Gov. Sam Brownback today announced additional cuts today in the wake of declining income for the state.
The governor today announced an additional 2 percent cut to higher education and a 1.5 percent cut to kindergarten through 12th grade education. The cuts total $44.5 million and would be made in the first week of March.
“I am calling on the Legislature to reform equalization factors in the current school finance formula over the next 30 days to stall the increase of $54 million in Local Option Budget State Aid and Capital Outlay State Aid spending that was not appropriated by the Legislature in the Fiscal Year 2015 budget bill,” Gov. Brownback said. “By reforming the equalization factors, the legislature could, and should, restore the 1.5 percent allotment.”
The governor mentioned a recent grand piano expenditure of $48,000 for Sumner Academy as “symptomatic of the inherent flaws in the current formula. That money could and should have been used to hire another teacher to reduce class sizes and help improve academic achievement.”
“The dramatic increase in state education funding that has occurred over the last four years is unsustainable,” the governor said. “School districts are estimated to have approximately $381 million in reserve fund balances to help them offset the smaller than expected increase in state funding. The Kansas Department of Education should work with school districts to help them with any cash flow challenges that may arise.”
The Kansas National Education Association stated that the cause of the reduced Kansas revenue was the governor’s income tax cuts.
“The simple fact of the matter is that the tax cuts demanded by Gov. Brownback and passed by the Legislature have decimated the state’s revenue stream,” the Kansas National Education Association stated in its newsletter today.
“The Kansas economy is lagging most other states including our neighbors, revenue collections continue to come in below expectations, and still the Legislature is hesitant to address the underlying problem of unsustainable tax cuts,” the KNEA stated.