Governor Sam Brownback gave his final state of the State speech last night in Topeka, and offered a rather interesting vision of the future of the state. Brownback concurred with Democratic elected, saying the original school finance formula “worked” — contradicting conservative Republican talking points, but then followed up with a promise of an extra $600M in funding for schools — where would this money come from? Absolutely no one had any idea, as Brownback also contended it could be done without tax increases.
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“We must,” Brownback said, “stop the never-ending cycle of litigation.”
Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning called the idea of adding $600 million “personally insulting.”
He’s among staunch conservatives in the Kansas Legislature who — after a long and contentious session — ultimately parted ways with Brownback last June to hike taxes and plug a $900 million void in the state budget.
Denning said, even without more spending on schools, Kansas is on track toward a budget shortfall .
“This is reckless,” he said. “He’s given everybody a sense of false hope that he’s just solved the school issue.”
Republicans contend they are personally insulted — because he just undercut their argument about schools needing more funding. Brownback did, however, insert a poison pill: the Kansas constitution requires adequate and equitable funding — and the Governor wants a constitutional amendment to get rid of that requirement.
House Speaker Ron Ryckman doubted Brownback’s tax hike-free school spending approach.
“I’m not seeing how that’s possible at this time without drastically hurting other core functions of government,” the Republican said.
Once again, we return to the only question that matters — where does the money come from? Many in the state house believe that Brownback will propose a solution by raiding KPERS — the Kansas Retirement fund for state employees, which is already raided of $8B short of being able to fulfill its outstanding responsibilities due to continuous raids by statehouse Republicans.
Now that Governor Brownback has agreed that Kansas schools need significantly more funding, and he acknowledges that the prior formula is valid, will Republicans have the wiggle room to come up with a solution? Or has Brownback the magician stuffed them all into a shabby top hat?
It will certainly be an interesting year in Topeka, and with Brownback’s appointment as ambassador in jeopardy, a potentially long one for a Governor who had hoped to catch the next train out of town.