As Kansas takes steps to bolster businesses and employees through the coronavirus pandemic, state officials are worried the financial impact will start demonstrating itself soon.
During her daily news briefing Friday, Governor Laura Kelly said the report at the end of April will reflect two significant changes that will be good for taxpayers and businesses — but not so good for the state’s bottom line.
Kelly says the state should have enough money to get through the current fiscal year ending in June, but the outlook for fiscal 2021 will have to be revisited.
Even with monthly revenues ahead of projections for around a year up until the March report issued last week, Kelly says the state would have been in a better financial position to meet the COVID-19 pandemic had lawmakers passed Medicaid expansion. She says expansion could have given the state $1 billion per year, a figure questioned by Republicans, and it would have helped the healthcare system have a bigger cushion to handle the current state of affairs where elective procedures and routine appointments aren’t taking place, thus impacting revenues.
Also Friday, the governor singled out the Paycheck Protection Program as part of the federal $2.2 trillion stimulus package, calling it a potential “lifeline” for Kansas businesses the next two months.
However, there have been numerous glitches in the $350 billion program that have hampered the processing and, ultimately, the lending process. There have also been an untold number of applications since the program went live Friday.
The governor plans to continue daily news briefings throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ll continue to broadcast those news briefings at 2 pm weekdays on KVOE and KVOE.com.
