Dear Friend:
The legislature adjourned last night after a very intense 4-day Veto Session. The good news is the ceremonial end of session, “Sine Die,” is scheduled for June 1. Typically I could say with confidence we are done legislating for the year, but in this case we await the decision of the Kansas Supreme Court regarding the “equity” fix sent to them in the form of HB 2655. If that plan is rejected, the legislature will need to reconvene for a special session to deal with school finance.
We worked a long and contentious weekend to complete our work (the budget debate did not begin Sunday night until the stroke of midnight), with the budget overview delivered less than 30 minutes before debate began.
Budget Reconciliation Bill
Each year, we pass an “omnibus budget bill” to reconcile the differences between the state budget and new legislation passed during the session that contains a price tag for implementation. This year, much like the last several years, the omnibus budget also had to account for a significant budget shortfall.
Hammered out in conference committee this weekend, the omnibus budget contained elements of all three of the governor’s proposals for dealing with the $290 million revenue shortfall:
- Transfers $185 million more dollars out of the state highway fund
- Cuts university budgets an additional $17 million (in addition to March’s $17 million cuts)
- Delays $96 million payment to KPERS until June 2018
- Sweeps Tobacco Settlement funds that exceed amount appropriated
- Authorizes across-the-board 3% cuts to state agencies
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