School Finance, State Budget Grab Center Stage (A blog by the KS Association of School Boards)

Two major events occur Friday that will set the direction of the 2016 Legislative Session, the next election and perhaps the education of a generation of Kansas schoolchildren.

At 9 a.m. oral arguments will be held before the Kansas Supreme Court in the long running Gannon school finance lawsuit.

The court proceedings can be viewed online here.

The court will consider whether the state needs to come up with approximately $50 million in equity funding for poor school districts. A three-judge panel ordered the funding, but the state appealed.

Documents in the case can be accessed here.

The larger question of whether overall funding to Kansas schools is adequate will be addressed next year by the state Supreme Court. Again, the three-judge panel has ruled the state has failed to provide adequate funding. A ruling against the state by the Supreme Court in this dispute could mean upwards of a $500 million increase for schools.

The lawsuit was brought in 2010 by plaintiff school districts after state budget reductions started in 2009.

Then later Friday, state budget experts will meet to re-calculate revenue projections for the remainder of the current fiscal year, which ends July 1, and the next fiscal year.

For the first four months of this fiscal year, tax receipts have fallen $78 million below previous projections, according to this memo from the Kansas Legislative Research Department.  

Key legislators have said they expect the Legislature will need to make $100 million in adjustments to balance the budget when the 2016 session starts in January. Some legislators have speculated that Gov. Sam Brownback may have to make budget cuts before the session to keep state finances afloat.

Talk of budget adjustments likely means budget cuts and fund transfers since legislators facing re-election in 2016 won’t want to have to defend another tax increase on top of the one they approved in 2015, when Brownback allies raised the state sales tax from 6.15 percent to 6.5 percent and increased cigarette and alcohol taxes.