The funding predicament currently facing the Kansas State Fair is another reminder of the risks of counting on multi-year funding commitments from the Kansas Legislature.

In 2001, the Legislature approved the state fair’s $29 million master plan project, including state matching funds of up to $300,000 a year. With the state funding in hand, the fair board got to work on capital improvements included in the plan such as building a new cattle barn and sheep and swine exhibition area, renovating the administration building and making the grandstand more accessible for people with disabilities.

However, despite the fact that the state’s matching fund pledge was included in state statute, the state has defaulted on that pledge five times since 2001. Funding for the match also is missing from the budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. According to state fair officials, the state has failed to make $1.343 million in the promised matching fund payments.

So far, the fair has been able to cover the payments on bonds issued to cover the capital improvement projects, but the fair manager reported this week that next year’s shortfall would be about $225,000, followed by a deficit of about $860,500 the following year. If attendance is strong, revenue from this September’s fair may help cover those payments; if it rains for a week, the fair may be in financial trouble.

This problem is not unfamiliar to those who have been associated with higher education for a while. In the late 1980s, the Legislature approved the three-year “Margin of Excellence” program designed to pump funding into state universities to support programs and increase faculty salaries. The first year, the universities received most of the promised funding, and the second year, they received the full amount. However, the $17 million promised for the third year of the program was never approved. Whatever progress had been made in faculty salaries and programs suddenly came to a halt.

In some ways, the state fair’s situation is even more egregious. At least Margin of Excellence money wasn’t aimed at capital improvements on university campuses. The state fair people undertook expensive construction projects that can’t simply be halted. They are on the hook for the full cost of those projects whether or not the state ever makes good on its commitment.

Fair officials have considered legal action against the state but have decided instead to continue to work with state officials to make them aware of the consequences of not approving the promised funds.

That strategy never worked with the Margin of Excellence, but maybe the state fair will fare better.