In the Kansas Legislature, any discussion of the wisdom and effectiveness of an annual budget to fund essential state services while providing proper stewardship of taxpayer dollars must focus on the State General Fund (SGF), as it is the only part of the overall (“All Funds”) budget fully controlled by the Legislature and fully funded by state taxpayers. That in turn requires, first and foremost, consideration of how we can more wisely spend money on our schools, as fully two-thirds of our SGF budget is allocated for elementary, secondary and higher education. To hold out two-thirds of the SGF budget as untouchable and impervious to spending restraints necessitated by limited taxpayer resources, lower revenues and economic downturns is clearly unrealistic, and only serves to further reduce available funds for other vitally important and equally essential state services -- for roads and highways, for corrections and public safety, for reduction in the current deplorable waiting time for developmentally disabled and autistic children to obtain home and community-based services.

SGF K-12 base state per pupil spending increased one-third between the 2000-2001 and 2009-2010 school years, while total per pupil spending increased over 50%. I supported the reduction of base state aid per pupil in this year’s budget to $3,780 – although total state spending per pupil actually increased again this year from $4,549 to $4,743 -- because logic dictates that we must find ways to provide this most essential state service more effectively, at lower cost, not only to maintain but improve the quality of the education our children receive in the classroom while at the same time controlling the spiraling state spending and tax increases that impede economic growth and kill jobs. If indiscriminately throwing money at schools -- without any consideration of how most effectively to allocate taxpayer dollars to maximize student performance and achievement --- made them better, the Kansas City, Missouri School District would be the best in the country, and we all know that is not the case. Judge Russell Clark’s 1985 order, resulting in the infusion of an additional two billion taxpayer dollars into KCMO schools and the highest per pupil spending of any large school district in the county, was an abject failure: test scores and student achievement did not rise; there was less, not greater, integration; and the District even lost its accreditation for a time.

How best to spend limited taxpayer dollars to maximize the quality of the education our children receive in the classroom led to my vote in favor of SB 111, passed by the Legislature and signed into law by the Governor in May. This important legislation releases school districts, at their discretion, to spend up to about half of their unencumbered (unobligated) funds -- currently totaling over $700 million statewide, and over $20 million in the Shawnee Mission School District alone -- to restore per pupil spending to historically high levels and obviate any need for teacher layoffs or increased class sizes. The only condition is a wise one: a mandate to increase from the current 55% to 65% the percentage of state education funds spent specifically on classroom instruction.

It is why I, along with virtually every other Johnson County representative, voted for HB2193, which unfortunately failed to pass the House. It would have authorized school districts to submit to their voters for approval a levy to support a “local activities budget,” calculated at 5% of base state aid per pupil, to fund extracurricular, sports, and other activities not related to classroom instruction. It is my view that those served by the Shawnee Mission School District would have welcomed such an opportunity.

It is why I enthusiastically supported and voted for SB21, signed into law by the Governor in May, which for the first time establishes uniform mandatory financial accounting and reporting procedures for all state school districts.

It is why I will continue to work with the Governor and other area legislators to reform the state school funding formula that is grossly unfair to Johnson County taxpayers, who currently provide 30% of state education funds but have only 12% of those funds returned to our schools.

More fundamentally, I am a fiscal conservative who promised my constituents that, if elected, I would work to limit the growth of government, rein in runaway state spending and reduce taxes to promote economic development and job growth. This policy of fiscal responsibility is supported by 69% of Kansans according to a recent poll. I would have broken my word to the voters had I supported the FY 2012 State General Fund budget increases passed by the Legislature this year. This budget totaled $6.053 billion, some $3.5 billion (250%) more than our FY 1992 spending, $2 billion (146%) more than our SGF spending as recently as 2003 (the first year of the Sebelius administration), and $376 million (6.6%) above SGF spending just last year. This unrestrained and irresponsible growth in state spending guarantees continuing budget deficits in out years necessitating tax increases on already overburdened Kansas taxpayers, which in turn will deter economic development and business growth and investment, cost jobs, and decrease rather than increase state revenues as the tax base shrinks. I find this unacceptable. That is why I voted against the FY2012 budget.