“During this past election, Gov. Sam Brownback told Kansans that job growth would prevent budget shortfalls.
“’The sun is shining in Kansas and don’t let anybody tell you any different,’ he said in one campaign commercial.
“His budget and tax officials downplayed growing revenue shortfalls, arguing that spending cuts wouldn’t be needed in the current fiscal year and that “efficiencies will take care of shortfalls next year.”
“Yet less than a week after the election, new official revenue estimates exposed the ugly truth: The state needs to cut at least $280 million in planned spending before next July, and it could need an additional $436 million in spending reductions or revenue increases next fiscal year.
“And that’s just to get to zero. Restoring the statutorily required ending balance next fiscal year could require an additional $450 million, putting the total spending cuts or revenue increases needed this fiscal year and next at more than $1.2 billion.
“These estimates also don’t factor in the likelihood that the courts will rule again that the state is inadequately funding public schools.
“Not only did Brownback and his top officials refuse to acknowledge the reality of the budget problems, they and their surrogates tried to discredit those who raised alarms.
“Brownback claimed that the nation’s top credit agencies downgraded Kansas’ bond rating because they don’t like tax cuts. Others critics of the state’s finances were brushed off as partisans engaging in ‘sky is falling’ hysteria.
“Sen. Ty Masterson, R-Andover, and Rep. Gene Suellentrop, R-Wichita, the respective chairmen of the Senate and House budget committees, argued a week before the election that it was false to claim that ‘the state budget is in trouble.’”
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