A school cost study, which is expected to dominate the 2006 legislative session, will not be released until Monday, Jan. 9 – the first day of the session.

The study, conducted by the Legislative Division of Post Audit, was scheduled to be released Wednesday, Jan. 4. Then it was delayed to Friday, Jan. 6.

But state Rep. John Edmonds, R-Great Bend, who is chairman of the Legislative Post Audit Committee, on Friday delayed it again until Monday, Jan. 9.

He said he didn’t see any sense in convening a committee meeting to release the study on Friday, and then having committee members return home for the weekend and then come back to Topeka for the start of the session.

By delaying the committee meeting until Jan. 9, he said the state would save about $3,000 in legislative pay and travel expenses.

With school funding making up half of the state budget, the cost study is seen as one of the major factors of the legislative session.