Kansas faces budget shortfalls in both the current and coming fiscal years. Governor Sam Brownback will present lawmakers with a proposal for closing the budget gap, and he has now dropped a hint on what his plan will include.
There’s been talk in the Statehouse of spending cuts, tax increases and finding revenue in other ways. Brownback said in an interview that he’ll use more than one strategy.
“We’ll do a mixture of both cuts and revenues. The size of the hole that we’re looking at, I think, is one where you’re just going to have to do some mixture. And none of it’s going to be something that people are going to be particularly excited about. At the end of the day, you've got to come up with a balanced budget, and we will,” said Brownback.
In the current fiscal year, Kansas faces a budget deficit of nearly $350 million. That’s almost 6 percent of the state general fund portion of the budget.
The shortfall in the next fiscal year approaches $600 million.
Stephen Koranda reports: