Budgetary matters was one of the highlights of the recent Kansas Legislative Session for 60th District Representative Mark Schreiber this year.
Following the wrap-up of the regular session last week, Schreiber joined KVOE’s Morning Show Wednesday to offer his thoughts. He says he is very pleased with the state’s budget thus far.
Some of the key takeaways for Schreiber was the inclusion of a rainy day fund of right around $500 million which he says is one of the largest he has seen in his tenure. Additionally, Schreiber was happy with the amount of funding passed for higher education, specifically Emporia State University, which is poised to receive an additional $16.6 million for fiscal year 2022.
The university will then see a decrease of just over $10 million in fiscal year 2023. Even with the decrease in mind, Schreiber believes higher education funding is heading in a more positive direction than in years past.
Flint Hills Technical College is also poised to receive additional funding in the coming year, however, Schreiber could not announce the specifics at the time. He says the legislature has always placed a high level of focus on the furtherance of technical education and this year was no different.
With the regular session now concluded, the legislature will turn its attention to the annual veto session set to begin on Apr. 25. He says one item he is confident will see significant discussion is the state’s 6.5 percent sales tax on food.
Schreiber says a proposal of some kind is certain to come before the legislature at that time as part of a larger tax package, however, the full scope of the proposal is unclear at this time.
