By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The economic consequences of COVID-19 to the state budget aren't fully known, but the Chief Executive Officer of Kansas Policy Institute isn't optimistic.
"It is going to be exponentially worse," said Dave Trabert. "The official number from the Kansas Consensus Revenue Estimating Group would put next year's deficit at $653 million. It could be easily double that."
The assumptions made by the estimators believe in more of a bounce than is currently evident.
"They are, unbelievably, only predicting a two-year loss, the rest of this year and next year, a two-year loss of $88 million in state revenue. That's less than 10% of what we lost over two years in the Great Recession and every indicator says this is far worse than what happened back then."
The response to the pandemic in Kansas is different than some other states that Trabert cited Tuesday.
"This is going to be really, really ugly," Trabert said. "The Governor shut down the state. There were eight states that weren't shut down by their governors. Guess what? They not only have better COVID outcomes than the shut down states, they also have far less job loss. This was preventable."
The special session that starts Wednesday likely will not address the budget. They'll save that heavy lifting for after the election in November.