Governor Sam Brownback is considering a budget plan that requires him to make spending cuts. Brownback says he has not yet decided if he’ll veto a provision in the budget affecting the University of Kansas and Kansas State University. As KPR’s Stephen Koranda reports, the budget item says spending cuts should hit those schools harder than other universities.
The heads of KU and K-State want Brownback to veto the provision in the Kansas budget. They say this punishes them for attracting research funding. Their overall larger budgets mean they’ll take a larger percentage cut.
Brownback says he’s met with university leaders to hear their concerns. But he says the budget was approved with a thin margin and spending provisions like this one helped it pass.
“These provisions, for some of the members, were quite significant in their voting for the budget provisions. Budgets are hard to pass, as you know. We will look and we’re studying all of that and studying it carefully and listening to people,” says Brownback.
The provision was suggested by Republican Senator Jacob LaTurner, from Pittsburg, who says larger universities can handle budget cuts more easily than smaller schools like Pitt State.