Legislative Update No. 8

Legislative Update No. 8: Veto Session Part 1

The Legislature spent the week on a number of policy bills, veto overrides and the omnibus budget bill while trying to get done by Friday. The major items included passing a K-12 budget that wasn’t passed in regular session, the omnibus budget bill, authorizing sports wagering and elimination of the food sales tax.

The week began slowly on Monday with just an overview of the Senate and House positions for the omnibus budget bill. This is the bill that fixes technical errors in the original budget bill, can add or delete funding based on new economic data and can include proviso language for agencies to follow for the year. For higher education, the major issue left unresolved was the freeze on tuition. In the Governor’s Recommended Budget, $45.7M was included with language to hold tuition flat for the year. However, the Legislature had only appropriated $25M during regular session while leaving the freeze in place essentially leaving it to higher education institutions to make up the difference with existing resources. The Senate Ways and Means Committee had a position not to include additional funding and to leave the freeze in place. The House did not take a position prior to going into conference. Towards the end of the conference committee, the Senate offered an additional $12.5M for operations for the system while keeping the freeze in place. The House accepted the amount but deleted the tuition freeze language. Also towards the end of conference committee, another $10M was added from one-time federal funds for digital transformation at WSU to help accelerate ongoing efforts. Community and Technical Colleges also got some federal money for economic development including WSU Tech receiving $1.8M for SMART manufacturing. The Omnibus budget bill was ran across both floors late Thursday evening. Complete details are below for both the MEGA bill that passed in early April and the Omnibus bill.

The Legislature attempted overrides of the Governor’s veto of the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act and the Parent’s Bill of Rights. They were narrowly successful in the Senate but failed in the House.

With most of the major issues leadership wanted addressed completed, the Legislature adjourned late Thursday. However, recent court action on the federal redistricting maps may cause the Legislature to come back for a lengthy Sine Die (typically last day of session) to pass a new map or for a special session. They are scheduled to return on May 23^rd.

MEGA and Omnibus Budget Bill as Passed by the Legislature:

• $37.5 M allocated to the post-secondary operations grant
• $24M for universities for 5% merit-based pool for salaries
• $35M universities for capital renewal to address deferred maintenance
• $10M for universities for demolition of buildings
• $20M for universities for IT cybersecurity
• $19M for comprehensive grant for private and public universities to provide financial aid opportunities
• $7.0 million SGF to a new Digital Transformation account with a 1:1 match for FY 2023, FY 2024, FY 2025, FY 2026, and FY 2027
• $10M for one-time Digital Transformation funding (one-time federal dollars)
• $25M for WSU/KU for Health Sciences Education Center in Wichita (one-time federal dollars)
• $75M for KBOR for economic development projects that have a 3:1 match (one-time federal dollars)

Legislative Update No. 7

The Legislature spent the last week working in various conference committees negotiating differences between the House and the Senate on key pieces of legislation such as the budget, tax, education and sports wagering. After some lengthy meetings, the Legislature concluded its work late Friday with final votes on the MEGA budget bill that will now go to the Governor for final approval. With their major tasks completed, the Legislature adjourned until April 25^th when it will return for Veto Session. The key drivers for Veto Session and possible further appropriations during Omnibus, or recissions, to the budget will be what the Consensus Revenue Estimating Group projects the remainder of FY22 and future FY23 revenues will be; whether or not the massive APEX company that the State spent over a billion dollar’s worth of incentives to attract earlier in session actually commits to Kansas; the need to pass the K-12 budget; some policy bills including the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act; and how the SPARKs process plays out allocating federal funds.

MEGA Budget Bill as Passed by the Legislature:

• $25M allocated to the post-secondary operations grant with an additional $20.7M to be reviewed at Omnibus. Current language includes a tuition freeze; however, the budget committees want to review that at Omnibus if the additional $20.7M is not added.
• $24M for universities for 5% merit-based pool for salaries
• $35M universities for capital renewal to address deferred maintenance
• $10M for universities for demolition of buildings
• $20M for universities for IT cybersecurity
• $19M for comprehensive grant for private and public universities to provide financial aid opportunities
• $7.0 million SGF to a new Digital Transformation account with a 1:1 match for FY 2023, FY 2024, FY 2025, FY 2026, and FY 2027
• $25M for WSU/KU for Health Sciences Education Center in Wichita (federal dollars)
• $75M for KBOR for economic development projects that have a 3:1 match (federal dollars)

Legislative Update No. 6

The Legislature moved quickly to Wednesday’s deadline of when bills must be out of the second chamber for consideration. This is a time when the House and the Senate spend most of the week on the floor debating bills to pass their priorities for session. They will spend next week in conference committees negotiating differences between the House and Senate positions before the First Adjournment deadline of April 1. They will then take most of April off and return for Veto Session on April 25 to attempt to override any potential vetoes by the Governor as well as pass an omnibus appropriations bill. The House did run their budget bill across the floor Tuesday after the Senate ran their budget bill last week. Below are the changes that have been made to higher education from the Governor’s Recommended Budget.

Senate Education Budget

• $45M to keep tuition flat – Reduced to $25M with an additional $20M to considered at Omnibus in April/May
• $24M for 5% pay pool – Remains
• Additional deferred maintenance funding – To be reviewed at omnibus
• $25M for Need-based Aid – Reduced to $19M and transferred to comprehensive block grant
• Recentering – Community and Technical Colleges that are currently underfunded through the State formula will be made “whole” for one year while a committee is created to review the issue during the Summer.
• $20M IT Infrastructure – Remains
• $25M for Deferred Maintenance – Remains
• $195M for one-time university economic development grants – $35M set aside for NIAR MRO project and the remaining $160M is deferred to Omnibus

House Higher Education Budget

• $45M to keep tuition flat – $20M was approved and an additional $25M was deferred until Omnibus. The full Appropriations Committee restored the $25M for a total of $45M and is asking KBOR for details to be provided at Omnibus
• $24M for 5% pay pool – Remains
• $7M capital outlay for technical colleges – added by the committee to allow community and technical colleges to buy equipment and create facilities for technical programs.
• $500k for FHSU to develop a cybersecurity program – added by the committee
• $200k for Benedictine College to grow the number of engineering students – added by the committee
• $15M for capital outlay for community colleges – removed by the committee to fund gap in tiered and non-tiered education in community and technical colleges and transitions to a three-year phase in of formula for recentering.
• $25M for need-based aid – transferred to the Kansas Comprehensive Block Grant
• $20M IT Infrastructure – Remains
• $25M Deferred Maintenance – Remains
• $195M for one-time university economic development grants – $35M set aside for NIAR MRO project, $38.6M for community colleges with matching requirements and the remaining $121.4M was deleted to be reviewed for consideration at Omnibus

A number of non-budgetary bills were worked in the final week prior to conference committees working including some constitutional amendments that will require 2/3 of the House and Senate to approve prior to being added to the August or November ballots for Kansans to vote on. The House also approved its maps as par to the redistricting process. The Senate has previously acted on its maps. A bill will likely go the Governor for consideration next week. A list of other bills is below.

SB 484 – Enacting the Fairness in Women’s Sport Act establishing that biological males shall not participate in female sports or intramurals. Passed out of the Senate on a vote of 27-12. A similar bill was vetoed by the Governor last session. With 27 votes, the Senate has just enough votes to override if the House takes up the issue.

SB 494 – Establishes the Parents Bill or Rights mandating school districts to make available to any parent the educational materials that are being utilized in the education of children at K-12 institutions. So far this bill does not apply to post-secondary institutions of learning.

SB 340 – Amending the Kansas PROMISE Scholarship allowing for program fields versus individual programs. Senate Ways and Means has capped the program at $10M and sunsetted it after five years, the full Senate approved the bill as amended Monday. It will now head to the House.

HB 2239 – A package of tax bills that would increase the standard deduction to $3,850 for individuals and $8,800 for joint filers. Passed out of the Senate Wednesday. The bill currently cost $124M over three years but still needs to go to conference to evaluate the total fiscal impact.

HB 2056 – A bill regulating elections in Kansas and specifically remote ballot boxes limiting the number of remote ballot boxes to one per county if the county has 30,000 registered voters or less and for counties with more than 30,000 registered voters the county could have one remote ballot box per 30,000 voters. The bill also puts requirements on remote ballot boxes stating they must be continuously monitored by an employee of the county election office and located in a municipal building where the employee is located or another building where two poll workers are stationed that are not of the same party affiliation. The remote ballot boxes could not be in operation with county election office is closed. The bill would also extend the application deadline for an advance ballot from 90 days to 93 days and removes the three days grace period after election day to mail in your ballot. This bill passed out of the Senate on Wednesday by a vote of 22-17.

SCR 1621 – A constitutional amendment mandating that the Governor nominate appointees to the State Supreme Court of Kansas and such appointees be approved by the State Senate. This amendment failed in the State Senate by a vote of 26-13.

SCR 1620 – A constitutional amendment that would require a supermajority of the House and Senate to approve new tax increases. This amendment failed in the Senate with a vote of 25-14.

HCR 5014 – A constitutional amendment that would allow the House and the Senate to override any rules or regulations passed by a State agency by a majority vote. This amendment passed the Senate by a vote of 27-12.

Legislative Update No.5

The Legislature had a busy week of budget hearings with WSU testifying in House Higher Education Budget, House Appropriations, and Senate Sub-committee on Higher Education Budget. The sub-committees made their formal recommendations to be considered next week in both Senate and House appropriations committees. Below are changes that were made to the Governor’s Budget.

Senate Education Budget

• $45M to keep tuition flat – Reduced to $25M with an additional $20M to considered at Omnibus in April/May
• Additional deferred maintenance funding – To be reviewed at omnibus
• $25M for Need-based Aid – Reduced to $10M for Need-based aid and $15M for comprehensive block grant that is evenly divided by private colleges and public universities
• Recentering – Community and Technical Colleges that are currently underfunded through the State formula will be made “whole” for one year while a committee is created to review the issue during the Summer.
• $20M IT Infrastructure – Removed

House Higher Education Budget

• $45M to keep tuition flat – $20M was approved and an additional $25M was deferred until Omnibus.
• $7M capital outlay for technical colleges – added by the committee to allow community and technical colleges to buy equipment and create facilities for technical programs.
• $500k for FHSU to develop a cybersecurity program – added by the committee
• $200k for Benedictine College to grow the number of engineering students – added by the committee
• $15M for capital outlay for community colleges – removed by the committee to fund gap in tiered and non-tiered education in community and technical colleges
• $25M for need-based aid – transferred to the Kansas Comprehensive Block Grant

These recommendations by the sub-committees will now go to the full appropriations committees for review to be considered for the MEGA budget. As you can see, there are multiple differences between the House and Senate positions; therefore, there will be substantial work that will need to be done in the conference committee to reconcile those differences before sending a final bill to the Governor.

Legislative Update No.4

The Legislature was busy this week with two major pieces of legislation, bill introduction deadline and confirmation hearings. The first issue that came up was finalizing the massive APEX incentives package that is being built to attract a massive 4,000 jobs mystery company. The Governor signed the bill Thursday, and the Department of Commerce quickly began detailed negotiations with the company. There likely will be some news announcement in the coming weeks about the outcomes. The APEX bill will have a significant impact on the budget outlook. Original projections showed it put the State negative $300M by FY26. There has not been a final projection based on the final language of the bill, but it will likely be a factor going forward.

The Senate and the House both overrode the Governor’s veto on the redistricting maps but not after a good deal of controversy and procedural questions and hours of debate. With the overrides done, the maps can go into effect. However, there was immediate media speculation about lawsuits attacking the validity of the maps. The Supreme Court recently ruled that Alabama’s maps were valid despite attacks that they were gerrymandered. Time will tell what the future of Kansas’ map will be, but there is a question of whether or not the legal proceedings will be concluded by the 2022 midterm elections.

February 11 marks the deadline for bills to be introduced in non-exempt committees which means a number of bills were introduced last minute. Below is a summary of bills that were introduced that are relevant to higher education.

HB 2641: Eliminates non-resident tuition rates for post-secondary educational institutions.

HB 2610: Eliminates conceal and carry on university campuses

HB 2613: Permanent exemption for post-secondary institutions for needing to require conceal and carry.

SB 464: Eliminates the Educational Building Fund (EBF) which provides property tax revenue to address deferred maintenance needs on campuses. Scheduled a hearing next week in Senate Tax.

HB 2662: Creates a requirement for K-12 to publish a list of all their course materials for the previous year in order to create transparency so that parents know what’s being taught in their child’s classrooms.

SB 484: Establishes the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act which would prohibit biological males from participating in college or intramural sports that are labeled for women/girls.

These bills were introduced this week. With the exception of one of the bills, none have been scheduled for a hearing.

The Kansas Board of Regents also had a busy week with three of the Regents up for confirmation in the Senate. The process normally is once a Regent is nominated, there is a confirmation committee that meets when the Legislature is not in session to provisionally confirm the appointments so they can serve temporarily until the Senate reconvenes and votes to confirm or not confirm. After the confirmation committee confirmed the three nominees to serve provisionally, the Senate’s leadership referred two of the nominees to the Senate Education Committee for further questions. On Thursday, the two regents were passed out of the committee with no recommendation for the full Senate on whether or not to confirm. The full Senate will have the opportunity to take action on these nominations likely next week.

Next week the budget sub-committees conclude their work and the following week they will report their recommendations to the full appropriations committees. The CEOs of each institution were also asked to present an update to the appropriations committee next Thursday.

Legislative Update No.3

The Legislature has been busy with a number of issues. First and foremost, the issue of redistricting was front and center once again. Two weeks ago the House and Senate passed a map for congressional districts that were passed along party lines. The Governor Thursday evening vetoed the maps criticizing their legitimacy. The next week will likely see veto override attempts in both chambers. The Senate is likely to have the votes necessary to override while the House is going to be more narrow. If the House is unable to override, the Legislature will have to go back to the drawing board which will politically delay a number of other contentious issues as vote trading begins to be a factor.

The Senate Education Committee passed out the revised Promise Act which provides nearly free community college and private university for Kansas students who stay in Kansas in key fields needed by industry. It likely won’t be worked on the Senate floor for a couple of weeks as redistricting and other issues like taxes will dominate the session.

From a budget standpoint, the State received some positive news. Revenues beat projections by over $14M. This was especially impressive because the State recently revised their projections up already. The fact we’re beating those expectations after that revision shows how strong revenues are in the State. It’s a debate what has contributed to that growth between the federal stimulus or business growth in the state.

A bill in Senate Tax was introduced to modify the Educational Building Fund which would greatly reduce the revenue going to deferred maintenance. This is especially alarming given KBOR’s plan to address deferred maintenance and the burden this would place on universities if the EBF funds were to be reduced or eliminated. The bill has not received a hearing yet, but it is likely to occur in the next week or two. This bill has been introduced in the past and did not advance.

Next, President Muma will be testifying in House Higher Education Budget Committee on our budget request. As WSU works to fulfill its vision and mission that coincides with KBOR’s strategic plan, the President will emphasize the following priorities:

• $25M Need-based Aid – grow workforce and access to higher education
• Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) – grow jobs to keep graduates in Kansas
• Health Sciences Education Center – help increase health outcomes, fuel talent pipeline and meet mental health needs of our region while leveraging our digitization capabilities
• Recentering – Prioritize programs that meet industry needs in growing fields of study by making “whole” WSU Tech and other two-year colleges who have been underfunded

The Senate Ways and Means Committee will receive a similar presentation the following Monday. The week after is currently scheduled for the full appropriations and ways and means committees to receive these budget recommendations.

Legislative Update No. 2

Legislative Update: State of the State

The Legislature was busy this week considering a number of bills. First, the Senate and the House introduced and then immediately held hearings on their redistricting maps. This is the culmination of work that has been occurring over the last year since the census data was received. The Legislature has the responsibility to evenly distribute congressional districts, state senate and state house districts based on population. There has been a lot of scrutiny applied to this process with many people accusing the Legislature of politicizing this process to influence elections. The Senate was the first to have debate on their maps, and they passed on a party-line vote Friday. The House is expected to debate their maps next week, and you can expect a bill to be sent to the Governor late next week or early the week after. It’s worth noting that many individuals have stated they expect litigation over these maps likely creating delays in their implantation.

There was also an information hearing held in Senate Education regarding Maintenance of Effort (MOE). MOE was one of the requirements handed down by the federal government as a condition of receiving stimulus dollars. It places minimum requirements for funding of higher education by the State, and the State in FY22 and FY23 was originally short of that requirement by $106M. The State funded half of that difference in FY22 and applied for waiver to the federal Department of Education. That waiver is still under consideration and if it is not granted, the State will have to spend an additional $53M on higher education this fiscal year. In FY23, the Governor’s budget funds in excess of what the requirement states.

The House and Senate also introduced and quickly held hearings on a massive economic incentive for a private company that is considering moving to Kansas and bringing 4,000 jobs. The total for the incentives could reach more than a billion dollars, but there is very little know about the company outside of the number of jobs. This bill will likely be a priority for the next week or two and will receive a great deal of attention given the potential economic impact and size of the inducement.

Summary

It is still early in the legislative session, but they are aggressively moving on large items like redistricting. Once that issue is resolved, they will likely turn their focus towards a tax bill. The Governor in her budget proposed a tax bill that would eliminate the food sales tax and provide a $250 tax rebate ($500 for joint filers). The Legislature will likely have a different proposal possibly focusing on altering tax brackets, and that will likely have an impact on the budget process as it will consume at least some of the excess revenue.

Legislative Update No. 1

Legislative Update: State of the State

The 2022 Legislative Session kicked off Tuesday evening with the ceremonial State of the State address given by the Governor. In Governor Kelly’s address, there was optimism about the State’s budget, and that optimism allows the State to invest in Kansas in a number of ways. First, she is asking the legislature to end the sales tax on food. That was expected to be in her address as it was publicly announced earlier in the Fall. Kansas is one of a handful of states that has such a tax and both she and Attorney General Schmidt, who is also running for Governor, have stated their support for that tax being eliminated. The Governor also highlighted another previous announcement of hers that the legislature should pass a $250 tax rebate ($500 for joint filers) for any Kansan who filed taxes last year. This is very similar to what the federal government did with stimulus checks during the pandemic and is very popular. It’s unclear how the Republican-dominated legislature will respond to that proposal. They tend to favor tax cuts over tax rebates and a rebate in an election year would be a big political win for the Governor. She also touted that her budget will continue to fund K-12 education at constitutionally appropriate levels and will invest in broadband that was an issue for kids who had to learn remotely. For higher education, there wasn’t a large segment of her speech addressed except that she intends for no tuition increases. The Kansas Board of Regents did submit a proposed request for funding base aid to higher education that would essentially buy down an otherwise needed tuition increase.

The next day was when the real work began. At 10AM on Wednesday, the Senate Ways and Means Committee held a joint meeting with the House Appropriations Committee and received revised revenue numbers for this fiscal year and next as well as a detailed overview of the Governor’s Budget. Within her budget is approximately $47M for the four-year sector to eliminate the need for a tuition increase. There was also an allocation made to the Department of Commerce for institutions of higher education to apply for grants for economic development. The Governor also made allocations for need-based aid to grow access for higher education and money for deferred maintenance. For all State employees, there was a proposed 5% pay increase. Below is a detailed table of what is in the budget that pertains to higher education.

Next, the budget committees will begin holding informational hearings on each State agency. WSU has been notified that our presentation for the House Higher Education Budget Committee will be on February 11. The Senate has yet to announce its schedule.

Board of Regents’ Request Compared to Governor’s Recommendations

Sector	Amount	Board of Regents’ Request	Governor’s Proposed Budget
State Universities	$45,700,000	Restore state investment to prior levels, recognizing inflationary cost increases to operate and freeze student tuition	$45,700,000
State Universities	$25,000,000	Financial Aid: Kansas Access Partnership with $1:$1 private match	$25,000,000
State Universities	$5,000,000	Enhance student supports to improve retention and graduation of all students	$0
State Universities	$25,000,000	Engage the state as a partner with the Board’s capital renewal initiative as a boost to improvements to facilities	$25,000,000
State Universities	$10,000,000	Competitive grants for economic development initiatives that incorporate private partners	$10,000,000 in Commerce Department Budget
State Universities	$20,000,000	Invest in information technology infrastructure and bolster cybersecurity efforts	$20,000,000
Washburn University	$2,130,000	Fund programs at Washburn University (Business Resources for Innovation and Ensuring Pathways to Student Success)	$1,554,013 to reach $14.0 million total state grant
Two-Year Colleges	$2,500,000	Fully Fund the Excel in CTE program	$2,500,000
Two-Year Colleges	$6,000,000	Fund a portion of the state’s share of the cost model for tiered courses and non-tiered courses	$6,000,000
Two-Year Colleges	$4,000,000	Address State Aid for Career Technical Education Capital Outlay	$1,000,000
Two-Year Colleges	$15,000,000	One-Time Projects	$15,000,000
Board Office/Adjutant General	$1,000,000	Fully Fund the National Guard Tuition Assistance Benefit to meet greater demand	$1,000,000
Board Office	$305,454	Restore state funding of the Board Office for operations; provide staff to administer the Promise Scholarship Act and the capital renewal initiative	$305,454
State Employee Pay		5% Salary adjustment for state employees (there has been no general pay adjustment since FY 2020)	$24,100,000
Subtotal	$161,635,454		$177,159,467
Related Items in Other Budgets
Competitive One-Time University Grants in Commerce Department		Universities will work with donors to develop proposals for state funding initiatives that have significant long-term economic benefit to the state; to be matched dollar for dollar by the universities with non-state money.	$195,000,000
Advantage Kansas		Staff in Department of Commerce to support Advantage Kansas Coordinating Council	$125,000
CTE Transportation Aid Restored		Assists with offering postsecondary CTE courses to high school students by transporting 11th and 12th graders to the college (was previously in place, but stopped in FY 2020)	$1,500,000

Legislative Session Concludes

Session Ends

The Veto Session concluded at about 2AM Saturday morning after five days of intense debate over veto overrides and conference committee reports. At the start of the week, the House and the Senate quickly overrode a number of vetoes including the veto of HB 2058 which lowers the conceal and carry age to 18 with a permit. This law was passed in response to the same bill allowing reciprocity of other state’s citizens to conceal and carry in Kansas including if that citizen is younger than 21.

SB 50, the tax bill, was also successfully overrode and will become law. For the short-term, it’s doubtful the tax cuts that are part of that legislation will have any meaningful impact on Kansas’ revenue given the high ending balances this year.

SB 55, the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, failed to gain the 2/3 majority in both chambers of the legislature and its veto will be sustained. While the House was able to gain the numbers necessary to override the Governor’s veto, the Senate fell one vote short.

Line-item veto of HB 2007, the budget bill, included vetoing of the $10M for deferred maintenance that KBOR had requested to replace the $10M going to employee pay. In her veto address, the Governor said that money was to be used for pay increases and deferred maintenance should be addressed with federal dollars. The House successfully overrided the Governor’s veto; however, the Senate never took up the veto override. Those funds will now not be spent.

The rest of the week was spent on a number of conference committee reports (remember conference committees are when the House and Senate committees of a specific topic come together to bundle bills or work through their differences on legislation) dealing with budget, tax, and judicial items. Included in these was the legislature’s passing of a bill that bans the use of Vaccine Passports in Kansas.

Budget

The conference committee for the budget took nearly the entire week and was one of the last bills to be voted on. Employee pay for all agencies minus some strategically picked agencies that have ongoing compensation issues was removed citing an unwillingness to increase public sector pay in a year when the Government shutdown the private sector and sent those employees to a Department of Labor that couldn’t process unemployment claims.

Maintenance of Effort (MOE) was addressed early in the conference committee process. Most members acknowledged it needed to be dealt with now or the State risked losing nearly $2B in federal funds. The Governor recommended spending nearly $53M in additional State General Fund dollars on higher education in the FY22 which represents half of what they think is necessary to meet the federal MOE requirements. The money is to be spent accordingly:

• $15.0 million, all SGF, in the Post-Secondary Education Operating Grant, with language that the funding is to be used by the universities as reimbursement for 2021 utility payments, staff buy-outs, economic development, and scholarships for FY 2022;
• $10.0 million, all SGF, and reappropriation language for the passage of HB 2064, the Kansas Promise Scholarship Act, for FY 2022;
• $10.0 million, all SGF, to the Board of Regents new Need-based Aid Scholarship and Recruitment account to be distributed to state universities and Washburn University
• $8.0 million, all SGF, for the Comprehensive Grant program for FY 2022;
• $5.0 million all, SGF, for the Community College Maintenance of Effort account for expenditures that meet with the federal maintenance of effort requirements for FY 2022; and
• $4.3 million, all SGF, for capital outlay within the technical colleges to be disbursed equally to be used for equipment only and not requiring a match for FY 2022.

The major concern with this plan is that it might not be approved by the federal government. Under the federal law attached to all the stimulus money that has come to the State, if a State does not plan to meet its MOE requirement (remember Kansas is planning on only meeting half of it in the first year) then it may apply for a waiver to the federal Department of Education. Another provision of the federal law says that federal stimulus may not supplant a tax cut which Kansas just implemented. If the Secretary of Educations finds Kansas did not meet the MOE requirement, the State would have to send back some or all of the federal funds or bring the MOE amount up to $106M in FY22 and FY23. This is in addition to the $25M that was already put back into the budget in the original budget bill for this year.