Under The Dome May 13, 2011
Budget brings out partisanship at his best
According to a report tonight in the Lawrence Journal-World, Governor Brownback gave a talk to the House Republican Caucus in which he urged them to pass a budget that would not get any Democratic votes. According to the Journal-World, "Reaching across the aisle for votes 'is not the way you want to go,' Brownback said to the House GOP caucus."
Click here to read the Journal-World report.
This is a new kind of partisanship that has not been typical in Kansas. For a number of years now, budgets have been passed by coalitions of Republicans and Democrats.
It has yet to be seen how this talk will play out tonight and into the wee hours tomorrow. Rumors abound about how different constituencies will vote. Some have expressed that the budget has cut too much, others too little. Hall talk is that it will likely be a pretty close vote in both chambers.
And the votes are expected tonight. The Senate is poised to begin debate after 9:00 and the House will take it up after the Senate action.
The budget agreement will do serious damage to public services. For education, base state aid per pupil (BSAPP) will drop to $3780 from the current $4012. The House had attempted several times to cut the education even more but all such attempts were unsuccessful. The cut matches that proposed by Governor Brownback back in January.
A number of programs are also eliminated. Mentor Teacher, Agriculture in the Classroom, and National Board Certification are all eliminated while half the funding from after school programs is eliminated.
UPDATE! 11:25 pm: Senate adopts budget; House to begin debate later
On a vote of 28 to 11, the Senate adopted the budget conference committee report. All eight Democrats (Marci Francisco, Oletha Faust-Goudeau, David Haley, Anthony Hensley, Tom Holland, Laura Kelly, Kelly Kultala, and Allen Schmidt) voted NO and were joined by three Republicans - Vickie Schmidt, Dennis Pyle, and Chris Steineger.
Education conference committee report status update
Conference Committee Report on SB 21: Signed and awaiting a vote. This report contains the school district uniform accounting bill, a motor vehicle tax provision that applies to a few school districts, and permission for Leavenworth School District to transport Fort Leavenworth students to Leavenworth High School.
UPDATE! 12:15 am: SB 21 adopted in House; on to the Senate
The Conference Committee report on SB 21 has been adopted in the House on a vote of 122 - 2 and now moves to the Senate for consideration.
Conference Committee Report on HB 2105: Passed the Senate and awaiting action in the House. This report extends the 20 mill state-wide property tax levy for schools for two more years and the LOB "hold harmless" provision.
Conference Committee Report on SB 111: An "agree to disagree" has been signed and is being sent to both chambers. If the agree to disagree is adopted, the conference committee will meet again and this time it would not take all six signatures on the report. This report now contains the "flexibility" provision making it easier to spend unencumbered funds from certain accounts and a delay in the implementation of a statute setting a floor and ceiling for the special education reimbursement.
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