“Step 1: Programs for which the state is responsible would be adequately funded. Public schools are a prime example. A financially healthy state provides enough resources for schools to allow them to grow and improve. Kansas, however, hovers on the verge of losing a court case for inadequate funding. School funding has been switched to a block grant, not because that’s a more equitable way to distribute funding, or because it is what students need, but because it limits state spending on schools. The same kind of story pervades other parts of the budget — human service programs, higher education, the arts, the state workforce, and economic development.

“Step 2: Ongoing revenue would at least equal expenses…

“Step 3: Kansas would have a rainy day fund and a healthy ending balance…

“Kansas is a long, long way from financial health. Hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars away. The state lives from paycheck to paycheck, with no reserves. All of the state’s energy goes to cutting back, downsizing, and trying to make a growing set of expenses fit within an anemic revenue stream, rather than investing in the future.

“If that’s the new normal, Kansans should be very concerned.”

– See more at: http://realprosperityks.com/goossen-what-does-financial-health-look-like/