Wagle key to wrapping up legislative session

Lawmakers will have a full plate when they return to Topeka this week to wrap up the legislative session. Resolving these issues will take strong leadership, particularly by Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, who needs to decide if she is siding with the public and the bipartisan majority of lawmakers or with Gov. Sam Brownback.

A particularly complicated issue will be finalizing a new school finance formula. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled in March that Kansas is inadequately funding K-12 public education, and it gave lawmakers until June 30 to fix it or face possible school closures.

The House K-12 Education Budget Committee has completed but not yet approved a promising new school finance plan. It includes features that are similar to the state’s earlier court-approved finance formula, including per-pupil base aid plus additional funding for at-risk students and other costs.

But getting a majority of lawmakers to agree on a formula could be difficult, given the diversity of school districts in Kansas. Then they also need to agree on the funding level.

The House committee plan would increase state funding by $150 million per year over the next five years ($750 million total). That total would likely need to increase, or the phase-in period shortened, to satisfy the court.

Lawmakers need to act quickly to approve a plan so the court has time to review it before the June 30 deadline – so they need to avoid unproductive fights.

The other major issue – huge, as President Trump might say – is how to balance the budget.

The state is facing a budget shortfall over the next two fiscal years of about $900 million, not counting the increase in school funding. Plugging this shortfall will require both spending cuts and tax increases.

A large bi-partisan majority of lawmakers approved a bill in February that would reverse some of the earlier tax cuts championed by Gov. Sam Brownback, including the tax exemption on pass-through business income. But Brownback vetoed the bill, and an override attempt fell three votes short in the Senate – with Wagle among those opposing the bill.

A flat-tax bill that Brownback and Wagle supported was overwhelmingly rejected in the Senate last month – and appropriately so, as it would have disproportionately hurt lower-income Kansans and wouldn’t have raised enough revenue.

Polls show that the public wants to roll back earlier tax cuts, and they want more funding for schools. That’s what a majority of lawmakers want, too.

The remaining session will be difficult. But it could go a lot better if Wagle supports the will of the public and her chamber and not Brownback.

This story was originally published April 30, 2017 at 5:05 AM with the headline "Wagle key to wrapping up legislative session."