By Jim McLean
and Dave Ranney
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, Feb. 26
Health and child welfare advocates are disturbed by what they see as a pattern of indecision in the 2007 Legislature.
On the surface, it seems like business as usual for budget writing committees. They”re meeting early and late to dig into agency budgets and listen to urgent pleas from advocates.
But, unlike previous years, the committees
particularly on the House side
aren”t making decisions. Instead, they”re pushing them off to the end of the session when a final catch-all budget bill
known as the omnibus bill
will be written.
The deferred decisions range from whether to use state funds to pay for an expanded newborn screening program to increasing funding for safety net clinics and green-lighting a
Kansas Health Policy Authority
proposal to address childhood obesity. A decision on a proposal to expand Medicaid services to autistic children under age 5 also is pending.
Big-ticket items are in a holding pattern, too. They include a proposed $30 million increase in operating grants for state universities and community colleges and a raise for state employees that would cost the state general fund $42.8 million. The governor”s $15 million initiative to start phasing in all-day kindergarten across the state also is awaiting consideration.
Tax cuts are the exception
The House recently voted to eliminate the state”s franchise tax over three years. When fully implemented, the bill would provide businesses with a $45 million tax break. Lawmakers also are considering a proposal to cut the corporate income tax. If enacted, it would cost $5.8 million in the 2008 budget year, rising to $29 million in 2010, according to the Division of the Budget.
The House also approved HB 2274, a bill granting Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas $2 million in tax breaks to help it win a contract with the Centers for Medicare
‘ Medicaid Services.
And, legislators in the first weeks of the session set aside $271.7 million over the next two years to pay for a school-funding plan passed last session.
For health and child welfare advocates it”s an unsettling pattern.
“We are concerned that while the tax-cut discussion continues, our issues are being deferred to the veto session at which time they”ll say, “We”d sure like to do it, but we don”t have the money to fund what”s on your list,”” said Robert Harder, a former cabinet secretary who now lobbies for the United Methodist Church of Kansas and the
Big Tent Coalition
, a collection of groups that advocate for people with disabilities and the poor.
House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, a former chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said efforts are being made to balance tax cuts and spending.
“Anyone who fails to coordinate revenues with tax cutting is foolish,” Neufeld said. “We”re not going to the extreme on either end.”
Rep. Bob Bethell, R-Alden, chairman of the House Social Services Budget Committee, said spending decisions are being postponed until April when the state”s Consensus Estimating Group meets to review its revenue projections and, if necessary, adjust them up or down.
“We don”t know how much money we”re going to have so consequently, we”ve got to hold off,” Bethell said.
Senate Ways and Means Chairman Dwayne Umbarger, R-Thayer, is sounding a similar note of caution.
“We are in the same situation we were in the late 90s,” Umbarger said, referring to a time when higher-than-expected revenues led to tax cuts and increased spending. “I”m just trying to be fiscally responsible here.”
Rep. Jerry Henry, D-Atchison, a veteran member of the House Appropriations Committee, said being responsible doesn”t mean putting off spending decisions until the last minute.
“At omnibus, if we”ve put something in the budget that we can”t afford, we can take it out then,” Henry said. “What we”re doing now sends a terrible message to the people we serve. It makes us look like we don”t care.”
Concerns about process
Some veteran observers of the legislative process see trouble on the horizon. Forcing so many budget decisions into such a short timeframe creates tension and puts decisions into the hands of fewer people
in this case, legislative leaders and the six members of the budget conference committee.
“What this does is compress big decisions into a tight timeframe,” said former Sen. Christine Downey, who spent eight years on the Ways and Means Committee, the last four as the ranking Democrat on the conference committee that negotiated the final budget bill.
“So what happens is you begin to pit critical issues against one another,” she said. “You force people to make take-it-or-leave-it decisions. It”s the opposite of what needs to happen.”
As a legislator, Duane Goossen served on the Appropriations Committee. He has since served two governors as director of the Division of the Budget. Like Downey, Goossen said delaying budget decisions could make an already difficult process harder.
“There are a lot of things being put off to omnibus that could be taken care of now,” Goossen said. “It means you”re going to have a lot of decisions to make, a lot of work to do at the end of the session.”
Jim McLean and Dave Ranney are staff writers for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. They can be reached at 785-233-5443.