticized the tax proposal.
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Brian Abel can be reached at brian.abel@kshb.com.
