Kansas Senate OKs $13.6B Budget With Tax Hikes

DALLAS — The Kansas Senate on Wednesday approved a $13.6 billion general fund budget for fiscal 2011 that will require lawmakers to raise taxes by at least $350 million.

The measure now goes to the House, which rejected a balanced-budget proposal from its appropriations committee that included no tax increases but would have cut state spending on public education and social services. A coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans combined to defeat the measure by a margin of 74 to 45.

Sen. Jay Emler, R-Lindsborg, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, which developed the Senate’s budget proposal, said lawmakers who voted in favor of the budget have an obligation to also approve the tax hikes needed to fund it.

“If you vote for a budget that is not balanced, then you must vote for the package that balances the budget,” Emler said.

The Senate tax package includes a three-year, 1% increase in the sales tax rate to 6.3% requested by Gov. Mark Parkinson. The measure, which would go into effect on June 1, would raise an estimated $365 million in fiscal 2011.

Senator rejected a proposal to increase the tax on a pack of cigarettes to $1.34, up from the current 55 cents per pack.

The Senate rejected a proposal by Sen. Ty Masterson, R-Andover, which included a $66 million reduction in state aid for local education and a 5% salary cut for state employees. Lawmakers did agree to study Masterson’s plan to raise $175 million in fiscal 2011 by liquidating or privatizing state assets.

Gov. Mark Parkinson, a Democrat, has vowed to veto any budget from the Republican-controlled Legislature that reduced state aid to education or contained salary cuts.

The Senate budget bill allocates funds to local school districts to make up for federal stimulus funds for education that will not be available in fiscal 2011. The rejected House version did not compensate districts for the lost funding, but did provide for increases in local property taxes.

The proposed budget would set state aid for local education at $4,012 per pupil.

Almost $200 million of non-tax revenues that are anticipated but not assured are included in the Senate budget. The plan relies on $25 million in earnest money from applicants for a casino in Sumner County, $131 million in Medicaid matching funds that have not been approved by the federal government, and $27 million in recovered Medicaid funding from a pilot program.

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