On Tuesday A Kansas senate panel moved to cut $128 million from K-12 education and $23 million dollars from higher education to help fill the state’s three hundred and ten million dollar budget shortfall.
AsThe Hutch News reports, the Senate ways and Means Committee approved the cuts, which would take place this fiscal year, as part of a larger budget bill that also reduces funding to state agencies.
Senator John Doll, a republican from Garden City said afterward that he supported the bill because of the state’s difficult fiscal situation and said he is hopeful that the state can start “turning the boat” in 2019, but that it faces a difficult reality in the short term.
“I know this year was going to be really rugged. Next year is going to be even worse,” he said. “We need to step up to the plate, take what we have coming to us, because we’re the ones that put ourselves in this position. When I say ‘we,’ I’m talking about all of us – voters, the Legislatuer, the governor, all of us. We’re all responsible for this.”
In a press briefing late Tuesday afternoon, Senate GOP leaders emphasized the need for a long-term, structural fix to the budget that avoids relying exclusively on one-time cash sources.
But in order for the cuts to be enacted, they will first have to pass the House and Senate and be signed by Gov Sam Brownback.
Meanwhile, the Kansas Supreme Court could issue a decision at any moment in the Gannon case, potentially mandating additional state spending on education.
