Hutchinson ? Revenue from ticket sales at the Kansas State Fair was up more than 4 percent this year from last year, but officials still will face tight budgets in the next few years, general manager Denny Stoecklein said.

“Those are great figures,” Stoecklein said of the revenue from ticket sales this year, which is up 4.1 percent from 2002 and 32 percent from 2001. “We couldn’t be happier to hear that.”

Stoecklein and the Kansas State Fair Board have to make some tough decisions about future budgets.

The fair administration is projecting revenue for fiscal year 2004, which ends June 30, at $4.4 million. Expenses are expected to be around $3.9 million, Stoecklein said. After $100,000 is paid for sales tax and $300,000 goes to the capital improvement fund, there will be about $156,000 to begin fiscal year 2005.

“That number is extremely important to us,” Stoecklein told board members at their Sunday meeting. “We have a tremendous amount of expenses in July and August because we are getting ready for the fair. We need that number to be high.”

Although expenses are projected to remain the same in 2005, the fair is expected to generate less revenue because there will be no event similar to the Great North American RV Rally next year, Stoecklein said.

Fair officials expect to carry over only about $27,000 to fiscal year 2006.

“We need to do something,” Stoecklein said. “That number is just not acceptable.”

To combat the problem, the board is looking at ways to increase revenue, including a fee for parking, higher ticket prices and an increase in the cost to exhibitors.

Jaron Caffrey, 3, of Mount Hope, takes a big bite from a candy apple. Jaron was waiting in line Sunday for a ride at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson.

“It is going to be a hard decision to make,” Stoecklein said. “I have commercial exhibitors who come up to me and tell me I can’t raise their prices because without them, I wouldn’t have a fair.

“They are right. It wouldn’t be the same. But it also wouldn’t be the same without the people who make the quilts or the people who pay to visit the fairgrounds. We need them all, but generating revenue is probably going to have to come at the expense of one of those groups. I hate having to decide who.”

The board will finalize the fiscal year 2004 budget Oct. 6.

Aiden Baehr, 2, smiles at his mother, Andrea, as he rides in a Muppet Babies car Saturday at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson.