Kansas is on track to be in debt, according to Gov. Brownback’s numbers. THE MESSAGE from Kansas universities to prospective industries is to look elsewhere for prospective employees because, unfortunately, we can offer only second-rate educations.
The official budget division released its dire projections last week. Current spending has us $64 million in the hole; and a whopping $545 million in the red for fiscal year 2015.
A combination of tax cuts and lower income taxes has created the funding gap.
In making up the difference, the two Kansas houses of government and the governor have different answers.
The Kansas Senate proposes retaining the six-tenths of a cent sales tax hike implemented three years ago.
The governor wants that as well as eliminating the mortgage interest deduction on tax forms.
The Kansas House wants neither of the above, and favors doing away with a broad swath of tax deductions.
None of the plans right the sinking ship of a budget and promise to plunge Kansas education and social services off the deep end.
If passed, the Senate’s plan overall would still require $36.8 million in cuts to the current budget, while the House plan leaves the number crunchers $76.5 million short for 2014.
At stake is our state’s reputation not only as to how well it takes care of its own, but also how well prepared it is for the future.
Take higher education.
Currently, the Senate has proposed a 2 percent cut and the House a 4 percent cut to Regents universities and colleges.
The House’s plan equals a loss of $29 million in operating dollars and $10 million in salary cuts. The Senate version would result in $15.2 million less.
Those kinds of cuts have drastic results.
For the University of Kansas, the most likely victims are its medical school’s new campuses in Wichita and Salina. The four-year Wichita program, expanded in 2011, would retract to two years. The new school of medicine in Salina would close. The number of overall medical students would be reduced by 36 and another 50 nursing students would be cut.
The cuts would “seriously impair our ability to educate leaders, build healthy communities and make discoveries that change the world,” said KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little.
Kirk Schulz, president of Kansas State University, said the cuts “really kill any aspirations on campus.”
Steve Scott, president at Pittsburg State University, said the cuts would mean about $3 million less for PSU, or the equivalent of 30 faculty positions.
For Fort Hays, the cuts signal administrators need to go back to square one in their efforts to start an engineering school. It’s better to scrap the program and use their resources to maintain what they have, despite the growing need for engineers statewide.
Of all fields, education has a cause-and-effect relationship. You get what you pay for.
And the message to our kids and educators? You’re not worth investing in.
— Susan Lynn
Kansas budget a runaway train headed to disaster
