Kansas legislators looking to change development process for state budget

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – Kansas legislators want to change the way the state comes up with its budget.

A Special Committee on Budget Process and Development met on Thursday. Members of the House and Senate, including Senate President Ty Masterson and House Speaker Dan Hawkins, discussed how they would want to go about making the budget in the Legislature.

“I look at this as an opportunity to examine a process that is probably flawed and find opportunities to make it better. We need to spend more time diving into the budget process and figure out how to do it more effectively and efficiently. I’m very excited to find solutions that can help us better serve all Kansas taxpayers and look forward to our next meeting as a committee.”

A lack of sufficient review time was cited as the biggest factor motivating any changes.

“What we’re going to be looking at is possible systemic changes to how we actually craft a budget by the State Legislature and moving forward in an earlier fashion than what we have done in previous years or maybe even for decades,” Committee Chairman Rep. Troy Waymaster said during the meeting. “We are compressed by a very aggressive schedule and trying to analyze the, I believe, 78 budgets that we have with the state agencies and the Departments and trying to get that done within a course of five to six weeks.”

The budget is currently developed by the governor and state agencies, and then submitted to the Legislature. There’s a series of deadlines and hearings legislators can access throughout October and November, but they don’t truly see a draft until that submission in January.

“We’re going to be looking at what other states are doing in regards to the process as being created by the Legislature,” Rep. Waymaster continued. “This is not to say that we’re not going to adhere to what the governor may propose, what this does is it ask it lets us escalate the process in a quicker fashion so when we return in the beginning of January we can start the budget analysis on those smaller budgets.”

Rep. Waymaster released a statement after the meeting stating a bill would be introduced when the legislature returns in January 2025.

“The current budget process that we have in place has been utilized for decades and its time to look at a new way of generating our state budget. We took great strides today in identifying a budget process that better serves the taxpayers of the state of Kansas. As appropriators of the state finances, the legislature is going to introduce a budget bill in the onset of the legislative session in January of 2025, and begin the analytical process of how we can reduce spending and have a more concise budget process.”

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