With the 2009 budget passed and lawmakers poring over federal stimulus money being made available, the Kansas Legislature is hard at work on the budget for 2010.
According to the Governor’s Budget Amendment for 2010 released on Friday by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, stimulus money to be used for K-12 education has the potential to hold education funding at 2008 levels for 2010 and 2011.
“The levels could be held at what they were for the 2008 budget year,” Sen. Jim Barnett said, “because the maintenance of effort requires that you maintain it at the highest level of effort for either 2008 or 2009.”
K-12 education funding was cut $33 per student for the 2009 budget year.
Barnett said that for higher education, the stimulus money could provide $80 million, provided that the state increases higher education funding by $50 million over the next two years.
“I think we should make every effort to do that,” Barnett said, “but we should encourage that the money be used for deferred maintenance and hopefully for tuition assistance. That is going to take effort on the state’s part, but I think we should make that effort.”
Rep. Peggy Mast has been in the House Appropriations Committee every morning working on a draft of the 2010 budget.
“It’s been a big challenge,” Mast said. “The 2010 budget has been up in the air” because of the federal stimulus package, “but we still had to be working every day in regard to trying to draft something, not knowing what the economic stimulus would look like.”
Mast said it still is unknown what effect the stimulus money will have on the various committees, and that some of them may have to go back and re-address some issues regarding the package.
“The economy and the budget have been very time-consuming issues,” Mast said.
Mast also said the 2010 budget may depend on when Sebelius leaves office to take up her post as President Barack Obama’s health and human services secretary.
“It’s going to be two to four weeks before the confirmation is actually taken care of, and in that amount of time, we’re still going to be working through budgets and energy issues,” Mast said. “If (Sebelius) sticks around a little bit longer, I think it’s going to be a bigger challenge because there is more of a partisanship with her presence in the capitol.”
Despite Mast’s wariness about working with Sebelius, she is optimistic about working with Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson.
“Parkinson had approached the leadership in the House prior to this announcement and basically said that he wanted to come to the table and work with the Legislature,” Mast said. “... I think he is someone who will be very reasonable in his approach to the Legislature.”
Other issues area legislators have been working on include a bill that was voted down in the Senate last week that would have allowed a seven day a week bingo parlor in Emporia.
Barnett said he voted no on the bill, because it would hurt veterans service organizations and the Emporia Senior Center.
This week, Barnett will be studying the issue of medical debt.
“Medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy in Kansas,” Barnett said. “One of the classic concerns is that if you go into the hospital for $20,000, if you’re a cash-paying patient, the bill is $20,000, but if you have insurance it may be a fourth of that.”
In addition to working on the House version of the budget, Mast has been in discussion with the Kansas Department of Labor regarding unemployment levels in the state.
“In the first two months of this year, we have already had more first-time unemployment benefits issued than for the entire previous year,” Mast said. “We’ve had 138,000 first-time unemployment benefits issued this year.”
In addition, the amount of money in the state’s unemployment trust fund has dwindled from $566 million at the first of the year to $492 million.
Mast spent the weekend visiting with constituents in different communities, and said she is impressed with the number of people who are informed on the issues and who are offering ideas.
“Especially when they’re focusing on helping to make cuts, which we know is the responsible thing to do,” Mast said. “A lot of constituents are concerned with how to address the money we may have coming in and using it wisely so that we don’t have to go back and face a shortfall in the near future.”