By the Associated Press, March 14, 2011
Kansas House leaders prepared another bill on Monday with the goal of cutting as much as $35 million from the current state budget.
The bill made a whirlwind trip from the House floor to a committee and back as the House tried again to rein in government spending before the end of the fiscal year on June 30.
"This is an attempt to move the ball forward and capture extra dollars," said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Marc Rhoades, a Newton Republican.
Last week, Gov. Sam Brownback cut $56.5 million from the budget for the fiscal year that ends June 30. Lawmakers are looking to slice about $35 million in state spending to give the state a cushion as it enters 2012.
House leaders used a rare procedure Monday to send the measure back to committee. As debate was getting started, Democrats sought to have each item of an amendment offered by Rhoades voted on one at a time. Instead, House leaders pulled the bill and sent it to the Appropriations Committee, where the panel’s Republican majority inserted the contents with little opposition.
The House was scheduled to debate the new bill Tuesday, but Senate leaders said they weren’t interested.
"We like ours," said Senate Ways and Means Chairwoman Carolyn McGinn. "The governor’s already done part of it."
McGinn, a Sedgwick Republican, was the Senate’s lead negotiator during talks with the House that ended abruptly last Thursday after failing to find compromise. The Senate’s last offer would have resulted in about $21 million in savings. Rhoades and the House negotiators accepted that deal, but said they wouldn’t support it in the House or advocate for its passage, leading to the governor’s action Friday.
"Obviously, when they rejected the offer we accepted, we’re back to square zero," Rhoades said.
A sticking point was how the state would resolve a shortfall in special education funding. Federal officials have told Kansas that its level of funding, known technically as its maintenance of effort, is lacking in the 2011 budget. Kansas must put about $21 million in special education funds for the 289 school districts or face the loss of federal funds starting next year.
Legislators had tentatively agreed to delay making a payment to the teacher pension fund to cover the shortfall. House members put that compromise in their new proposal. The result would be a reduction in state aid per student in the 2012 budget year.
"We’ll look at it," McGinn said. "If I hear about a very sincere offer to move the process forward in both chambers, then we can have a discussion."