By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Kansas Association of School Boards Vice President for Advocacy Mark Tallman believes that the budget is likely going to be largely left alone when the legislature returns Thursday for Sine Die.
"At this point, there are no public plans on the legislature's part, that we've seen anyway, to make any adjustments," Tallman said. "That means it would likely fall to the Governor. I think most of the action's going to come back to a couple of issues specifically related to the COVID pandemic."
If the Governor is forced to do allotments because revenue doesn't come in, that creates other issues.
"The state can't run a deficit," Tallman said. "If the governor is officially notified we are projecting a deficit in the State General Fund, she may make what are called allotments, to achieve an ending balance between zero and $100 million, they have to be across the board cuts. If we are projecting below zero, an actual deficit, then the governor can make targeted changes at that point."
If cuts need to be made and are across the board, they would hit education quite a bit.
"Over 50% of the State General Fund budget goes to K-12 state aid, because Kansas schools are heavily funded by state aid," Tallman said. "Another 11% goes to higher education, the state universities, community colleges, technical schools. Twenty-six percent goes to human services, which is everything from state hospitals, foster care and a large portion of that, I believe over a billion dollars, is the state's matching money that we have to put in to draw down Medicaid support."
There's also 6% for Public Safety. The rest of the SGF past that is just 5%. The argument is that the appropriators lose control if they leave allotments to the governor, but also they aren't politically accountable if it ends up being her office that has to cut.