This two-year budget cycle that Gov. Sam Brownback has put the state on at first glance sounds like a pretty good idea. Politically, though, it might just be a nightmare for Republicans and for Democrats ahead of the 2016 elections for every seat in the Legislature.
Brownback’s new two-year budget falls at the first year of a two-year House term and at the midpoint of a four-year Senate term. The idea of hammering out a two-year budget and financing it sounds good. Or at least it was when there was a big ending balance that could be drawn down, or plenty of money in the Kansas Department of Transportation to swipe for the state general fund. Not a lot of heavy lifting two years ago on the first two-year budget adventure.
But now, with the surpluses gone and KDOT funds thinning, things are different.