LJWorld.com

Topeka — Kansas lawmakers finished the wrap-up session early Saturday, sending Gov. Mark Parkinson bills on budget cuts, taxes and a coal-burning power plant.

The movement of major legislation highlighted a session that started in January amid ballooning deficits, increasing unemployment and a national recession. And throughout the year, the fiscal situation just got worse.

Policymakers received funding help from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, but even that wasn’t enough.

“Everywhere you turned, there was not enough money,” said state Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, a member of the House budget-writing committee. “And everywhere you looked there was a greater need than you could meet, and it’s a huge need,” she said.

Cuts and taxes

Late Friday, legislators cut spending by 2.75 percent and approved a package of tax adjustments to come up with just enough to bridge a $328 million deficit in the $13 billion state budget. The action represented the third round of budget cuts during the 2009 session.

State Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence, said the response to the budget crisis was “like the parable of the Dutch boy with his finger in the dike.”

“We have dealt with that in the best manner that is possible,” he said. “I don’t know anyone who is happy.”

State Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence, agreed. “It was a difficult year,” she said.

Under the budget-balancing plan, public school spending will be cut $83 million in addition to cuts of approximately $45 million in an earlier round. Higher education was sliced another $22 million on top of $63 million cut earlier.

But Kansas University Chancellor Robert Hemenway said it could have been worse. “Lawmakers have faced enormous challenges and difficult debate this session, and the House members who supported this bill deserve our thanks,” Hemenway said in a letter to KU alumni.

The budget plan also shortchanges cities and counties by diverting funds that normally are transferred to them.

The tax package would grant delinquent taxpayers amnesty in paying their taxes, shorten the time that people can file for sales and use tax refunds, suspend a film production tax credit, and decrease other tax credits by 10 percent.

Supporters of the measures said the proposals represented a balanced approach and shared sacrifice in addressing the state’s financial problems.

But House Speaker Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson, who wanted deeper cuts, said the budget left an absurdly low ending balance of $17,000.

“That will last us about a day, and then we’ll be under water,” O’Neal said.

Coal breakthrough

While the budget dominated the session, Parkinson’s deal with Sunflower Electric Power Corp. was the shocker of the year.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius had vetoed bills in two sessions that would have allowed Sunflower to build two 700-megawatt coal-burning power plants in southwest Kansas. As her lieutenant governor, Parkinson had been an ardent critic of the plants.

But after Sebelius was made secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on April 28, Parkinson became governor and sought out Sunflower.

He and Sunflower agreed to one 895-megawatt plant in return for legislation that was aimed at increasing wind energy.

“I was very happy to get the coal debacle behind us,” state Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, said.

While environmentalists said the deal represented a surrender by Parkinson on the issue of global warming and carbon dioxide emissions, others said resolving the power plant issue enabled Parkinson to work effectively with the Republican-dominated Legislature on other matters, such as the budget.

Francisco was one of the few lawmakers who opposed the deal that Parkinson had made. She said the state should focus more on energy efficiency and renewables.

But in assessing the session, she focused on several items that she supported, such as an increase in the state minimum wage and passage of a bill that would allow the state to draw down $69 million in federal stimulus funds for unemployment compensation.

Meanwhile, Ballard, during a break in the action in the House, fretted that hard-won funding gains made over the past few years for public schools and to reduce waiting lists for services for Kansans with disabilities were being set back.

“That’s what is heartbreaking for me,” she said.

Several legislative leaders said the budget problems made the 2009 session one of the toughest.

“We certainly had a lot of bad choices to choose from,” said Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton.

Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence, said state revenue feel $1.345 billion from April 2008 to April 2009. Lawmakers cut more than $800 million from the budget overall, and back-filled other spending holes with federal stimulus funds.

“It has been a particularly difficult session,” Schmidt said.

House Democratic Leader Paul Davis of Lawrence agreed, but said it was through a bi-partisan plan from Democrats and moderate Republicans that the state was able to avoid even deeper cuts.

“Even though this budget is far from perfect, I am very proud of the Legislature’s good-faith effort to protect our most important investments,” he said.