The leader of the Kansas Taxpayers Network says there is plenty of room to cut state spending without touching programs that affect ordinary citizens.
The head of a government watchdog group has his own suggestions about where the state can cut $44 million from its general fund budget.
Karl Peterjohn, director of the Wichita-based Kansas Taxpayers Network, said the state could save millions of dollars by cutting or eliminating budget items that some people view as luxury spending for the benefit of top government officials.
They included $2.4 million in general fund money earmarked for remodeling the governor's mansion in Topeka; $9,000 a year to lease a Cadillac for the governor; $500,000 to remodel the senate chamber in the state capitol; and more than $100,000 in pay hikes approved by the Kansas Board of Regents for the heads of the six state universities.
"While these items are relatively small, these are an important indicator of the state spending priorities," Peterjohn said in a statement issued Friday.
In addition, Peterjohn urged cutting back on general fund spending this year for the new Comprehensive Transportation Program and passing a constitutional amendment to limit growth in the state general fund.
Transfers of sales tax revenues to the highway fund began in 1989 under the first Comprehensive Highway Program. The money primarily is used to pay off bonds that were issued to finance construction projects.
Under the new Comprehensive Transportation Program enacted this year, those transfers will increase by 1.7 percent, from $87.9 million in fiscal year 1999, which ended June 30, to $89.4 million in the current fiscal year and $90.8 million in fiscal year 2001.
Mike Matson, the governor's press secretary, said Graves campaigned in favor of a constitutional spending cap in 1994. But there has been no need to push for one since then, he said, because the state has been able to increase spending while also cutting taxes.
"We weren't facing a situation where a constitutionally mandated spending cap was needed," Matson said.
Regarding the other proposed cuts, including the governor's Cadillac, Matson said: "If they are in the state general fund, they are fair game like everything else."
Peterjohn's suggested cuts came just a few days after Gov. Bill Graves directed Cabinet-level agencies to trim 1 percent of their spending from the state's general fund budget because of shortfalls in state revenue collections.
Democratic leaders criticized the governor for ordering across-the-board cuts, saying they would fall heaviest on public education and services for the elderly and disabled because those programs rely more heavily on the general fund for their budgets.
Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka and House Democratic Leader Jim Garner of Coffeyville urged the governor to direct where the cuts should come from, but Graves has said he wanted to give his departments flexibility to decide how to cut their budgets.
-- Peter Hancock's phone message number is 832-7144. His e-mail address is phancock@ljworld.com.
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