The latest stop on Kansas Governor Laura Kelly’s The People’s Budget listening tour brought her to Emporia for an evening of engagement with local Kansans.
To begin her stop, the governor gave a brief overview of the state budget, saying she is known for her “Obsession with the budget,” calling it one of the “Most important responsibilities I have as Governor.” As part of that review, Kelly reflected back on the state of the budget in 2019 when she first took office, saying the state was a “Fiscal wreck,” which she largely attributed to the Kansas experiment tax-cutting policy enacted by then-Governor Sam Brownback in 2012.
Over the years, Kelly says corrective work done by her administration has allowed the state to flourish financially and she is hoping to take all steps possible to continue that success even after her time as governor comes to an end. Hence, the formation of the listening tour, which began back in early October with the chief focus, according to Kelly, of gathering input that she says will play a major role in helping to develop the budget for the coming year.
As for main themes that have arisen during the tour, Kelly pointed to continued support of K-12 education, calling it the number one issue that has been brought up by attendees throughout the tour, among other matters.
As part of her comments on the state’s current financial situation, Governor Kelly stated that 2019 was a turning point for Kansas and she believes we are about to arrive at another offering a word of caution focused on current spending practices focusing primarily on the budget created by the state legislature earlier this year which she has said leaves the state with between $300 million to $700 million in more expenditures than revenues. Kelly stated to KVOE News that the legislature “Really overspent last year” and, despite having a robust surplus, if that trend continues, it won’t take long before the state is in a similar situation to what it was back in 2019.
In addition to the budget, Governor Kelly also paid attention to the ongoing issues with various Federal benefits as a result of the ongoing Government shutdown, namely SNAP. Kelly had some positive news on that end, saying her administration was recently informed that partial payments should begin arriving on Debit cards by early next week, possibly Monday.
In the meantime, Governor Kelly has been doing her best to help offset impacts to food pantries across the state who have seen an uptick in need since the shutdown began a month ago. Her efforts have included a food drive connected to her listening tour stops, with attendees bringing food donations that will go to benefit that specific community’s food pantries.
As of Thursday’s stop the drive had collected just over 1,300 lbs of food, not counting donations in Emporia and Garden City.
Thursday’s stop in Emporia was the 6th of 8, with previous stops on the governor’s tour having included Salina, Kansas City, Kansas, Hays, Garden City and Leawood. The next stop on the governor’s tour will be in Pittsburg Monday before concluding in Wichita next Wednesday.
