Kansas Republicans ask state agencies what they would drop if budget is cut 7.5%

Kansas Republicans are asking agencies to report on what they would cut if they had to reduce their budgets by 7.5% in the upcoming fiscal year.

The Kansas House Appropriations Committee reported that it would distribute the request to state agencies at its meeting on Wednesday. The request comes after the committee submitted its own budget for the first time in decades, rather than tweaking the budget provided by the governor.

“It’s an opportunity for any agency or any department to set their priorities and say, here are some things that, if we needed to make reductions, this is where we would like to see those reductions,” said Rep. Kristy Williams, R-Augusta, and the committee vice chair.

The request isn’t uncommon in budgeting processes, and Gov. Laura Kelly made the same ask from state agencies in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic caused a bleak revenue forecast. Budget director Adam Proffitt said Thursday that when it has been done in the past, agencies are typically given more time to decide where they would make cuts than they would with Wednesday’s request.

“We send the guidance out in usually June, when budget instructions go out, and we give agencies about three months to work through the process to more accurately and strategically identify where the supports might come from,” Proffitt said. “The exercise itself is not a bad exercise. It just needs to be done appropriately and strategically.”

Profitt said when reducing a budget, you want to use a scalpel and not a sledgehammer because some government programs leverage federal dollars that may be jeopardized if cut too deep.

“You want to make sure that you’re maybe not touching headcount or critical programs. It just takes a lot of time to work through these,” he said.

Not about new tax cuts

Kansas Republicans said the 7.5% isn’t necessarily to make space for tax cuts this session, but rather from a sense the government is wasting money after forming its own budgeting process.

“We’ve been able to see some areas where we really have a lot of work to do. And we also think there’s areas where maybe money is not being spent appropriately,” House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, told reporters.

Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, added that it’s important to cut after years of COVID-era stimulus starts to phase out of the state’s budget.

“It’s more about avoiding the cliff. You’re seeing all that massive amount of stimulus money that was in our system start to fade away,” Masterson said. “We ballooned to the cost of the administrative part of our government incredibly high. I mean, just under Laura, I think it’s up 60% on the executive side.”

What’s not facing a 7.5% cut?

There are some exceptions to the reduced resource proposal. The Legislature is only asking for the projection from agencies that are paid for by the State General Fund.

Dylan Dear, a fiscal analyst with the Kansas Legislative Research Department, said the State General Fund accounts for about half of the state’s all-fund budget. In fiscal year 2026, the request is $12 billion to the state general fund and a $24 billion all-fund budget.

That means certain state agencies that fund themselves through fees like the state’s highway fund will go untouched. There is also an exception for the state’s per-pupil funding it provides to school districts.

The 7.5% reduction doesn’t factor in any additional asks any agency might have for the year, which the Legislature can elect to reject or only grant a portion of. It also exempts debt service from the reduction because it’s a contractually required expenditure that can’t be reduced.