The incoming majority leader in the Kansas Senate says the state’s deepening budget crisis will be the top priority when the Legislature convenes in January. Overland Park Republican Jim Denning was one of several more moderate Republicans elected to leadership posts today (MON) that had been held by conservatives. He says lawmakers will initially have no choice but to cut spending to cover a projected deficit of nearly $350 million in the current budget year. But he says they will also attempt to replenish revenues by putting more than 300,000 businesses back on the income tax rolls and by raising some other taxes.
Denning says the gas tax would be used to replenish money taken from the State Highway Fund in recent years.