Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Governor Kathleen Sebelius released her plan to fix the state’s budget woes last week, but unfortunately the governor offered the Legislature few options. Her plan has the potential to lead to a $1 billion shortfall next fiscal year if a serious cut in spending doesn’t happen soon.
The governor’s budget proposal does not address the real problem, which is the excessive spending, that will continue to plague the state unless serious cuts are made. The current Fiscal Year 2009 budget, after the adjustments made by the governor’s budget recommendations, is still a $247 million increase from the Fiscal Year 2008 budget expenditures. The attitude of unaccountable spending needs to end. The government needs to track each dollar spent to make sure every dollar is working for Kansans and not special interests, which have been popular with previous budgets. During the last ten years, the state general fund has ballooned more than $2 billion according to the governor’s budget office and can no longer be sustained. With this in mind, the legislature should keep all parts of the state budget on the table for cuts.
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Her plan has the potential to lead to a $1 billion shortfall next fiscal year if a serious cut in spending doesn’t happen soon
Unfortunately, education funding needs to be part of the discussion. It accounts for almost 50 percent of all state revenue dollars spent. This means that the legislature needs to be accountable for each dollar spent. Estimates from the Legislative Research Department of dollars spent at the state level project that only about 60 cents of every dollar make it into the classroom. An increase in accountability of our state dollars should not be a short-term audit, either, but a permanent part of the budgeting process. This initiative could produce large savings for the Kansas taxpayer.
Another area that needs to be addressed is spending on transportation. We are fortunate to have good state highways and roads, but this has come at a steep cost to the state. Kansas spends about $1.4 billion per year on all aspects of the state transportation network, the large majority of which is spent on roads. This is consistent with the Comprehensive Transportation Plan passed by the Legislature a decade ago. The Long Range Transportation Plan, the replacement to the CTP that expires this year, will request spending increases of more than $1.5 billion, leaving total spending at $2.9 billion per year.
With little direction from the governor, the Legislature will have many tough budget decisions this year. Programs from education funding to health care to transportation will be exposed to painful cuts, directly influencing the lives of many Kansans. The legislature must take the lead and reduce the size of our state government to weather the economic downturn. It will be important for the state to make sure the solution is appropriate, realistic and addresses the real problem: excessive spending.
— Patton is an Olathe junior business and finance.
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