Topeka ? Gov. Bill Graves on Thursday cut state spending by $41 million, slicing into social services, education, public safety and most state agencies.

He said the cuts were necessitated by a continuing slump in state revenues.

Gov. Bill Graves, foreground, announces 1 million in state budget cuts at a news conference in Topeka. The cuts, announced Thursday, are part of Graves' effort to keep the state from ending the year in the red. At left is Duane Goossen, state budget director.

“I don’t feel good about any of these announcements. We’re starting to carve away at the bone,” Graves said.

The cuts, which amount to about 1 percent of the state’s $4.4 billion budget, won’t come close to bridging the budget gap, he said. They are intended simply to keep reserves from dipping into negative numbers.

“The heavy lifting is going to happen in January,” Graves said. That’s when a new governor and Legislature will face a budget that experts have said may be as much as $700 million in the red.

The cuts come just weeks after the state levied $300 million in new taxes. But slumping tax collections, Graves said, forced his hand. In July, collections fell $18 million below projections.

Education cuts

Under cuts announced Thursday, public schools lost $17.51 million. That is a cut of three-fourths of 1 percent, or a $27 reduction in base state aid per pupil.

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Higher education lost $5.29 million, about 1 percent. Kansas University and KU Medical Center will lose $1.78 million.

Most other state agencies took a 2 percent hit, for $15.8 million.

That includes cutting 16,423 meals to the elderly, shutting down field offices for social services, putting a freeze on hiring Kansas Bureau of Investigation agents, reducing funding for family preservation services and community corrections, and lengthening waiting lists for health-care services for the elderly.

For some, the cuts were not as deep as expected.

“Wow, I think we got by pretty light,” said Jim Beckwith, executive director at the Northeast Kansas Area Agency on Aging in Hiawatha.

Spending at the Department on Aging was cut $412,177.

“For us to come out under a million dollars is pretty good,” Beckwith said.

Spending at the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services was cut $5.9 million. Plans call for consolidating and closing field offices, and reducing by $1 million the state’s family preservation services.

Other social programs

“This is a situation we anticipated, and we’re prepared to live with it without any major changes in programs,” said Colleen Pederson, family preservation contract administrator at DCCCA. Based in Lawrence, DCCCA is SRS’ family preservation contractor for the eastern half of the state.

In the next 10 months, SRS will close from 12 to 20 offices, most of them in rural areas. Plans call for closing as many as 25 more offices between July 2003 and July 2004.

SRS now has offices in 103 of the state’s 105 counties. Last year, it closed offices in Stanton and Comanche counties.

SRS Secretary Janet Schalansky said the bulk of the department’s budget cuts would be absorbed by putting off technology upgrades and leaving vacancies unfilled.

Within SRS, the state hospitals’ budget was cut $603,000.

“Ninety-eight percent of the state hospital budget is for staff and salaries,” Schalansky said. “So there’s no way we cut that much without affecting staff.”

Schalansky said it was likely that between 20 and 50 employees at state hospitals would be laid off by year’s end.

It was unclear Thursday how the cuts would affect Lawrence-area social programs.

Some state employees will be laid off, but Graves’ office could not say how many.

The state is even going to sell off 20 percent of its motor pool 46 vehicles to raise $250,000.

Statue project

The governor’s office and lieutenant governor’s office are reducing their budgets by 5 percent. Under state law, Graves cannot cut the Legislature or judiciary, but legislative leaders have indicated they would volunteer a 2 percent cut.

The cuts included a 20 percent reduction in out-of-state travel for all state agencies.

Despite the reductions, Graves said he would continue to support the controversial expenditure of $750,000 to put a statue atop the Capitol dome.

“The timing of that couldn’t be worse, I’m aware of that,” Graves said, adding that the state had made a commitment more than a decade ago to put up the statue. “That’s something that I’m still planning on seeing through to the end.”

Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka said Graves’ budget cuts may be the final example of his mismanagement of state funding.

“He came into office with a $370 million ending balance, and he will leave with close to zero. How is that ‘high and tight’?” he said, referring to Graves’ campaign slogan when he first sought the governor’s office.

Hensley noted that the $750,000 being spent to place the statue on the top of the dome was about the same amount of money being cut from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Kansas Highway Patrol.

“How can we do that in this day and age of homeland security?” he asked.