Governor Joins FMAP Push

Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson joined other governors last week in support of a proposal to continue a $25 billion program of emergency federal aid to state Medicaid programs.

The Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentage program is part of the federal stimulus effort. FMAP is set to expire at the end of 2010, but Parkinson said Kansas and many other states developed ­fiscal 2011 budgets that assumed Congress would extend the aid program through 2011.

If Congress allows FMAP to expire, Kansas would have to cut state aid to local public schools, according to the Democratic governor.

School districts in the state would have to layoff 3,600 teachers if that happened, he said.

The demise of the federal aid program would leave a $130 million hole in the state’s fiscal 2011 budget, Parkinson said.

“We have cut the waste that can be cut. We have cut beyond the waste,” he said. “If we do not receive this money that we are counting on, I will have to cut schools.”

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Healthcare industry
MORE FROM BOND BUYER