DALLAS – As state revenues continue to fall, Kansas lawmakers are looking for ways to close the chronic budget deficit.
The House Appropriations Committees and Senate Ways and Means Committee held their first hearings Tuesday on Gov. Sam Brownback's proposed $16 billion budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
To close a $200 million deficit in the current and coming fiscal years, Brownback proposes reducing funding for the Kansas Department of Transportation by about $27 million and sweeping funds from other state agencies.
Kansas tax revenues of $534 million for January fell $6.8 million or 1.25% below projections, continuing a pattern that has persisted for more than a year.
The state lowered official expectations for revenue estimates in November. But even after that, the state remains more than $26 million below the revised estimates.
"Corporate income taxes – which have not had a rate change – and sales tax receipts continue to struggle in part because of weaker aviation, oil and agriculture sectors," said Revenue Secretary Nick Jordan in a statement.
Although Brownback did not mention the prolonged budget crisis in his State of the State address, he did pronounce the state's condition as "strong," and described an economy that was growing increasingly healthy.
"We've created an economic environment that has seen Kansas gain more than 78,000 private sector jobs and achieve its lowest unemployment rate in 14 years," he said.
Two years after beginning the process of reducing income taxes and shifting the tax burden to sales taxes, Brownback called for further efforts to cap property taxes.
"Since 1999, when the property tax lid was lifted, Kansans have seen those tax rates increased by 24%, and property tax revenue increase by 92%," Brownback said
"Understandably, people do not like this. Your property taxes should not grow faster than your paycheck."
