(Syndicated to Kansas newspapers March 2, 2015)
The Legislature has made it past “Turnaround Day” and that’s a relatively big deal.
Turnaround is the process of getting bills from most House and Senate committees approved and sent across the Statehouse rotunda to the opposite chamber.
The first month and a half of the session has been…distracting comes to mind.
We’ve seen the debates over carrying guns, over teacher contract negotiations and abortion procedures, and they have produced lots of headlines and stories to read. Those issues are important to a lot of Kansans to be sure, but so far, likely because of those issues and the separate deadlines for appropriations bills, we’ve learned very little about how this state is going to be operated for the next two years.
That’s two years when state revenues are going to be at least $600 million less than we’re used to because of massive income tax cuts back in 2012 that haven’t encouraged the “discretionary spending” that Gov. Sam Brownback has said will be possible because of lower income taxes and more money for us to spend on other things that will yield tax revenues.
Here’s hoping you had a good time watching the high-profile, little-cost issues being debated. That’s because most of those bills that were in the headlines don’t cost the state any significant amount of money but also don’t save the state any significant amount of money.
The real stuff—that’s appropriations and tax policy—wasn’t considered with any real finality. The appropriations process that builds the state budget for the next two fiscal years has barely started in any public manner. Oh, there have been subcommittees examining the governor’s budget proposal, and in both chambers the governor has seen his recommendations adopted probably more than 90 percent of the time, but it was mostly small agencies.
The real budget—which means financing of K-12 education—is still virtually secret. We’ve heard about eliminating the complicated school finance formula and putting the state’s school districts on a block grant program for two years while the bosses figure out a simpler—and simpler means very simply less money—formula for getting money to schools.
Now, some of those bills that made it through the Turnaround Day sieve for consideration in the opposite house are intriguing. They range from pro-lifers’ relatively clever move to prohibit some of the earliest-term abortions that the state has ever tried to regulate to letting many folks over age 21 carry concealed guns to moving local office elections from the spring to the fall of odd-numbered years.
All are of interest, of course, but don’t cost the state any money and don’t really mean much of a change in the lives of most Kansans.
But…they do give supporters of those measures something to talk about, opponents something to talk about, and provide an excellent diversion while the state prepares for the real issue: Taxes and state government spending.
Do those measures give us any idea of which way the Legislature is going to go in taxes or in spending? Anyone think limiting abortions is going to save the state any money? Or that letting more people carry more guns more places is going to mean we’ll need a few less cops around, or that moving spring elections to the fall is going to get your streets plowed more easily or that fall-elected school boards are going to improve either reading or math or even basketball scores?
Nope, but we’ve provided a great cover for the budget and financial decisions that won’t become clear for at least a couple weeks, maybe a month. And, that’s why Turnaround Day was worth marking—it got legislators a five-day weekend to enjoy—but as far as solving any state budget/spending problems? Nada.
Better enjoy what you’ve seen so far…