Kansas budget crisis, now

by Bob Weeks on February 17, 2009

in Kansas state government

Breaking: see Kansas Governor Addresses Budget Crisis and Kansas Budget Crisis Heats Up.

The Kansas Liberty story Lawmakers claim Sebelius’ demand for money would violate state statutes reports on a conflict between the two parties named in the story’s title.

What Kansas Governor Kathleen Sibelius wants to do is to shift money from one state fund to another so that current bills, including state employee paychecks, can be paid. Later, the state would pay back the money borrowed.

Republican legislative leaders are not willing to grant this authority to the Governor, however. Both sides accuse the other of playing politics with this issue. The Governor’s press release may be read here.

(Similar information from Kansas House and Senate leaders is not available online, at least not where it can be found easily.)

It’s difficult to be on the Governor’s side on this issue. Her initial attempt at balancing the 2009 budget complied with the law. But the law only required her to address revenue shortfalls based on estimates from two months ago, when everyone knew that the true situation was much worse. She took the easy way out, letting the legislature do the dirty work. (See Sebelius’ Proposed Cuts Not Likely Enough and Kansas Governor Not Facing Reality of Budget Crisis)

For more coverage of this issue, see Wichitopekington, which has some coverage, as does the Wichita Eagle in Kansas may delay tax refunds, paychecks.

Note: Kansas Liberty has recently become a subscription site, so you may not be able to read the entire article referred to above. I recommend, however, that you consider subscribing to Kansas Liberty.

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Tagged as: Kansas legislature, Kansas state government, Kathleen Sebelius

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

1 steve February 18, 2009 at 1:39 pm: Kansas Sucks
2 steve February 18, 2009 at 1:41 pm: We should all move to Montana

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