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Former budget director predicts Kansas will soon be in the red

khi.org

Duane Goossen is a former state budget director, and he says the state won’t have enough revenue to implement the budget legislators recently passed according to a recent article from the Topeka Capital-Journal.

“I don’t think there’s going to be enough money in the bank for the state to make it all the way through Fiscal Year 2015 and cover the budget that has been approved,” Goossen told a League of Women Voters.  “Something is going to have to happen already now in this (coming) fiscal year to keep the state balanced and keep the checkbook above zero.”

Legislators were already planning to spend more than the state was projected to take in in tax collections in FY 15 and make up the difference with reserves held over from the current fiscal year.

Revenue in April and May came in more than $300 million below projections, reducing the reserves lawmakers thought they would have.

Jon Hummell is the interim budget director.  He says the state still has enough to get through June 2015.

Brownback and Kansas Revenue Secretary Nick Jordan have blamed the recent low revenue collections on federal tax policy.

Goossen was the budget director for the three governors who preceded Gov. Sam Brownback.

Further details about the expert’s dismal prediction are available from the Topeka Capital-Journal.