(Syndicated to Kansas newspapers Feb. 18, 2013)
The third factor
The continuing issue for this legislative session is very simply “what comes first?”
Do lawmakers assemble a state budget as tightly as possible, and see whether it can meet the responsibilities and needs of the state and then raise or lower taxes? Or…do they put together a tax policy of cuts or increases and then make the budget fit within available resources?
Seems like two fairly straightforward choices.
But there’s a third factor here that nobody’s talking out loud about…and that is just how much money the state needs to have in its bank account when the taxing/spending decision has been made.
That third factor—called the State General Fund (SGF) ending balance—is itself a question those lawmakers at some point need to decide.