State of Kansas Efficiency Review

The Efficiency Review: Small Ripples in a Big Pond of Troubles

By Kansas Center for Economic Growth Senior Fellow Duane Goossen

Kansas lawmakers paid $2.6 million for a 257-page, recently-released efficiency review of state government. What should we make of it?

• The most important section of the report - budget process review - tells lawmakers to structurally balance the budget (recurring revenue equals expenses), and establish a rainy day fund, two critical financial practices that have been completely upended in Kansas by the 2012/2013 tax cuts.

• Even if lawmakers implement every single "efficiency reduction," Kansas will still not achieve structural budget balance or have a rainy day fund. $2 billion in potential savings may sound big, but that amount represents a cumulative 5-year total, a substantial share of which does not accrue to the general fund. Plus, the savings estimates for some of the components are just guesses, and likely too high. Further, items like the sale of surplus property, or depleting cash balances in school districts, produce only one-time dollars. And lawmakers will never, even in the wildest of dreams, ever implement all the recommendations.

• A large swath of the recommendations do not represent efficiency savings at all, just plain cuts. For example, $543 million in "savings" over 5 years, more than a fourth of the grand total, would be garnered by reducing health benefits to state employees and teachers. State employees would all be moved to a high deductible health plan. In this scheme, the state pays less and employees pay more; not a good move when the state struggles to fill positions at state hospitals and prisons.

• Several items actually propose an increase in spending in order to secure more revenue. Spend more to get more. Supposedly, about $50 million a year could eventually be garnered by hiring 54 new tax auditors and collection agents. If that is true, staff reductions of the last few years have seriously hurt the efficiency of the Department of Revenue, just as they have also damaged the operations of state hospitals and prisons.

• The review turned up some things that are worth doing - such as better coordination of insurance purchases, and energy savings ideas. Certainly state government should always work to provide the most efficient services possible with taxpayer dollars. However, items that might be classified as easy or "low-hanging fruit" were already accomplished long ago as the state struggled through the Great Recession and then grappled with reduced revenue as a result of tax cuts.

So, charge ahead, lawmakers. Implement every item that truly makes Kansas government more efficient. But remember that the key issue you face is not inefficiency. The 2012-2013 tax changes so damaged the state revenue stream that Kansas does not have enough income to meet even a conservative or "efficient" set of expenses. That's the real problem that must be fixed so that Kansas can once again invest in the future.

Opposing opinions about teacher merit pay aired during informational hearing

Opposing opinions about teacher merit pay aired during informational hearing - A report from the KS Association of School Boards

Opposing opinions about the value of a teacher merit pay system was aired Tuesday during an informational hearing before the House Education Committee.

In his State of the State speech last week, Gov. Sam Brownback said merit pay should be part of any new school finance plan.

Before the Education Committee, Brownback’s policy director, Brandon Wilson, said the governor supported merit pay in general but didn’t have a specific proposal and thought of local school districts should be in charge of formulating plans specific to their districts.

KASB's Mark Tallman, associate executive director for advocacy, reiterated KASB's position in opposition to a state-mandated plan.

Tallman said school boards can already provide performance-based pay but should not be required to do so by the state.

He also said, “KASB is not aware of any research-based consensus that pay for performance improves overall results.” Here is a link to KASB’s testimony.

KNEA’s Mark Desetti and other school advocates said merit pay for teachers would hurt schools and students because teachers, who routinely collaborate to help students, would stop doing that in the competition for bonuses.

But proponents of merit pay said it would help retain quality teachers.

David Dorsey, a former teacher and now a senior education policy analyst with the Kansas Policy Institute, said, “The current system is a one-size-fits-all approach that fails to recognize differences among teachers and teaching assignments. Teachers don’t make widgets, they don’t work on an assembly line. It makes no sense that they get paid as if they do.”

Dorsey added that legislators should have faith in local school boards and their appointed administrators “to recognize teacher quality and assume the responsibility to reward it.”

Two teachers — Bruce Wellman and Monte Slaven — said Kansas should step up efforts to have teachers qualify under the National Board Certification program.

They said the highly-regarded system analyzes a teacher’s performance and abilities in numerous ways and provides a fair, rigorous and objective measure of teaching skills.

The state rewarded teachers who achieved NBC designation but then stopped funding it for several years. Program funding began again last year.

January is National Stalking Awareness Month: An Article from Dept. of Homeland Security Stop. Think. Connect.

JANUARY IS NATIONAL STALKING AWARENESS MONTH

One in five Americans are affected by cyberstalking, persistent emails, and other unwanted contact according to a study by the National Cyber Security Alliance. This January is National Stalking Awareness Month – a month dedicated to educating the public about the dangers related to the crime of stalking both online and offline. The month also provides a good opportunity to identify the ways Americans can protect themselves online.

The Stalking Resource Center SRC) of the National Center for Victims of Crime, is a Stop.Think.Connect. National Network partner. The SRC defines “stalking” generally as harassing or threatening behavior that an individual engages in repeatedly, such as following a person, appearing at a person's home or place of business, or making harassing phone calls. Cyberstalking follows the same definition; only perpetrators utilize technology to torment their victims. This can involve continuously contacting someone online or e-mailing threatening or hateful messages.

The best defense against cyber stalking is to avoid oversharing information – especially online. Here are some basic tips from the Stop.Think.Connect.™ Campaign, the Department of Homeland Security’s national cyber security awareness program, to keep in mind when sharing online.

1. Don’t broadcast your location. Do not activate location or geo-tagging features on your devices. You could be telling a stalker exactly where to find you.
2. Connect only with people you trust. While some social networks might seem safer for connecting because of the limited personal information shared through them, keep your connections to people you know and trust.
3. Keep certain things private from everyone. Certain information should be kept completely off your social networks. While it’s fun to have everyone wish you a happy birthday, or for long-lost friends to reconnect with you online, listing your date of birth with your full name and address provides potential stalkers with crucial information that could give them further access to you.
4. Be thoughtful about what you share. Be aware that when you share a post, picture or video online, you may also be revealing sensitive information about yourself and others. You don’t own anything you post online, and people could use your information, photos, or content for malicious purposes.

To find out how you can support National Stalking Awareness Month or find out more information on stalking, please visit the National Stalking Resource Center and the National Stalking Awareness Month website.

Top education officials say Kansas teachers don't feel appreciated

Top
education officials say Kansas teachers don't feel appreciated and a merit pay
requirement might make matters worse: A blog by KASB

Top education
officials Wednesday told legislators Kansas teachers don’t feel appreciated and
a merit pay requirement from the state might make matters worse.

Responding to a
question from state Sen. Jeff Melcher, R-Leawood, related to merit pay, Kansas
Education Commissioner Randy Watson said teachers aren’t so much concerned
about money as they are feeling unappreciated.

“They have come to
believe that they are not appreciated in the state of Kansas and that is the
general reaction everywhere I go,” Watson said.

Kansas State Board of
Education Chairman Jim McNiece urged legislators to applaud teachers and
suggested a merit pay requirement from the state could be like pouring gasoline
on a fire.

But Melcher blamed
the education community and teacher’s union for bad feelings between teachers
and legislators.

He said he wanted a
system that rewarded top teachers, but then added teachers make “actually a
pretty darn good living.”

Watson and McNiece
appeared before the committees to brief the members on the State Board's new
vision of focusing on the success of each Kansas student.

Three Key Questions By Kansas Center for Economic Growth Senior Fellow Duane Goossen

Kansas remains in a perpetual budget crisis as another legislative session begins. Lawmakers have already approved budgets for FY 2016 and for FY 2017, but both must be adjusted just to keep the general fund solvent. 

Is it possible to get through FY 2016 without further cuts?

A very high risk exists for further mid-fiscal year program cuts.

In November, the state's revenue estimators markedly lowered expectations for the amount of tax revenue that Kansas would receive in FY 2016. The new estimate put the general fund underwater by more than $100 million, even though lawmakers had hiked the state sales tax rate in June and directly transferred more than $200 million from other state funds.

In response, the Brownback administration took emergency action in November to take yet another $50 million from the highway fund and $9 million from early childhood accounts, and imposed deeper spending cuts on programs. These actions just inched the general fund balance above zero by a few million dollars.

If actual tax collections do not meet the lowered targets, further budget cuts will be required. Kansas does not have any reserves left to deal with further revenue erosion.  Even with lowered expectations, the new estimate predicts that tax collections will increase by 5.7 percent in FY 2016. However, through the first 6 months of FY 2016, actual collections have grown less than 2 percent from the previous year. The revenue estimators likely still have the revenue estimate set too high.

What must be done to the existing FY 2017 budget - at minimum?

At least $175 million must either be added to revenue or subtracted from approved expenses to stay solvent. That's the bare minimum required to keep the ending balance above zero, and would only eke the state through to the next year.  

  

 

Keep in mind that the revenue estimate for FY 2017 already includes $180 million in one-time transfers from other funds.

Doing the bare minimum does not account for any action that may be required from the school finance court case, does not provide any ending balance, and does not deal with understaffed prisons and hospitals. And if the revenue estimate for FY 2016 is still too high, the one for FY 2017 likely is, as well.

What's the fix?

To be financially stable, Kansas must adequately fund key programs, have a balance between income and expenses, and keep a reasonable amount of reserves. Not even one of those three things is occurring now.

The problem rests with unaffordable income tax cuts that dramatically diminished the state's revenue stream and produced a perpetual budget crisis. Fixing the problem requires revisiting those income tax policies and correcting them.

January 2016 School Board Recognition

Ordinary citizens doing extraordinary work: that’s how to describe our local board of education! These seven individuals are our friends and neighbors who are creating a future for every child in our communities. They spend countless hours preparing to make decisions, participating in meetings and attending school activities and events. They advocate on the local, state and national levels for our children. They are held accountable for the decisions they make, and do all of this as volunteers.

Public education is a cornerstone of American society, and local school boards are deeply rooted in U.S. tradition. In fact, in 1966 the people of Kansas amended our state’s constitution to specifically call for local public schools that are ‘maintained, developed and operated by locally elected boards.’

Our local board of education is responsible for setting a vision for our local education program, and partners with staff and other members of the community to provide the facilities and infrastructure to achieve that vision. They research, study and then discuss issues so that they can make informed decisions on countless complex challenges.

Too often we forget about the personal sacrifices school board members make. The job of a school board member is tough, the hours long and the thanks few and far between. The month of January marks the annual observance of School Board Recognition Month and gives us the chance to say thank you!

The theme this year is “Public School Board Members Create a Future for Every Child.” This is a time to shine a light on how local boards prepare today’s students for success. In January, join with others throughout our district and state to salute the men and women who provide leadership for our public schools.