NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Spending at the state level still increased in the budget passed by the Kansas Legislature, according to Republican Rep. Paul Waggoner. He told Hutch Post this week that the State General Fund budget was about $9.5 billion for fiscal 2024, up from $9.1 billion in 2023.
"Part of that's driven by the Supreme Court decision on school funding," Waggoner said. "Part of that was just a number of other increases that may or may not have been avoidable. Probably, the most unavoidable one that we had, though it was only about $150 million of the total was raises for state employees. This would be corrections, this would be highway patrol, this would be just employees across the board. There have been some wage studies that showed, in certain areas in particular, Kansas really is trailing where it should be, as far as on wages, as far as to attract employees. I know, the state prison, it's been a real issue. There are things that are very legitimate."
Also, the costs of raw materials for things like road work continue to escalate, but the state's receipts are going up fast, too.
"You would think, at a certain point, you would get a little more flatness to it, or it would just strictly track inflation," Waggoner said. "Certainly, the last three or four years, it hasn't been moderated, at all."
Now, thanks to continued receipts outpacing estimates, the state has $3 billion in a rainy day fund, but preparing for an economic downturn by reducing spending hasn't been the course thus far.
"The Republican legislature basically ended up where Laura Kelly ended up," Waggoner said. "There were things of hers that we cut and other things that we added, but, at the end of the day, we were almost identical to what Laura Kelly had proposed in her State of the State speech in January."
Also, the legislature failed to override Gov. Kelly's veto of a single income tax rate proposal, because the state senate was one vote short of the required two-thirds majority.
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