budget negotiations

Kansas has been criticized since 2012 for cutting taxes irresponsibly, despite a court-ordered increase in education spending. Tax cuts in the Sunflower State may have been larger than circumstances warranted,…

While caution remains the budgetary watchword this session, legislative leaders will look for ways to sustain the momentum for tax reform. On Wall Street, companies can see their share prices…

State budget writers have more challenges than normal as they prepare for the next biennium. First, there are economic headwinds from tariff and trade wars and a broader concern about…

Budget negotiations between the House and Senate typically lead to higher spending, as each side accepts all or part of an item the other wants. Another approach would be to accept only spending common to both budgets, a "reverse logrolling" that lets government expand only when a consensus exists to do so. For FY 2000-01, this approach would save nearly $200 million for future state employee benefit reforms and raise operating spending by only 3.8 percent.