Syndicated to Kansas newspapers Jan. 16, 2017
Just two days after being sworn-in and on the payroll, state legislators got the governor’s plan for the budget to fill the $350 million shortfall in the remaining six months of this fiscal year and the two last years of Sam Brownback’s governorship.
And, it is tricky and confusing, especially for the new legislators, nearly a third of the members, and they are still trying to figure out what goes where, and what’s borrowed from what.
The real key to the whole operation, though, is that the governor has managed to find a way to finance the shortfall this year and budget for the last two years of his governorship without any general tax increases.
That’s the political equivalent of walking across snow and not leaving tracks.