Kansas Senate passes $18.7 billion budget; boosts funding to fight coronavirus

After hours of debate on Tuesday, the Kansas Senate passed a new budget allocating millions of dollars to local hospitals and $1 million more to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to combat the spread of COVID-19.

House and Senate negotiators anticipate meeting tonight to reconcile the two versions of the spending plan. It could be debated in the House as early as 9 a.m. Wednesday.

During the roughly five-hour debate, senators clashed over how the process was accelerated to get a budget onto the floor. And with a potential financial crisis looming, they also disagreed on expanding the budget.

Some state revenue sources, like casinos, have been closed by Gov. Laura Kelly to help prevent the virus spreading. Sen. Dennis Pyle, a Republican from Hiawatha, pointed to that closure, as well as that of other businesses in the state, as examples of actions that could be detrimental to the state economy.

“I do believe that we’re in a financial storm of historical proportions right now,” Pyle said.

But trimming the budget was opposed by Senate leadership on the Ways and Means Committee, which drafts the bill.

Sen. Carolyn McGinn, a Sedgwick Republican who chairs the committee, opposed an amendment proposed by Pyle to extend the previous year’s budget, rather than approving a newly drafted plan.

“We are elected by the people to be there for them when there’s a crisis,” McGinn said.

“I have not seen our president say, we need to cut social services. In fact, I’ve seen the president say, we need to put more money in the budget for emergency services to help others,” she continued.

Sen. Tom Hawk, a Manhattan Democrat, encouraged senators to allow flexibility by limiting amendments, since it is unclear what state agencies may need as the government tackles containing coronavirus.

“We don’t know right now what our biggest challenge is,” Hawk said.

The budget, per the recommendation from the Senate Ways and Means Committee, is roughly $2 million more than Kelly initially recommended.

While part of $18.7 billion plan funds health services, it also increases funding for the state attorney general’s office and insurance department, as it was presented to the Senate.

It’s a bare-bones budget to keep Kansas running in case lawmakers leave Topeka early during the session.

Legislators moved up passage of a budget earlier in the session. It’s one of the many efforts they’ve made this week to quickly pass bills in both chambers.

On both Monday and Tuesday, the House revised previous Senate bills to include provisions that would dramatically change state law.

Those include allowing Supreme Court Chief Justice Marla Luckert to extend or suspend time limitations or deadlines for court cases. Unemployment benefits would be extended to 26 weeks.

Senators saw those bills for the first time right before they voted. The rapid action caused one senator to be concerned Kansas wasn’t properly acting as a government during “a major crisis.”

“Right now, I am flying blind with all the decisions that are being made,” said Sen. Robert Olson, an Olathe Republican.