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KS budget, education await Legislature's return

By Brian Hagen

04/16/2021

State Representative Dr. John Eplee

(KAIR)--A preliminary budget is approved by the Kansas Legislature, which has reached First Adjournment, commonly referred to as the Legislature’s spring break.

According to State Representative Dr. John Eplee, of Atchison, approval of the budget sets a portion of the budget now, with finalization to follow the release of the April Consensus Revenue Estimates, which Eplee says will provide a better idea of the state’s revenue, helping the Legislature establish the rest of the budget.

Saying he doesn’t support everything in the budget, Eplee says “there are some important things funded, including transportation, higher education, and social services.”

Eplee calls the education budget “the largest piece of the budget sill needing finalized,” which he says must be accomplished when the Legislature returns to business for the veto session. Eplee explains that the education budget was included in separate legislation that did not pass, saying he voted no on the two education funding bills because deviating from a constitutional funding formula “invites additional lawsuits, wastes taxpayer dollars, and takes money away from [Kansas] classrooms.”

He says the house education funding bill strayed from the formula “by sunsetting the high-density at-risk weighting, establishing new education policy and including tax elements in the bill.”

Eplee also voted against the Senate’s compromise bill, saying it “blurs the lines too much between education funding, education policy, and tax policy.”

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