As legislators finish budget, spending worries some
By John Hanna - Associated Press Writer
May 3, 2007

How they voted

Lawmakers voting yes included Reps. Joe Humerickhouse, R-Osage City, Lee Tafanelli, R-Ozawkie, Kenny Wilk, R-Lansing, Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, Paul Davis, D-Lawrence, and Ann Mah, D-Topeka; and Sens. Roger Pine, R-Lawrence, and Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka.

Lawmakers voting no included Reps. Anthony Brown, R-Eudora, Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence, Marti Crow, and L. Candy Ruff, both D-Leavenworth, and Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City.

Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence, did not vote.

Topeka — Legislators finished a $12.5 billion budget before ending their annual session Wednesday, but some of them don’t think the state can sustain the spending, even for another two years.

The last piece of the budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 was a $308 million bill with money for dozens of projects and programs, approved 68-56 by the House and 23-15 by the Senate two hours later. Those votes sent the measure to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who will sign it but has the power to veto individual items.

The budget increases aid to public schools, provides $50 million to help fix crumbling higher education buildings, boosts spending on social services and gives pay raises and bonuses to state employees. It allows the state to expand its prison system and even contains money to keep the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame from closing.

But some of the spending will be financed from the state’s cash reserves, the money the treasury keeps on hand as a cushion against bad economic times. Those reserves are expected to top $844 million by July 1, but a year later, according to projections, they would drop by more than 60 percent to less than $318 million.

,b> The same forecast, by legislators’ research staff, projected the state will face a budget shortfall when lawmakers convene in 2009. The most persistent warnings came from conservative Republicans like Sen. Tim Huelskamp, who called the projections “stunning.”

“Eventually, you have to pay for what you spend,” said Huelskamp, R-Fowler, who voted against the last spending bill. “We’re looking at these huge red figures in ’09 and ’10 and on out, unless we pass a major tax increase.”