Kansas House, Senate lawmakers meeting on joint budget bill

The Kansas House has yet to vote on a budget bill of its own, and it may not.

Lawmakers from both chambers began conference meetings Monday on a joint budget bill.

The Senate passed a budget last week that spends $6.48 billion from the state’s general fund and $15.47 billion from all funds, including federal aid, for fiscal year 2016.

Legislative leaders from the House and Senate met Monday to compare the bill passed by the Senate and one that has been approved by the House Appropriations Committee but that has not gone to the House floor for a vote.

Rep. Ron Ryckman Jr., R-Olathe, indicated there are no immediate plans for the House to hold its own budget vote.

“We’ll see where this goes,” Ryckman said, referring to the conference process.

Conference committees include three members from the Senate and three from the House, with two members from each chamber representing the majority party and one representing the minority party.

Some House members have expressed frustration about the House going into conference with the Senate before voting on a bill of its own.

Rep. Jim Ward, D-Wichita, said doing it this way disenfranchises House members who aren’t on the committee and thereby disenfranchises their constituents, about 25,000 people for each member of the House of Representatives.

“Three people in the House of Representatives are going to decide what the House position – the people’s house – will have in the budget in terms of priorities, in terms of values, in terms of what’s important for the next two years in Kansas,” Ward said. “That’s just ridiculous. That’s absolutely anti-democratic. I can’t find a word that expresses my outrage.”

The Senate stuck its bill into a House bill, a procedural move that would allow the House to concur on it and would prohibit floor amendments. But Ryckman also indicated there aren’t plans for the House to vote on the Senate’s bill this week either.

Several provisions in the Senate budget about higher education are controversial. It appropriates $4.6 million less in general operating dollars to the University of Kansas than the governor requested and $2.1 million less for Kansas State University.

In addition, the Senate bill changes a state scholarship fund to put more money toward students at private colleges. Now, half the money for the Kansas Comprehensive Grant program goes to students at public universities, while the other half goes to students who attend private colleges. The bill would make it so that private-college students receive 75 percent of the funding.

Ryckman flagged higher-education funding as an area that the two sides would have to discuss further at their next meeting Tuesday morning.

Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, who observed the meeting, voiced concern about the policies’ impact on KU, but she also was optimistic that the provisions could be tweaked during the negotiation process.

“I don’t know what you say about it. It’s not good. That means cuts probably somewhere on our campus,” Ballard said. “On the other hand, the budget’s not done yet. And we still have a long time to go, like a month, before the budget is done.”

This story was originally published March 30, 2015 at 7:24 PM with the headline "Kansas House, Senate lawmakers meeting on joint budget bill."