House Seeks Deeper Cuts

The Kansas House Appropriations Committee last week endorsed a plan to provide a surplus of $45 million at the end of fiscal 2011 by cutting state aid to local education and reducing state employee salaries by 7.5% through June 30. The committee’s plan may be considered by the full House this week.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee is considering a proposal by Gov. Sam Brownback that would cut spending over the remainder of fiscal 2011 by $35 million.

Brownback said he wanted the Legislature to send him a reconciled budget bill for fiscal 2011 by the end of February.

Both budget plans would lower ­per-pupil base funding by $75, reducing state aid to 289 public school districts in ­Kansas to $3,937 per student from $4,012.

The House committee defeated a Democratic proposal that would have raised education spending by $16 million in fiscal 2011 to avoid losing up to $70 million in future federal funding.

Kansas could be penalized by the cuts in education spending because it pledged to keep its support at fiscal 2006 levels in return for federal stimulus funds.

The salary cut would save $16.5 million, but $8.3 million of it would be earmarked for maintenance projects at state colleges and universities.

The Kansas Organization of State Employees denounced the salary reduction plan “a disgrace,” and Gary Sherrer, chairman of the Kansas Board of Regents, said it was “unfair and unnecessary.”

The House committee also directed the secretary of administration to develop by March 8 a system for determining how to sell up to 10% of state assets.

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