Kansas

The House voted late last week to accept the Senate’s plan to more fully fund the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System.

The Kansas House adopted the state’s fiscal 2012 budget early in the morning of Friday the 13th on the last day of the 2011 session, sending the measure to Gov. Sam Brownback.

DALLAS — Kansas legislative negotiators reached agreement late Wednesday on a $14 billion budget for fiscal 2012 that reduces the per-pupil state aid stipend for Kansas’ 289 local school districts.

Kansas Senate leaders have reduced to $34 million the amount of bonds being sought for continuing restoration efforts at the state capitol.

State general fund tax collections topped $722 million in April, up from the $710 million expected, the Kansas Department of Revenue said last week.

The official estimate of Kansas revenues fell last week, as the state's Consensus Estimating Group lowered its outlook for fiscal 2012 by $21.5 million. The revenue estimate in the remainder of fiscal 2011 was also lowered by $10.2 million.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback ordered $56.5 million of spending cuts on Friday to balance the current budget after lawmakers failed to meet his deadline for resolving the revenue shortfall in fiscal 2011.

DALLAS — The Kansas House has approved a plan that resolves a revenue shortfall in fiscal 2011 by cutting state aid to local school districts and reducing salaries for some government executives.

DALLAS — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and top legislative leaders vowed last week to reform structural problems they said almost ensured expenditures would continue to exceed available revenues.

DALLAS — Kansas Gov. Sam ­Brownback delivered a proposed fiscal 2012 budget to lawmakers Thursday that would trim spending by $876.4 million.

DALLAS — Kansas tax collections totaled $489 million in December, leaving all revenues $22 million shy of official expectations for the first six months of fiscal 2011.

The Kansas Board of Regents will seek a $50 million increase in state aid to higher education in fiscal 2012 to restore some of the money lost to budget cuts over the past two years.

Two churches in Mission have filed suit in Johnson County District Court in Olathe seeking to overturn Mission's new transportation utility fee.

A group of parents in Johnson County Unified School District 512 has filed a federal suit asking that the local district be allowed to raise the property tax levy.

A special legislative committee in Kansas has recommended reconsidering two state pension reform bills next year that failed in the 2010 Legislature.

DALLAS — Kansas state tax receipts in November failed to meet forecasters’ projections by a slim margin, but still posted a significant gain over year-ago collections.

DALLAS — A statewide revolving loan program to upgrade and improve municipal water and sewer systems in Kansas will be financed with proceeds from this week’s negotiated sale of $231.2 million of revenue bonds.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $63.2 million of Build America Bonds that a school district in Finney County, Kan., issued in mid-2009 to finance a new high school and an addition to an elementary school, according to the district’s chief financial officer.

DALLAS — Kansas’ projected expenditures will outstrip revenues by almost $500 million in fiscal 2012 under a new financial forecast released Tuesday by the official Consensus Estimating Group.

DALLAS — Kansas revenue collections posted a slight but unexpected increase in September, as all three monthly collections for the first quarter of fiscal 2011 have met or exceeded predictions.