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Kansas Lawmakers Pursuing Government Efficiency Study

Stephen Koranda
/
KPR/File Photo

Kansas lawmakers have begun working on a proposal to study the state’s government for efficiency. As Stephen Koranda reports, the state will hire a firm to comb through and evaluate how Kansas spends money.

Kansas lawmakers included $3 million in the budget to pay for the study.

Republican Rep. Ron Ryckman is leading a group drawing up the contract documents. The hope is an outside firm could scour state government in a way that lawmakers can’t.

“Most of the time, when you have a fresh set of eyes look at things they can look at it from another lens, another angle, and fresh ideas come of that. We’re not all efficiency experts, we’re not all process experts, but we can hire that out and that’s what we’re doing here today,” Ryckman says.

The plan is to send out the request for proposals this month. Lawmakers could pick a company to conduct the study in October. The initial report would be due in January with a final efficiency report unveiled in April.

Lawmakers would consider the recommendations as they write a new two-year budget in 2017.

Stephen Koranda is the managing editor of the Kansas News Service, based at KCUR. He has nearly 20 years of experience in public media as a reporter and editor.