Further, a bill that repays delayed payments to KPERS is moving
in the legislature. To help pay the bills over the past couple
years, the state held up it’s payment to the pension fund starting
in 2016. A measure that has been moving in the statehouse
would make-up those payments and costs about $115 million.
The Governor’s budget did not account for this repayment.
So, this puts the Governor in a pickle—on one hand she would
like to support the repayment, on the other she knows this
repayment will further put her budget priorities, like Medicaid
expansion and state employee pay raises, in further jeopardy.
K-12 Education Finance
The legislature is once again grappling with a Supreme Court order
on K-12 school finance. This session, the legislature must figure out
how to contend with the court’s order to add an inflationary factor
to the amount funded by the state following passage of last year’s
school funding bill. The Governor has proposed a bill that would
pay a 1.44% inflationary amount totaling an additional $90 million
over what the legislature funded last year for the next 5 years. Here’s
the rub: the $90 million amount is the inflationary number for one
year. As written, the outyear inflation payments should be calculated
based upon the new base that is created by paid inflation payment.
So really, the legislature would be on the hook for roughly $270
more than the over $450 million this bill proposes over the next 5
years. But, the lead lobbying coalition representing plaintiff school
districts, the Schools For Fair Funding, has stated that they would
effectively settle their lawsuit if the legislature paid the roughly $90
inflationary number over the next few years. Many legislators believe
this outlay is still too much and that the courts ought not direct
them how to appropriate tax dollars.
Continued on next page.
| January - February 2019 | KANSAS INSURANCE AGENT & BROKER
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