TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Republicans who control the Kansas Legislature were looking Thursday for ways to meet a court mandate to boost funding for poor school districts without busting the state budget, but a top Democrat said they and GOP Gov. Sam Brownback should just pony up.
GOP leaders and House and Senate budget committee members said lawmakers probably won’t increase overall state spending by the full $129 million that the state Department of Education estimates would cover deficiencies in aid to poor school districts. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled last week that past cuts in the aid created unconstitutional gaps in funding between poor districts and wealthier ones and ordered legislators to fix the problems by July 1.
The state could tap its cash reserves to cover all of the extra costs, but half a dozen key Republican legislators said they oppose such a move or don’t think the GOP-dominated Legislature would approve it. They said alternatives include shifting existing funds for public schools around or cutting other parts of the budget.
“It’s not likely that we just whip out the checkbook and write a check off of the taxpayers’ account,” said Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican.
But House Minority Leader Paul Davis, a Lawrence Democrat hoping to unseat Brownback in the governor’s race this year, said the state should pay the full amount. In a statement, Davis said the money should come from “the budget surplus so frequently touted by the Brownback administration.”
Brownback has repeatedly noted that, following the Great Recession, the state had virtually no cash reserves when he took office in January 2011, and those reserves rose to more than $700 million by the end of June. But the Legislature’s research staff projects those reserves will melt away by July 2017, largely because of personal income tax cuts enacted at Brownback’s urging, worth nearly $3.9 billion over the next five years.
“Our children can never reclaim the opportunities they were denied as a result of state budget cuts, but we can act now and set things right,” Davis said in his statement.
Brownback argues that the tax cuts will stimulate the economy, boosting state revenues, and the state collected $118 million more than expected in tax revenues from July 2013 through last month.
He told reporters that his administration isn’t giving legislators any advice about how to address aid to poor districts other than, “Let’s fix it.”
“People have to start talking and wrestling and seeing, OK, what resources do we have available to us right now?” the governor said. “Fortunately, we’ve got some resources.”
The Legislature’s research staff projects the state will end June with cash reserves of $531 million and June 2015 with reserves of $248 million, but those figures don’t include the surplus in tax collections or budget adjustments that lawmakers are debating.
Rep. Pete DeGraaf, a conservative Mulvane Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, said he’d like the state to keep cash reserves at more than $450 million, in line with guidelines in state law.
Another Republican committee member, Rep. Kyle Hoffman of Coldwater, said tapping cash reserves for the full cost is “not going to be the solution.” He added that legislators should look for cuts elsewhere in the budget.
“I would anticipate that there’ll probably be some new money and some saved money - probably more saved money than new money,” Hoffman said.
Several Republican leaders insisted all options remain open, but House Speaker Ray Merrick, a Stilwell Republican, said the state’s overall fiscal health must be considered.
“That would be the easy, easy out, throw money at it and walk away,” Merrick said. “We’re a long way from the conclusion that we’re going to have to take X amount of money and have to put it in.”
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Kansas Legislature: https://www.kslegislature.org
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