Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration is asking state agencies and universities to think about how they’d handle a 5 percent budget cut.
The governor's spokeswoman, Eileen Hawley, says this is just a planning exercise for Kansas government agencies.
“I think it’s not at all uncommon either in government or in private industry for people to go through those exercises of looking to see where they can find their efficiencies,” Hawley says.
Hawley says there won’t be any budget decisions until November when the state’s revenue projections are updated. Democratic Sen. Anthony Hensley expects there will be budget cuts and he says that would likely mean tuition increases at universities and damage to state services. Hensley squarely blames the governor's tax policies.
“It’s obvious that our financial house is in a mess and we’re continuing on this downward spiral of revenue losses,” Hensley says.
State universities have already had their budgets cuts twice so far this year. The cuts would exempt most K-12 education funding.
