USA|Kansas

Senate votes to concur with House budget bill

The Senate voted just over an hour ago to concur with Sub. for SB 572, by a vote of 21-17. The bill is now on the way to the governor. The bill, of course, keeps funding for schools at the current level. While the bill does contain a proviso requiring the proverbial “centralized, uniform accounting system,” the governor does have line-item veto authority on budget bills and will likely exercise that authority on this measure.

This budget assures that funding will not be reduced, of course, only if the assumptions built into both it and the revenue package actually materialize as anticipated. While passage of this bill is good news, districts need to keep in mind that—just as in the last year—allotments may be required, if all doesn’t go as planned.

Following is a listing of how Senators voted on the motion to concur.

Yeas: Emler, Faust-Goudeau, Francisco, Haley, Hensley, Holland, Huntington, Kelly, Kultala, Lee, Marshall, McGinn, Morris, Ostmeyer, Owens, Reitz, V. Schmidt, Schodorf, Teichman, Umbarger, Vratil.

Nays: Abrams, Apple, Barnett, Brownlee, Bruce, Colyer, Donovan, Huelskamp, Kelsey, Lynn, Masterson, Petersen, Pilcher-Cook, Pyle, D. Schmidt, Steineger, Wagle.
Not Voting or absent: Brungardt, Taddiken.

Meanwhile, back at the House

One of the more interesting parts of the day was watching the House Appropriations Committee continue to work on their newest budget version, Sub. for SB 580, even after learning the Senate had concurred with the budget bill already passed by the House.

House members have been meeting with their respective Republican and Democrat caucuses to discuss the bills left to consider. It is likely one of the first orders of business will be a motion to concur with the Senate tax package, as contained in Sub. for HB 2360. There are a few other bills that still need to be taken care of, including the highly-touted transportation plan. If things start rolling soon, it looks like the 2010 Legislature just might adjourn tonight. We’ll keep you posted as news of interest occurs.