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Brownback's Decision On The Kansas Budget Due By Thursday

Stephen Koranda
/
KPR/File photo

Gov. Sam Brownback has until later this week to take action on a budget passed by Kansas lawmakers. It’s likely he’ll sign it into law, but as KPR’s Stephen Koranda reports, there will be some budget cutting associated with the new spending plan.

Kansas lawmakers approved a budget that isn’t balanced, with the assumption that the governor will make millions of dollars in spending cuts. The state Constitution says there must be enough revenue to cover expenses. Brownback says he can make budget cuts before signing the bill into law to comply with that.

Brownback previously proposed a list of cuts to higher education and most state government agencies, but he says his final decisions could be different.

“We were laying out here’s a scenario, here’s a range of scenarios to let people know. That’s what we’ll continue to look at,” Brownback says.

Lawmakers included a provision saying those budget-balancing cuts should not include K-12 schools.

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.