TOPEKA — Gov. Sam Brownback and Republican leaders from the Kansas House and Senate have agreed to divide the chores of revamping Medicaid, public school funding and the unfunded liability in the state's public employee retirement plan.
In a joint press conference Wednesday, Brownback said if major changes don't happen soon in each of those areas of state responsibility then Kansas government will face ongoing budget problems regardless if the economy picks up.
"We have a structural budget deficit," Brownback told reporters. "We must grow our economy and restructure state government. It begins with addressing our approach to three core responsibilities that have major impact on our state's budget - education, KPERS and Medicaid."
Gov. Sam Brownback makes the case for a major restructuring
of state government during a joint press conference with
House and Senate leaders. Left to right are Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer,
Senate Pres. Steve Morris, Brownback and House Speaker Mike O'Neal.
(photo by Mike Shields)
School finance
Article 6 of the Kansas Constitution obliges the Legislature to make "suitable provision for finance of the educational interests of the state."
School districts several years ago sued over the "suitability" of the funding approved for them by the Legislature and prevailed in a 2005 Kansas Supreme Court ruling that remains irksome for many legislators, particularly Republicans.
House Speaker Mike O'Neal, R-Hutchinson, said the House will begin crafting a new definition of "suitable provision," something he has pushed for as a legislator for several years, dating back to when he was chairman of the House Education Committee and predating the Supreme Court's decision in Montoy v State of Kansas.
In a short interview with KHI News Service following the press conference, O'Neal said he preferred that the new definition take form as a constitutional amendment, so that future legislatures couldn't undo the new definition by writing special provisions into spending bills.
Pension fund
Senate President Steve Morris said the Senate would take the lead on finding a solution to the $7.7 billion unfunded liability facing the public employees' pension fund. Unfunded liability is the term used to describe the gap between the value of the fund's investment assets and its benefit obligations to government workers.
Report on the long-term outlook
for the Kansas Public
Employees Retirement System
The Legislature took steps to deal with the issue in 2003, 2004 and again in 2007. But failed in 2010 to pass bills that would have increased pension contributions from employees, employers and/or both. An interim legislative committee later recommended that two of the bills, HB 2400 and SB 564, be reintroduced this session.
Medicaid
Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, an Overland Park plastic surgeon, said he would head sub-cabinet meetings including heads of the various state agencies that deal with the Medicaid program. Budget Director Steven Anderson also will be part of the group.
Their goal, according to the governor, will be to improve the quality of care for Medicaid beneficiaries while cutting costs to taxpayers.
The sub-cabinet will include Dr. Bob Moser, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment; Andy Allison, executive director of the Kansas Health Policy Authority; Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services Secretary Rob Siedlecki and Shawn Sullivan, secretary of the Department on Aging.
Colyer said the group was soliciting ideas for pilot projects and Medicaid reforms from "stakeholders and citizens."
The ideas are to be submitted by Feb. 28 to Barb Langer, director of Medicaid at KHPA.
KHPA last February announced a similar appeal for cost-cutting ideas.
Then, last October, the agency issued a Request for Information, asking managed care companies and others for ideas how to hold down state Medicaid spending.
Brownback and Colyer have each said they hope to find significant savings in Medicaid through expanded use of managed care.
The governor, in his proposed budget, has called for merging KHPA with KDHE. He also called for merging several other state agencies.
On Wednesday, he said his Executive Reorganization Orders, or EROs, for the proposed agency mergers would be released in the next few days, perhaps as soon as Friday.