Lawmakers Begin Series of County Breakfast Meetings

By Doug Carder

House Speaker Pro Tem Jene Vickrey and state Sen. Pat Apple jokingly referred to themselves as the doom and gloom show on Saturday morning.

Kidding aside, the two Louisburg Republicans’ knew the message they were about to deliver was sobering, but they didn’t try to sugarcoat it.

“We are looking at a $550 million shortfall next fiscal year in the state general fund,” Vickrey said. “It’s a sobering message, but the truth is we are all going to have to tighten our belts.”

About 80 people gathered Saturday at Louisburg High School to hear the lawmakers talk about the state budget crisis and legislation making its way through committees. The event marked the first in a series of Legislative breakfasts that will take place in the coming Saturdays in Paola, Osawatomie and Spring Hill.

“People are going to start calling Jene and I the doom and gloom show,” Apple said of the lawmakers’ annual early February breakfast overview. “We were projected to have three years of declining revenue, and those predictions are turning out to be accurate.”

Vickrey said the state budget is being pinched from both directions because of declining state revenues and lost federal stimulus money.

“We’re pretty much cash and carry,” Vickrey said. “There is no rainy day fund.”

Both Apple and Vickrey said they would not be in favor of repealing a statewide one percent sales tax increase that was passed last year.

“There is a real effort to repeal that tax, but I’m not in favor of it, even though I didn’t vote for it. If we did that, that would be another $300 million in lost revenue, which would give us a gap next year of over $800 million,” Vickrey said. “We can’t make that cut (in the sales tax) because the money is already spent.”

Apple and Vickrey said schools will have to tighten their belts as well. Some school districts are spending down their contingency funds, but Apple said he thinks it would be wise for school districts to hang on to that, just like in any business.

“If a roof goes bad they are going to need that contingency money to pay for it (for example),” Apple said. “That’s why you need to have contingency funds. Some people say schools are leaving money on the table (in contingency funds), but I don’t see it that way. I think it’s prudent to have a contingency fund.”

With regard to other initiatives, Apple said lawmakers are looking at ways to enhance 911 service to enable people to send 911 text messages.

“They estimated at the Virginia Tech shooting hundreds of text messages were sent to 911 that didn’t go anywhere because the technology wasn’t available,” Apple said.

Legislators also are re-examining a timetable that would require 15 percent of the state’s energy to be renewable by 2017 and 20 percent by 2021.

Apple said Kansas is more aggressive than most states in trying to require renewable energy, but that timetable may be too aggressive in this economy.

Apple also noted the reason electrical rates are rising is because the state’s electrical generation system, primarily rebuilt in the 1970s and 1980s, is due for another overall.

The lawmakers talked about developing incentives to attract new business to the state, especially in this region where taxes are cheaper in neighboring Missouri for items like gas and cigarettes, some groceries and property. The tax on cigarettes in Missouri is 17 cents, compared to 79 cents in Kansas.

One bill that would allow grocery stores to sell wine and spirits could be one possible way of keeping Kansans from driving over into Missouri to shop. Both lawmakers said they needed to study the proposal more before making a decision.

In their closing remarks about the economy, Vickrey noted some states are facing budget shortfalls of more than 50 percent. Thankfully, he said, Kansas is not one of them.

“We are in the group of states that are facing tough times, but they are manageable,” Vickrey said.

He said Kansas’ education system is ranked seventh best in the nation. He also acknowledged that “you get what you pay for” and he understands the tough spot most school districts find themselves in.

“Everyone is doing their part to tighten their belts. The House leadership is taking a pay cut,” Vickrey said. “We are all going to have to make sacrifices.”

Apple encouraged people to help one another in these tough economic times.

“Ask senior citizens what you can do to help them. Help your neighbors when you can,” Apple said. “That goes a long ways when times are tough.”

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Posted by admin on Feb 9 2011. Filed under News and Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry