Governor Sam Brownback’s administration says many state workers will be sent home without pay starting June 7th if Kansas lawmakers don’t pass a budget. KPR’s Stephen Koranda reports.
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Brownback’s budget director, Shawn Sullivan, told a group of senators at the Statehouse yesterday (SUN) that the furloughs would happen unless a Kansas budget is in place by 11:59 p.m. on Saturday.
“We don’t have authority to pay employees past June 6th without a budget giving us authority to do that,” says Sullivan.
Sullivan says state agencies have been working to identify which workers are non-essential and can be sent home.
“There’s still public safety and other elements, I mean we can’t let prison guards go and inmates go,” says Sullivan.
Lawmakers could pass a short-term funding bill to keep state workers on the job while legislators finish work on the budget.