By Dave Ranney, KHI News Service, December 14, 2009
TOPEKA — One night last week, Sen. Jay Emler, R-Lindsborg, arrived home to find an all-too-common message on his answering machine.
"It was from one of the disability groups," he said. "Whoever it was said, ‘
'You need to restore the cuts.'"
The caller reminded Emler, who is chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, that cuts to programs that help people with disabilities live in community settings will lead to more people ending up in nursing homes.
The cuts, according to the caller, will cost the state more than they will save.
"I understand that. I do, honestly," Emler said. "But the simple fact of the matter is we don’t have the money. It’s not that (legislators) don’t understand. We do, but that’s not the issue. The issue is we don’t have the money."
Most Kansans, he said, find that hard to believe.
"The thing you always hear is how there’s so much waste in government," Emler said. "My response to that is, ‘By all means, show me — show me where it is and I’ll go after it. But you’re going to have to show me because just thinking it’s there isn’t good enough. You show me, and I’ll go after it."
Lawmakers have cut about $1 billion in state spending over the past two budget cycles.
Last month, Gov. Mark Parkinson used fund transfers and spending reductions to offset a $258 million drop in projected revenue in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2010.
The state constitution requires a balanced budget.
More cuts to come
Included in the latest round of cuts was a 10 percent reduction in the rates paid the state’s Medicaid providers, a group that includes doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, mental health centers, and in-home programs for the disabled and the frail elderly.
Deeper cuts are on the way, Emler said.
"The governor, in my opinion, cut about half of what has to be cut," he said. "He cut $258.8 million; it needs to be $459 million. This is an interpretation-of-existing-law issue that will be worked out during the session."
"After that, I think we’re looking at well over $500 million in cuts in (fiscal year) 2011," Emler said. "And even more possibly in 2012 when the federal stimulus money goes away."
Emler said next year’s legislative session "will be horrible, no doubt about it."
He said a tax increase would not cure the state’s short-term budget ills.
"Keep in mind, it would take a minimum of 12 months — as much as 18 months — to see any benefit from an increase in the state sales or income tax," Emler said. "The other one is the property tax. It’s supposed to be one-third of the three-legged revenue stool, but right now, because sales and income (collections) are down, it’s at 42 percent (of total state revenue.) I don’t think you’d want to go there."
The Senate Ways and Means Committee meets at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Statehouse. Its agenda includes an update what the recent cuts mean for several state agencies, including the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services and the Kansas Health Policy Authority.
Another bad year
Now in its third year, the recession marks the first time since the Great Depression that state revenue collections have declined for more than two years in a row. Emler and others are predicting a fourth year of decline.
"Recessions tend to be cyclical in nature," said Kansas Legislative Research Department Director Alan Conroy. "What’s unique about the one we’re in now is there’s no end in sight. They’ve been fairly short-lived in the past, but this one is different. It’s persistent."
The state’s budget woes, he said, were not surprising.
"Half the State General Fund is tied to income taxes," said Conroy, who has tracked state budgets for 30 years. "So when you’re looking at an unemployment rate that — depending on where you are — is bouncing between 6 and 8 percent or, in some cases as high as 10 percent, it’s not hard to see how we got here. And then, of course, lower income tax translates into lower sales tax collections as well."
Rep. Bill Feuerborn, D-Garnett, is the ranking minority member on the House Appropriations Committee. He said he, too, has grown weary of the often-heard assumption that state government is rife with waste, fraud and abuse.
"A majority of the public, I think, is holding onto the notion that there’s still fat that can be cut," Feuerborn said. "But I think if you talk to the mental health centers or the senior citizen-type programs, they’ll tell you they’ve been cut all they can be cut."
Feuerborn cited the 10 percent cut in Medicaid rates.
"That’s going to affect just about every hospital in the state and a majority of the nursing homes," he said. "That’s going to affect real communities and real people."
But legislators, he said, may not detect a shift in public sentiment until next summer or fall.
"Schools have taken some drastic cuts," Feuerborn said. "but the effects of a lot of those cuts won’t be felt until the start of the next school year. That’s when I think you’ll hear people saying, 'Hey, wait a minute. This isn’t fat you’re cutting.'"