Republicans and pro-growth advocates alike criticized Gov. Kathleen Sebelius for a State of the State Address Monday that was short on specifics, particularly on how to fix the state’s budget mess.

On Tuesday, when the governor’s office released Sebelius’ proposed budget, critics got a look at details left out of Monday’s address, and they welcomed them with the same lack of enthusiasm they’d directed to the speech on Monday.

Sen. Tim Huelskamp, a Fowler Republican, told Kansas Liberty Tuesday that he believed the governor had demonstrated “a lack of leadership that is just stunning.”

“Basically, her message was ‘Good luck, guys, see you in a few months,'” Huelskamp said.

The proposed budget, he said, “ignores the fact that revenues are continuing to drop off,” and, though it doesn’t recommend general tax increases, it does recommend suspensions of tax cuts already approved by the Legislature.

“You can call them what you want, but they’re still tax increases,” Huelskamp said. “But then this is the same governor who said one day she wouldn’t raise taxes and the next day she proposed a cigarette tax hike.”

The Kansas Chapter of Americans for Prosperity also described the suspension of tax cuts as tax increases.

“The so-called 'tax-policy changes' included in this budget are merely tax increases by another name,” said Derrick Sontag, executive director of AFP-Kansas. “These changes take $33 million from taxpayers that they would otherwise keep, which is in direct contradiction to the governor's claim that she wouldn't raise taxes.”

Sontag and Huelskamp both laid the blame for the state’s budget crisis primarily on overspending.

“Overspending is what got our state into this situation, and overspending is a habit that must be broken in our state's government,” Sontag said. “Had our Legislature held spending increases to 5 percent each year since 2004, we would have $2 billion in the bank.”

The governor’s budget, which was to be introduced today in the Kansas House and Senate, takes a number of steps that would close a budget shortfall expected to be about $180 million in the current fiscal year. She also outlines measures to close an anticipated $1 billion-plus gap in the following fiscal year.

Among steps is the withholding of payments to local units of government, many of which also are struggling with budget issues.

House Speaker Mike O’Neal, a Hutchinson Republican, in a statement issued Tuesday, said the withholding of those payments probably would result in tax increases at the local level.

“I can’t fathom how the governor can say that her budget plan won’t increase taxes,” O’Neal said. “Just because she’s not expressly mandating a tax increase doesn’t mean that she’s not painting the local units into a corner, forcing their hand.”

Republican House leaders also criticized Sebelius’ plan to direct all gaming revenue to the state general fund, which would require a change in state law.

“It is presumptuous to assume that the Legislature will make a change, even a one-time change, to allow gaming funds to be spent in a way that defies the original intent,” House Majority Leader Ray Merrick, a Stilwell Republican, said in the House leadership statement.

To address the anticipated budget shortfall in the current fiscal year, Sebelius is proposing no cuts in K-12 education. She has indicated she would hold public school spending at its current rate to address next year’s anticipated budget gap.

Other steps the governor hopes to take this year include delaying the repayment of $31 million in loans the state has taken from a state highway fund, and cutting agency budgets by about 3 percent, or about $100 million. In all, Sebelius is proposing cutting current year expenditures by about $200 million.

The AFP’s Sontag said many of the approaches the governor is recommending are one-year-only fixes.

"This proposal uses accounting tricks and relies on one-time-only funding sources that serve as a band-aid approach to our budget situation,” he said.

- Phil LaCerte

Resources:

• Read the budget here: http://www.budget.ks.gov/gbr.htm

More budget coverage in Kansas Liberty:

• Budget starts with a $50 million shortfall
  
• State budget director sounds alarm on rising deficit
• Sebelius says state of state is strong, despite budget crisis

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