Kansas Legislature's committee to study options for changing state budget process • Kansas Reflector

TOPEKA — Leaders of the Kansas Legislature approved formation of an interim committee to study options for changing the process of developing an annual state government budget that didn’t depend on when a governor submitted a spending plan to lawmakers.

Kansas governors traditionally offered budget insights to House and Senate members during the State of the State speech at outset of legislative sessions in January, but formal budget documents wouldn’t immediately be forwarded to legislators.

Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, said the interim committee would convene for two days this fall to discuss the possibility of enabling the Legislature to get rolling on development of a budget before the governor’s blueprint was delivered. He said Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s budget outline in January could be considered an alternative to the Legislature’s bill rather than a starting point for debate.

“Then we’re not on pins and needles waiting for what’s this going to look like at the end of our first week of the session,” Masterson said. “We can introduce our own budget bill. And, really, you still have both options open to you.”

Masterson said he would appreciate analysis of whether the House Appropriations Committee could be assigned responsibility of pulling together an initial version of the state budget. It would be passed to the Senate Ways and Means Committee for potential amendments, he said. This would be a departure from a tradition of the House and Senate independently producing budget bill.

“They would start. We would finish,” the Senate president said. “That would also help us confine our session into the 90 (allotted) days. It just would be a more efficient process.”

Under the current and potential system, House and Senate negotiators would attempt to resolve differences between the two chambers. Kelly, and future Kansas governors, would retain authority to veto entire budget bills or line-item expenditures in spending bills.

Members of the Legislative Coordinating Council, which convenes when the full Legislature wasn’t in session, approved formation of the bipartisan 21-member committee to consider amending the budget process. Republicans would take as many as 15 seats on the committee, while Democrats could be appointed to at least six seats.

House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, said the special committee could investigate the surge in budget provisions tucked into the budget by conference committees comprised of three House members and three Senate members. The six-person committees include four Republicans and two Democrats. Conference committee reports cannot be amended — only accepted or rejected.

“I’ve been thinking a long time about the budget process and certainly the fact that most of us would agree that we have way too many provisos coming in at the end during conference committees. It happens every time,” Hawkins said.

In the 2024 legislative session, he thought there were 30 to 40 special-interest provisos shoved into the budget. More often than not, these provisions weren’t considered by the House and Senate before dropped into the bill. Several provisos during the most recent legislative session not only directed the state to spend money, but identified a specific company or recipient of that earmark.

“Most of those items never get a chance to be vetted by the budget committees,” Hawkins said.