Some legislators are hoping for quick action to avoid some furlough days ordered for the Kansas court system. The first of five furlough day was last Friday. The chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court ordered the closings after a budget agreement in the Legislature fell apart. The budget would have provided more than a million additional dollars to help cover a shortfall facing the courts. The Senate’s top Democrat, Anthony Hensley, of Topeka, says he hopes lawmakers will pass a solution when they return to the Statehouse later this month.
House Speaker Mike O’Neal, a Hutchinson Republican, has said the courts have funds available they could use to prevent furloughs. Lawmakers will return to Topeka on the 25th.