U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, the Republican candidate for governor of Kansas, has proposed a spending freeze for state government.
Brownback said he did not know how long the budget freeze would last. He promised to reallocate existing revenue to meet critical needs and to reorganize state agencies to eliminate unnecessary or duplicated services.
"Certainly these first actions taken will constitute only a start on the road to progress," Brownback said last week at a news conference. The "challenges we face in Kansas, and indeed in America, are not only very significant, they are of a depth and duration we have not seen for some time."
Brownback also said he wants to increase the average family income in the state, which has been at $34,500 for two years, and raise the level of private-sector employment. He said private payrolls have gone down 2.1% in the past 10 years, compared with an 8.8% increase in government employment.
Tom Holland, a state senator from Brunswick, is Brownback's Democratic opponent for governor.
