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Message from the House Majority Leader: As things continue to ramp up in the 2009 Legislative session, I wanted to highlight a couple areas that we are beginning to address.
Concerns have been raised that any potential budget cuts will affect the classroom dollars allocated to our children’s education. I wanted to make sure that everyone knew that we are not targeting classroom dollars. One can reasonably assess that the education budget is roughly divided 65%-35% with 65% going to the classroom and 35% being allocated to expenses that don’t directly impact the classroom. The big misconception here is that every dollar cut from K-12 funding directly affects a child’s education. The education community defines classroom funding as those funds that directly impact the classroom, as opposed to those that indirectly affect the classroom. In making our cuts, the legislature’s charge is to see that cuts affect the indirect costs without affecting direct costs of delivering our education product. Cuts are not only possible, they’re inevitable, and can be made without affecting the costs widely accepted as being the direct costs of classroom education. When cuts are made, I know that local boards will make the needed cuts in areas that indirectly affect the classroom. The Legislature is confident that they will make prudent cuts consistent with the education community’s own distinction between the 65% classroom figure and the remaining 35%. Higher education will be held to a similar standard and expected to share the burden. The Legislature needs to focus on long term solutions. To apply any sort of quick fix on the 2009 budget would be irresponsible; it would only increase the burden in later years. The budget situation is probably worse than it currently appears. That being said, it is important to shore up the 2009 budget quickly in order to begin work on the bigger task of the approximately 800 million dollar 2010 budget deficit. Any reasonable solution requires that education and the 51% of its share of the budget are considered in any long term plan. Energy: We had a briefing this week on the overall state of energy in Kansas. This is in preparation for a House Energy Plan that is currently being crafted. The bill, while not in its final form, will likely include the use of cutting edge technology to reduce emissions while providing incentives for customers through net metering. Net metering gives consumers credit for putting energy back into the grid through alternative generation methods such as solar. The bill will emphasize the importance of the development of alternative forms of energy. These alternative forms, namely wind in Kansas, are very important. However, wind is not reliable 100% of the time. We need a stable energy backbone to supplement any drops in wind production or increases in demand as well as to provide the transmission infrastructure to move energy across the state. The Holcomb facility represents one of the most impressive energy plant proposals in the nation. The proposed Holcomb Station expansion creates more than 300 permanent jobs earning over $16 million per year. The project will create over 2,400 jobs during the construction period, with workers earning more than $78 million per year and increasing local and state sales taxes by more than $9.3 million and represent billions in future development and economic stability for all Kansans. As always, my door is open. Please feel free to contact me at any time to discuss your individual issues and concerns.
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| Copyright © 2006-2010 Paid for by Owen Donohoe Campaign, Rebecca K. Chapman, Treasurer. |
