Rep. Fred Gardner said he “held my nose and voted” last Thursday for a state budget that he predicted is “unsustainable.”
If spending continues at its current pace, the state will be in the red by an estimated $461 million in three years, according to budget officials, largely in part because of last year’s tax cuts which amount to more than $2 billion over five years.
Gardner estimates current spending would put the state closer to “half a billion” over tax revenues, something that “you can’t do forever.”
Gardner lamented that legislators were given “only one hour” to review the budget before they voted on the measure.
“It comes flying out of the weeds at the 11th hour,” he said, shaking his head. “I wish there was a process where we had better information about what we’re voting on.”
Gardner, a Garnett Republican who represents the 9th District, said he voted against last year’s initial budget. “It was like a 14% increase. I couldn’t support that.”
The impasse forced a special session.
This year’s first attempt drew bipartisan support, though according to news reports, it’s unsettling to not a few because the budget is being pushed through before a revenue forecast expected later this month will likely show a grimmer picture of the effect of last year’s tax cuts. The Legislature has typically relied on the April analysis of tax revenue to set spending and taxation levels.
Key measures include a 2.5% wage increase for state employees, $106.3 million; a new Kansas Highway Patrol dispatch center in Salina, $25 million, and bridge construction projects, $179 million.
For public schools, Gardner said the 2025-2026 budget “fully funds them,” though failed to mention the Legislature’s backtracking on funding special education. Last year, legislators allotted an additional $75 million to meet its obligation to fund 92% of the special education budget, for a total of about $601 million. The budget going forward adds $10 million for special ed, forcing school districts to make up the shortfall by diverting funds from their general operations budget.
The budget now goes before Gov. Laura Kelly, who has the option of rejecting the entire package or making line-item vetoes of specific spending provisions.
GARDNER, a veterinarian, said he supported this year’s budget because “it had some things in it that I really want to see happen,” including an $80 million request for a new Kansas Bureau of Investigation in Topeka, and foremost, a request for $128 million to build a new veterinary diagnostic laboratory in Manhattan.
Gardner, who has served on the lab’s advisory board for the last 20 years, said the laboratory’s facilities “are not adequate,” to serve the needs of not only the state’s agricultural industry but also medical communities.
“Say your grandchild gets bit by a stray cat. The lab can tell you within six hours whether that cat has rabies,” through its diagnostic services, he said.
Because the lab is adjacent to Kansas State University’s veterinary school, the university takes advantage of the lab’s services.
Gardner terms the diagnostic center as an “orphan child.”
