State budget still has less revenue than expenditures

Next year’s state budget could be the fourth fiscal year in a row with less general fund income than expenses, former state budget director Duane Goossen noted. “Each year lawmakers have scrambled to fill the resulting gap, first by blowing through $709 million in reserves, and then by withdrawing record amounts from the highway fund and other funds,” Goossen wrote in a blog post for the Kansas Center for Economic Growth. Gov. Sam Brownback’s proposed budget for next fiscal year has expenditures exceeding recurring revenues by about $300 million. – Phillip Brownlee

This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 6:06 PM.