The current administration is hiding the disastrous results of its tax policy by issuing record levels of debt (which will need to be paid). This does not bode well for the short-term or long-term future of school funding in Kansas. Do your friends understand this?
“Six lines buried deep in a 700-page appropriation bill last spring gave the Kansas Department of Transportation unlimited authority to issue debt, and in early December, without public disclosure, the agency used that authority to issue $400 million in highway bonds.
“State law requires those debt proceeds to be used for improving state highways, but do not expect that to happen. Lawmakers directed that $400 million and more be swept from the highway fund to help pay for the $700 million dip in state revenues caused by income tax cuts in 2012 and 2013.
“The $400 million in new highway debt represents the largest single highway bond in state history and bumps up total outstanding highway debt to $2.1 billion, also a state record. The size of the bond issue was boosted 60 percent higher than planned last January in order to stabilize at least temporarily the precarious condition of state finances.”
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article50594095.html