‘A very strong bill’: Gov. Colyer signs off on school finance plan

Gov. Jeff Colyer on Tuesday signed off on a school finance bill that barely passed the Kansas Legislature, insisting that fixes be made to the legislation when lawmakers return later this month.

During a bill signing at Seaman High School in Topeka, the Kansas Republican high-fived students before officially approving the bill, which was intended to boost school funding by more than $500 million over five years.

"This is a very strong bill that gets things going," Colyer said.

But he also called on lawmakers to pass a trailer bill once they return on April 26 from their break to fix an issue discovered in the days after lawmakers approved the funding plan. Officials realized last week that the legislation included an $80 million error.

"I'm very confident the Legislature will pass the technical fixes in a couple of weeks when they come back," Colyer said.

The Kansas Legislature waited until the last moment this month to pass a school finance bill. The state Supreme Court, which last year ruled the previous funding plan unconstitutional, had given lawmakers an April 30 deadline.

It took a chaotic and bitter night of debate in the Kansas Senate for the school finance legislation to make its way to Colyer following a vote just after midnight on April 7.

The bill passed with the minimum number of votes required — 63 in the House and 21 in the Senate. Conservatives criticized the funding boost as being a harbinger of another tax increase. Democrats slammed the legislation for not increasing school funding more.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who is challenging Colyer to be the GOP's candidate for governor, denounced Colyer’s decision to sign the school funding bill. Echoing conservative concerns about the added spending, Kobach called it "a disaster.”

"He should not have signed it," Kobach said. "He should not have encouraged the Legislature to pass such a huge spending hike, and it was wrong."

Colyer and Kobach also disagree on whether a tax increase will be needed to fund the bill.

"It is inevitable that the Legislature next year will be sending a tax hike to the governor," Kobach said. "We need a governor who's going to veto it, not a governor who has aided and abetted such a future tax increase as Gov. Colyer has."

Colyer said the funding bill is "something we can afford."

"We do not need to raise taxes to do this," he said. "We afford it by growing the state's economy."

Rep. Brett Parker, D-Overland Park, also was critical of the legislation, though for different reasons than Kobach and other conservative critics.

"I don't think that this bill, even as it was intended, is adequate," he said.

Other lawmakers, including Republican Rep. Brenda Dietrich of Topeka, formerly the superintendent for the Auburn-Washburn school district, have stood by the bill. But she acknowledged that for the bill to win the support of the Kansas Supreme Court, the $80 million fix called for by Colyer will be needed.

"I think there's an excellent chance that it will pass constitutional muster," she said about the intended funding plan. "I feel very good about it."

This story was originally published April 17, 2018 at 1:51 PM with the headline "‘A very strong bill’: Gov. Colyer signs off on school finance plan."