The Sunflower Republican Club welcomed the House Majority Leader Ray Merrick, Speaker of the House Pro-Tem, Arlen Siegfreid, Senator Mary Pilcher Cook, Representative Owen Donohoe, Representative Terri Huntington and Representative Kevin Yoder and thanked them for coming to speak to our members and hear their concerns.

House Majority Leader Ray Merrick advised that the budget rescission process was complete and is on the way to the Governor for her review and hopefully her signature. The rescission budget went through the whole process in five weeks and has been approved by both houses. Great care was given in regard to K-12 school funding. A 1.5% cut was necessary, smallest of any agency. The budget proposed by the Governor had been based on revenue from November 2008. Unfortunately, the economy has worsened since then, so more cuts were necessary. It is expected that the governor will exercise her authority and will make adjustments. Those adjustments will be negotiated. It is required that a balanced budget be in place to fund the state government through the end of the fiscal year that ends June 30, 2009. Every legislator is fully cognizant of the budget shortfall. In an effort to reduce operations costs forty percent fewer bills have been filed this year. It costs about $4000 for each bill.

Representative Siegfried stated that the state was spending more money than it was collecting and necessary steps had to be taken to balance the budget. Every agency in the state was examined for possible cut in spending with doing as little harm as possible to the services they provide the public. Health and Human Services funding for assistance for Medicaid recipients to purchase private medical insurance needs to be kept so those recipients can continue controlling their medical insurance. Without that assistance all those recipients would receive full funding that would cost the state more. Without making adjustments this year the budget problems would be twice as large in when preparing the 2010 budget. It is also necessary to leave 7.5% of the budget in an emergency fund. It has been a difficult but necessary process. Every cut was carefully considered before it was made.

Senator Mary Pilcher Cook reflected that because of the interference by the Kansas Supreme Court the budget for 2000-2001 ended up being full of smoke and mirrors. With the downturn of the economy this was brought this fully into light. The schools in Johnson County were hurt the most. Senator Cook stated that the surrounding states have ended up with positive balances in their budgets. Kansas has ended 15% below where it should have been. The Legislature has addressed the issues in a thoughtful, expeditious manner to balance the rescission budget. Then the Legislature will be in a better position to begin the process of creating the 2010 budget.

Representative Donohoe reported that he is on the Appropriations Committee, Committee on Aging and Long Term Care and the Committee for Economic Development and Tourism. The state was scheduled in 2008 to spend more than $400 million than it received in revenues. The state has continued to hire more state employees. That increases the cost for operations. The state spends about $348,000 per day in interest on the debt the state currently carries.  The possibility of creating more debt is not an option. The state auditors are not required to audit state agencies. That hampers the Legislators in deciding on appropriate funding. School officials insist that there is a direct correlation between spending and test scores. Further examination of that statement reveals that no study has been made to verify the assertion. School funding is important but it now consumes over 65% of the budget. Funding for all the state agencies must be carefully scrutinized and should not exceed revenues.

Representative Terri Huntington stated that she is serving on the Committee for Higher Education, the Select Committee on KPERS and the Joint Committee on Pensions, Investments and Benefits. Funding for education is one of her main concerns and is working to maintain as much funding as possible to continue our commitment to education. Representative expressed her pleasure in attending our breakfast and stated she regrettably had to leave for another event.

Representative Kevin Yoder reported that he is Chairman of the Appropriations and Taxation Committee. Representative Yoder was pleased to state that when faced with millions of dollars of deficit, the Republican caucus worked together with the Democrats to craft a rescission budget through year-end on June 30, 2009. The consensus was that the budget mess needed to start cleaning things up now. The Legislature could not continue to spend and borrow from the future. Rather than cut the budget for the poor and disabled, the funding was frozen. This group should not be penalized. School funding was preserved as much as possible and only received a 1.5% cut. Over 90% of the cuts came from all the other agencies. As work begins on the 2010 budget, April revenue will determine the funding for the year. People continue to lose jobs and revenues continue to fall. The core principles of budgeting must be examined and changed. Kansas cannot continue to spend more than it receives in revenues.