TOPEKA — The Kansas Legislature signed off on a new state government budget Thursday reallocating unspent federal economic stimulus funding to help communities with infrastructure projects, pump $100 million more into the state’s rainy-day account and support construction of a joint university health science center in Wichita.
The bill approved in the Senate and later by the House didn’t include funding for state employee raises nor expansion of Medicaid for benefit of the working poor in Kansans. The salary issue and other loose ends of the budget would be addressed by the Republican-led Legislature and Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly in late April after financial analysts craft revised state tax revenue forecasts.
Goodland Republican Sen. Richard Billinger, chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said House and Senate negotiators focused on finding suitable uses for remaining American Rescue Plan Act funding before deadlines required it to be returned to the federal treasury.
“We want to make sure all these funds are expended before they have to be sent back,” Billinger said.
Rep. Henry Helgerson, a Wichita Democrat and one of the House budget negotiators, said the typical starting point of budget conversation in the Legislature involved ideas for elevating expenditures. He said Republicans and Democrats should collaborate on strategies for holding the line on spending.
“It is time we put down the partisanship and say, ‘Let’s work together to solve the problems,” he said. “Drop the labels and start work on bigger solutions to everything.”
Infrastructure dollars
A key feature of the spending blueprint sent to the governor was $220 million set aside to deliver $50 million to $55 million annually for the next four years so cities and counties in Kansas had matching funds to compete for federal infrastructure grants.
The budget allocated $142 million in ARPA funding toward construction of a health science center in Wichita through a project linking Wichita State University and University of Kansas. The facility is expected to cost in the neighborhood of $300 million.
“If I looked hard enough I could probably find 50 things I really hate about this budget,” said Sen. Jeff Longbine, an Emporia Republican with more than a dozen years in the Legislature. “And, if I look really hard, I can find 50 things I absolutely hate. I hope we can support ‘great’ and move down the road.”
Rep. John Alcala, D-Topeka, said he was disturbed this budget didn’t set aside appropriations for state employee pay raises. He said it was disheartening the Senate was considering legislation to give statewide officeholders raises but the chamber had yet to take up compensation for state employees receiving more modest wages.
The budget deal rolled into House Bill 2184 — approved 24-12 in the Senate and 79-44 in the House — included a $100 million increase in funding directed to a state saving account in anticipation of an economic downturn. The supplemental infusion of cash would raise to $600 million the total amount the Legislature would dedicate to the rainy-day fund in the fiscal year starting July 1.
The budget bill secured $52 million to cover debt associated with the Milford and Perry reservoirs. A special $50 million reserve account would be established to provide matching funds for state agencies applying for federal grants.
More than $60 million was set aside to benefit Kansas nursing homes, which struggled through the pandemic and increasingly in jeopardy of closing.
“We’ve got to try to help these counties and these local hospitals, local nursing homes stay in business,” Billinger said. “I had a phone call Monday that the nursing home serving Quinter, Kansas, is closing.”
