Kansas Health Institute | Information For Policy Makers. Health for Kansans.

TOPEKA — In a message delivered to legislative leaders today, Gov. Mark Parkinson said Kansas will receive about $40 million or $50 million more in federal aid than the Legislature anticipated when it crafted the current year budget.

The governor asked members of the Legislative Coordinating Council and the Legislative Budget Committee to replace state general fund allocations for public schools with dollars the state will receive from the the federal Education Jobs Fund.

That would then free general funds to fully pay for the state's Medicaid program.

Kansas stands to gain an estimated $85 million from extended federal Medicaid assistance and $92.5 million from the Education Jobs Fund.

Lawmakers earlier this year built the budget assuming the state would only receive about $131 million in extended federal aid first authorized as part of the federal economic stimulus in 2009.

"This aid is critical for Kansas," Parkinson said in a prepared statement, "not only to maintain our balanced budget, but continue with our economic recovery.

"We will continue to monitor revenues closely, as we expect to have the normal ups and downs of month-to-month revenue collections coming out of this recession," Parkinson, a Democrat, said. "However, with this new federal aid, the Kansas fiscal year 2011 budget is balanced."

Fiscal 2011 began July 1.

Republican members of the Kansas congressional delegation, including GOP gubernatorial candidate Sam Brownback, voted against the aid package saying it would add too much to the federal deficit.

Kansas was one of about 30 states that built budgets assuming the relief dollars would come.