Kansas negotiators keep public broadcasting funds

? A state grant of $600,000 for Kansas public TV and radio stations has been preserved in a budget agreement reached Thursday by House and Senate negotiators.

The money is the same amount allotted in the current year, but down from the $3.8 million the state provided as recently as 2008.

The funding bill for the fiscal year that starts July 1 now goes to the full House and Senate.

The state provides 1 percent of funding for public broadcasting stations in Kansas City and Lawrence. At High Plains Public Radio in Garden City, state funding of about $89,000 is about 9 percent of its $1 million budget. At Smoky Hills Public Television in Bunker Hill, about $209,000 — about 12 percent — of its $1.7 million budget comes from state grants.