Lawrence Journal-World opinion section

All of the funding cuts announced by Gov. Sam Brownback on Wednesday will be painful, but a couple of the governor’s targets are particularly egregious: state universities and Medicaid.

Kansas legislators approved a budget that did not balance, thereby passing the buck to Brownback to make unilateral decisions on how to reduce state spending to meet revenue projections that hopefully are closer to the mark than they’ve been in the last couple of years. The budget plan already delays a $96 million payment to the state’s pension plan and sweeps $185 million from the state highway fund. On top of that, Brownback announced $97 million in cuts, including a 4 percent cut for most state agencies.

K-12 education, public safety services and the state’s two mental hospitals were spared. State universities and providers of Medicaid services were not so fortunate.

State universities, as a group, will get 4 percent less funding, but that burden won’t be shared equally, thanks to a proviso pushed by a legislator whose district includes Pittsburg State University. That proviso, which Brownback chose not to veto, will place a greater burden on Kansas University and Kansas State University because they supposedly are more able to absorb budget cuts. Instead of a 4 percent cut, KU and KSU funding will be cut by 5.1 percent. That’s $7 million for KU’s Lawrence campus, $3.7 million for the KU Medical Center and $5.2 million for K-State.

The proviso shows a colossal lack of respect for the contribution that the state’s large research universities make to the education and economy of the state.

A similar insult was leveled at those who provide health care to low-income Kansans through KanCare, the state’s Medicaid program. The state still refuses to accept federal funding that would help expand the number of Kansans who can be served by Medicaid. Now it also is applying the 4 percent cut to payments for Medicaid services. Home-based services for disabled Kansans and critical-access hospitals in rural Kansas are exempt from the cut, which means that providers in urban areas will be most affected by the cuts.

Budget Director Shawn Sullivan said the administration doesn’t believe the reduced reimbursement will result in Medicaid patients losing access to care, but that seems like wishful thinking. The state is counting on physicians, dentists, hospitals and other health care professionals — apparently out of the goodness of their hearts — to provide the same services even though, statewide, they will be paid $38 million less to provide those services. Reimbursement rates already are low, and critics of the cuts say further reductions may curb the availability of care to the point that the state will be out of compliance with federal Medicaid rules.

Schools, highways, social services and health care that once were a source of pride for Kansas residents are paying the price for misguided state policy. Cuts in these services are not the unavoidable result of the state’s economic plight; they are the result of calculated choices by state officials — whom Kansans should hold accountable for those choices.