Topeka ? Gov. Bill Graves on Friday opened the way for possible state employee layoffs and furloughs, lashed out at critics and signed into law a redistricting plan he said he didn’t like.

Graves’ vetoes came after the official conclusion of the record-breaking 2002 legislative session, so lawmakers had no chance to try to override his actions.

“If I were a state employee, I think I’d brace myself,” Rep. Doug Mays, R-Topeka, said when hearing about Graves’ line-item veto of a provision in the final appropriations bill that would have prohibited agencies from furloughing or laying off employees because of tight budgets.

Graves vetoed the measure, saying in a prepared statement that it was an “unreasonable intrusion on the executive branch responsibility of state agencies to manage their budgets within the constraints that will already be imposed on them by reduced funding levels.”

Lawmakers approved nearly $300 million in new taxes to shore up the $4.4 billion budget, but state leaders have said more cuts were probable because state revenues continued to fall below projections.

House Minority Leader Jim Garner, D-Coffeyville, also criticized Graves for delivering the vetoes after lawmakers ended the session.

“He circumvented the Democratic process by not allowing at least a review of these vetoes,” Garner said. Lawmakers can override a veto with a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate.

Redistricting approved

Graves signed into law a congressional redistricting plan that splits Lawrence between the 2nd and 3rd districts along Iowa Street.

Graves was OK with that, but another part of the map placed Junction City in a different district than Fort Riley, an Army post that is adjacent to Junction City.

“It is unconscionable to separate these clear communities of interest,” Graves said of the Junction City-Fort Riley split.

But Graves signed the bill because, he said, a veto would have kept in place the current congressional districts, which are uneven in population because they are based on 1990 census figures.

The redistricting issue still may be settled in federal court.

Lawrence officials, who initially opposed dividing the city, have said they can live with the new map. But Junction City officials say they may fight it.

State Sen. Lana Oleen, R-Manhattan, said she would like Atty. Gen. Carla Stovall to file a legal challenge to the redistricting plan.

Betty Amos, president of the Junction City Chamber of Commerce, said officials there would meet and soon decide whether to file their own lawsuit.

Goodyear plan vetoed

In another veto, Graves delivered a parting shot to several Topeka Democrats with his veto of a bill that would give tax breaks to the Goodyear tire plant in Topeka.

Graves said the legislation was a ruse to provide political cover so Topeka Democrats could say they helped Goodyear.

“It was a blatant act of political deception,” Graves said.

The bitter rhetoric capped the longest legislative session in Kansas history, which after Friday clocked in at 107 days.

Graves delivered his vetoes in the late afternoon, hours after the House and Senate wrapped up business and left the Capitol.

Lawmakers had unofficially ended their business May 17, but came back for the official end, which usually entailed a brief adjournment ceremony.

But on Friday there was work to do.

Because of an error, lawmakers again passed a bill that would permit a process to pull natural gas out of coal beds.

In the Senate, lawmakers failed to override an earlier Graves’ veto of a provision that would have prohibited expenditures to reinforce the Capitol dome to add a statue of a Kansa Indian.