KU chancellor: State lawmakers’ budget cuts ‘significantly challenging the University of Kansas’ ability to serve Kansans and society’

In not-altogether shocking news out of Kansas yesterday, budget analysts announced that revenue estimates were being revised downward, and the state will have to find about $400 million over the next few years. 

From the Star:

The latest revenue outlook revealed a deepening budget hole that will test a conservative Legislature’s no-tax willpower when it reconvenes next week.

With Kansas’ economy growing at a slower rate than the rest of the country, fiscal analysts reduced the state’s revenue estimates by $200 million for fiscal years 2016 and 2017, increasing the budget deficit lawmakers must tackle.

While income tax receipts are expected to hold steady the next two years, the state suffers from losses in severance taxes because of a soft oil and gas market and a decline in corporate income taxes.

The new estimates mean the state faces a $400 million gap — a chasm Republican Gov. Sam Brownback has proposed closing with tax increases on cigarettes and alcohol as well as slowing tax cuts enacted in 2012 and 2013.

“Unfortunately, with revision of revenues downward, it does make balancing the budget more of a challenge than it already was,” Brownback’s budget director Shawn Sullivan said after the estimates were released Monday.

Jim Ward, a Democratic House member from Wichita, told KSN: “Where else can they cut? Are they just going to close down and say they’re not going to do higher education anymore? Are we going to stop doing highways altogether? I mean, at some point in time, in order to accomplish those essential services, you’ve got to fund them.”

Speaking of higher education: Also yesterday, University of Kansas chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little issued a statement opposing a tuition freeze currently being floated in the Kansas Legislature’s budget proceedings. 

Gray-Little wrote: 

Here in Kansas, our state has incrementally but consistently disinvested in higher education to the point that it is now significantly challenging the University of Kansas’ ability to serve Kansans and society. When adjusted for inflation, per-student state support for KU has declined nearly 40 percent over the past 15 years. Thus, KU students now pay the majority of the cost of their education.

The Kansas Legislature will soon begin finalizing next year’s budget. Currently, the budget conference committee is considering a bill that has no new cuts but does include a tuition freeze at all Regents universities. This was a curious move by legislators, as it does nothing to address the state’s revenue shortfall, and because KU remains very affordable compared to neighboring state universities and aspirational peer universities.

While we share legislators’ focus on affordability, there are serious implications for freezing tuition, most notably that it prevents us from being able to keep up with inflation, let alone to embark on new initiatives to benefit Kansas. 

Read the full statement here. The president of Kansas State University issued a similar statement, claiming that such a freeze would “effectively result in the biggest budget cut in the university’s history,” according to KAKE.