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Governor Brownback Considers Options To Save Education Funding

Legislators passed a budget with more than $60 million in cuts over two years for the state's universities last week.  Gov. Sam Brownback told reporters on Friday that his office had received the budget, and they were going through it line by line.

He may have been focusing on the lines where universities faces across-the board cuts, and cuts to funding for salaries, which Gov. Brownback said, "I'm  not pleased with. I thought it should have been stable funding. So we're going to be looking at what all options are."

Sometimes, the governor can veto increases or decreases in funding for a specific department or program. It depends how the budget is written. For example, if the budget had a line item that transferred money out of higher education, Brownback could veto the transfer and keep the money in higher ed.

However, legislative staffers say this is not the way this budget is written. Lawmakers just appropriated less money for universities this year, and that gives the governor fewer options to try to reverse the cut.

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.