House Speaker Dan Hawkins listens at an Oct. 2, 2024, meeting of the Special Committee on Budget Process and Development. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
A little more than a month ago, I wrote about a scheme by Kansas legislative leaders to wrest budget-making power from Gov. Laura Kelly.
You might hope that they had second thoughts in recent weeks, but lawmakers meeting Wednesday gave no indication they had rethought the plan. If anything, they wanted Kansans to know they would not only start building the state’s budget earlier than ever before, but they would probably do a poor job of it as well.
“It’s gonna be probably a little rocky, but we’re gonna get through it, and we’re gonna learn,” House Speaker Dan Hawkins said.
And Kansans are supposed to support this?
Let’s back up just a moment. Traditionally, the Kansas budget process begins with the governor submitting recommendations in January. The House and Senate then build the final budget based on that document. Sometimes they follow it more closely than other, but the governor has an entire department in the executive branch dedicated to building such documents and tracking cash flow.