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NEWS / MONDAY, APRIL 25, 2011 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
POLITICS
Kansas budget left unsettled
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gov. Sam Brownback urges House Republicans to work together to pass a proposed state budget during a GOP caucus last month.
TOPEKA — Kansas legislators return to the Statehouse this week to begin the final push toward the end of the 2011 session and resolving differences over competing $14 billion budget plans.
Negotiators met briefly last week to begin discussing the plan, which would spend about $6 billion in state revenues in the fiscal year beginning July 1. What was previously a debate over where to close a revenue gap of about $500 million has now become a conversation about how much of a revenue cushion is enough.
Legislators got some hopeful news earlier this month when a group of economists and researchers gave the latest revenue forecast. While the state isn't going to be flush with cash, the pattern of precipitous declines appears to be ending.
Still, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Marc Rhoades said legislators have a thin margin for error when budgeting.
"The House is interested in having a healthy ending balance because if the Consensus Revenue Estimating group is off by 1 percent for the whole year (roughly $60 million), then the current House budget is also under water by $6 million and the Senate is off by $59 million," said Rhoades, a Newton Republican.
Negotiations began last week between House and Senate members to work out differences in their budget versions. Several dozen spending items were agreed upon, mostly cuts that one chamber or the other sought. The final bill is likely to have a mix of cuts, revenue shifts and other accounting practices that have become commonplace in the budget process.
What it won't have, unlike last
vear, is a tax increase.
Rep. Richard Carlson, a St. Marys Republican and one of the House's budget negotiators, said the talks have resulted so far in significant progress, particularly because the Senate has accepted $23 million in spending reductions pushed by the House.
The cut was contained in a floor amendment made during the budget debate by Rep. Mario Goico, a Wichita Republican. He proposed cutting agencies across the board by 1.193 percent, instead of forcing all state employees, elected officials, judges and agency heads to take as much as a 7.5 percent pay cut.
Carlson said the budget should produce an ending balance of between $50 million and $100 million, depending on state revenues. He said a recent cut in the revenue forecast by state officials and university economists shows the need for a cushion.
"We're looking at a very unstable economy in terms of revenues for the state" he said.
Senate President Steve Morris, a Hugoton Republican, said significant policy differences remain between the House and the Senate.
For example, he noted that the House has cut state funds for Washburn University in Topeka in half, voted to cancel subsidies for commercial air flights in Wichita and designated how the Kansas Bioscience Authority can spend its dollars.
"I think the policy differences are bigger to deal with than the monetary differences" Morris said.
Morris said hed like an ending balance of between $50 million and $100 million, too.
"We have a lot of issues to decide before we get there," he said.
Senators approved issuing additional bonds to complete renovation of the Statehouse, pushing the
total for the project to more than $340 million. The next installment would complete the north wing and a visitors center, landscape the grounds, replace the roof and shore up the dome.
The House and Senate also differ on how much to cut school funding. Republican Gov. Sam Brownback proposed cutting the base aid per student by $232, reducing the amount to $3,780. The House goes a bit deeper, cutting by $250, while the Senate made other adjustments to soften the cut to $226 per student.
Rhoades and his House colleagues didn't approve any additional spending for the project, but he said the House was likely to approve funding.
"My hope would be that it wouldn't take that long and that we can sit down and try to get some agreement," she said. "It would be great for the taxpayers if we got agreement and got out of town and saved everyone that much more money."
Senate Ways and Means Chairwoman Carolyn McGinn said the additional bonding authority for the Statehouse renovation would be broken into two parts, one to cover finishing the north wing and another to restore the roof and dome.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri man who grew up in the Kansas City area and became a Kansas basketball fan thought someday the T-shirt and shorts he wore for every game during the Jayhawks' 2008 national championship season were destined for his man cave, not the police evidence room.
"I didn't have a whole lot left in the house," said Chambers, 23, who graduated from Missouri State University last May. "He could have trashed the couch, whatever, but of course he had to put on my KU stuff."
That might still happen, but the clothes may not be in the best shape after a naked man barged into Jason Chambers' former home last week and put them on.
Instead, the intruder put them on and hid in the house's attic until officers sent a police dog up after him. The resulting encounter left the outfit somewhat tattered.
The Kansas City Star reports that a 45-year-old man bolted into Chambers' Springfield, Mo., home after a university security guard spotted him walking through a neighborhood near Drury University. Chambers, who was in the process of moving out of the home, had left the clothes for a later trip so they wouldn't get damaged in the move.
CRIME
The intruder has been charged with second-degree burglary and second-degree sexual misconduct.
Chambers grew up as a Jayhawk fan after his older brother
declared their home a "Kansas house." At first he thought the story about the naked man was a joke, but when he found out it was real, he posted on his Facebook page that "A naked hobo destroyed my National Championship outfit."
Chambers said he would like to have the clothing returned after the legal case runs its course and the items no longer are held as evidence.
In the meantime, the University of Kansas athletic department decided to "show some love" for a Jayhawks fan in the heart of Mizzou country by mailing him a package last week.
Associate KU athletics director Jim Marchiony, who reached out to Chambers after reading the initial report in the Springfield News-Leader, declined to say what was in the package but said it was sent after getting Chambers' sizes.
"He hung the clothes on the wall as a memento — you just got to love that, love that spirit," Marchiony said. "We thought that for a rabid KU fan in the state of Missouri, we needed to show some love for him."
Chambers, who has moved back to the Kansas City suburb of Pleasant Hill, called the school's gesture "awesome" and said he was eager to get the package. Still, he's bummed out about the plight of his lucky outfit.
"I wanted it to be in my man cave when I'm an adult, on my wall forever" he said. "We'll what kind of shape it's in when we get it back from evidence. As long as it's not too nasty, I kind of want it back."
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LAW
Police enforce ban on sidewalk sitting
SAN FRANCISCO — On a street corner in the iconic Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, traveling troubadaurs "Stinkin" Pete Irving and his wife Charlie — freshly arrived from Seattle — squatted on the sidewalk and began strumming a guitar and bending a steel saw for eerie accompaniment. And for spare change.
On Wednesday, they debated whether to plop down on a corner to play music, or join the passing throngs heading to celebrate "4-20," the unofficial marijuna holiday, at Hippie Hill in nearby Golden Gate Park.
"This is public space," Lust said. "There's a new law, but I still don't understand it. Why can't we sit here?"
Recent arrivals Joe Lust, 20, of Austin, Texas, Liz Mallion, 22, from Hawaii, and Steven Grossman, 21, of Fort Collins, Colo., said they have quickly learned the nuances of the "sit-lie" law.
Warned that they were risking possible police citations and arrest, Pete Irving responded defiantly.
A year after a controversial ordinance prohibiting sitting or lying on San Francisco sidewalks was first proposed, police are now enforcing the new law along the city's most famous thoroughfares.
According to the most recent official statistics available, between March 26 and April 1, police across the city handed out eight citations and issued 75 warnings.
The protocol says that officers will issue a written warning before citing anyone.
Associated Press
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