Schools, law enforcement, tax cuts all focuses of Kansas budget for FY 2023 - WIBW

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - Fully funding schools, raises for law enforcement and tax cuts for Kansans are all included in Governor Laura Kelly’s state budget for FY 2023.

On Wednesday, Jan. 12, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly says she announced her budget recommendations following three she gave in her State of the State address on Tuesday night. She said this budget builds on years of work by her administration to restore Kansas’s fiscal prosperity, grow the state’s economy, expand the workforce and invest in the health and safety of Kansans.

“Fully funding K-12. Closing the Bank of KDOT. Balancing our budget. This is what the people of Kansas elected me to do,” Gov. Kelly said. “This budget not only restores state funding for critical services, it cuts the state sales tax on food. I encourage the Legislature to waste no time and send me a clean bill to Axe the Food Tax.”'

Kelly said her budget fully funds K-12 schools for a fifth straight year and makes historic investments in workforce training and higher education to ensure Kansans are ready to enter the workforce. Through Medicaid expansion, she said the state not only nets millions in enhanced federal matching funds, but it also allows more people to remain in the workforce and boosts local economies.

The Kansas Governor said recognizing that some revenues could be one-time-only, the budget makes several investments to reduce debt and increase structural balance, including paying off KPERS and other debts accrued under previous administrations, providing taxpayers with a $250 rebate and making one-time investments and capital improvements in the state’s public safety, corrections and juvenile justice systems.

On Tuesday night, Kelly recommended a freeze in college tuition increases, eliminating the state’s tax on food and Medicaid expansion.

Kelly said other highlights of her budget include the following:

• Responsibly cutting taxes for every Kansan - Unlike proposals that have focused the greatest benefit or tax reform on a smaller number of Kansans, Kelly said cutting the state sales tax on food and providing a rebate for every Kansas taxpayer will ensure tax relief goes to those that power the state’s economy.
• Recognizing the service of law enforcement and other state employees - Kelly said the budget calls for a minimum 5% pay increase for all state employees and includes funding to help recruit and retain Kansas Highway Patrol Troopers, nurses, corrections officers, public defenders, community corrections, home and community-based providers, child protection specialists and others. She said it also includes funding to enhance pensions and new protective equipment and facility improvements for those working in secure facilities.
• Sustaining the state’s record-breaking economic growth - Kansas has continued record-breaking economic growth for a second straight year Kelly said - bringing the two-year total to over $7.6 billion. She said this budget builds on her previous efforts to restore the Department of Commerce by fully returning the Economic Development Initiatives Fund to its intended purpose - economic development. In addition to efforts to enhance the state’s workforce through training and apprenticeships, she said the budget intends to capitalize on broadband development, encourage small business innovation and develop and renovate new moderate-income housing.
• Achieving and maintaining school funding - Kelly said the budget includes adequate school funding to meet the requirements of the Gannon settlement for a fifth straight year, which will ensure as students, parents and teachers continue to learn and overcome unprecedented challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, schools have resources to help keep kids on track to graduate, earn postsecondary degrees and certificates and ultimately join the state’s workforce.
• Fully closing the Bank of KDOT - The Kansas Governor said the budget not only fulfills her promise to close the Bank of KDOT, it also ends other extraordinary transfers out of the State Highway Fund. She said the transfers for non-infrastructure programs like Mental Health Grants and debt service on bonds will now be funded out of SGF, returning needed infrastructure dollars to their intended purpose.
• Promoting workforce readiness and competitiveness - Funding for postsecondary education has not recovered to pre-Great Recession levels in over a decade Kelly said. The budget restores higher education funding and freezes tuition at four-year institutions and includes additional funding for need-based aid, Excel in CTE and National Guard scholarships so that more Kansans can seek education and training needed to qualify for in-demand jobs. She said it also provides capital investment funding to ensure all institutions remain engines of economic growth with new facilities and technology to increase the state’s competitiveness.
• Reducing fees and making payments on time - Under previous administrations, Kelly said one-time and temporary measures were put in place to add to KPERS debt, increased fees for vehicle registration and delayed the final school payment into the next fiscal year. Coming off the recent repayment of the PMIB loan, she said the budget ends the DMV surcharge, pays off KPERS debt early and returns the 12th school payment to the current year. She said it also pays bonds early, improving the state’s structural balance and securing Kansas’s finances in the event of future national or international economic challenges.
• Strengthening access to mental health care - With lifting the moratorium at Osawatomie State Hospital, Kelly said the budget continues the work of ensuring mental health access closer to home by providing funding for regional crisis services and hospital beds, suicide prevention grants for local agencies and expanding access to mental health teams in the state’s schools. She said it also provides new substance use treatment options for those in state hospitals and corrections facilities.
• Promoting health care affordability - Kelly said expanding Medicaid is not only a good deal for the state, but it also helps Kansans remain in the workforce and keeps local health providers in business. She said strong health care providers are essential to keeping local economies strong. She said the budget also funds enhanced post-partum Medicaid coverage for up to 12 months, improving the mental and physical health of mothers and young families.
• Protecting the state and safeguarding our future - After the state experienced significant natural disasters in 2021, Kelly said the budget provides funding for staff and one-time funding for upgrades of facilities and equipment for the National Guard and state health and environment lab.
• Fully funding the state water plan - For too many years, Kelly said the state’s radical tax policies led Kansas to defund efforts to protect one of its most valuable resources - water. She said the budget fully funds the State Water Plan Fund for the first time since Fiscal Year 2008 - providing irrigation technology and other water-saving resources that will promote the resilience and abundance of Kansas’s rural communities and ag industry for generations to come.
• Saving for tomorrow - Until this budget, Kelly said Kansas has been unique among states to have either a small or non-existent budget stabilization fund. This budget ensures Kansas has a real “Rainy Day Fund” in case national and international events threaten to harm the state’s sustained economic growth.

To view Kelly’s full Kansas budget recommendations for FY 2023, click HERE.

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source: https://www.wibw.com/2022/01/12/schools-law-enforcement-tax-cuts-all-focuses-kansas-budget-fy-2023/

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