The Kansas budget director says the state may take additional highway funds and delay a school payment to balance the budget for the current year. June is the last month of the fiscal year and Budget Director Shawn Sullivan says tax collections this month could come up short.
Sullivan says Governor Sam Brownback’s administration could take $16 million in highway funds and up to $45 million in Medicaid fee funds to help cover a budget shortfall.
“Obviously, we don’t like doing any of these four things, but it is the situation that we’re in for this fiscal year and that we have to deal with,” says Sullivan.
The administration might also take $3 million from corrections to help reduce the red ink.
Sullivan says they could shift part of a state payment to schools into next month, which would push it into the next fiscal year and ease the strain on the current fiscal year’s budget.
At a meeting Wednesday, Democrats blamed the tax cuts passed in recent years for the budget troubles. Governor Sam Brownback blames sagging oil and gas sectors and a weak agriculture industry.