The Budget Blog

How did the governor work the Budget Puzzle?

By Duane Goossen

January 17, 2012

KHI has a new tool that allows anyone to put together their own state budget: the Budget Puzzle at www.khi.org/puzzle. Add or subtract revenues. Add or subtract expenditures. See how the balance works out.

Gov. Sam Brownback released his budget recommendations last week. How did he play the puzzle? Here's a PDF of the results from our Budget Puzzle, using the governor's recommendations.

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Surprisingly, the governor’s overall moves were not that dramatic for the short term. On the revenue side, the governor stayed quite close to the Consensus Revenue Estimate (PDF) but did not include the effect of his new tax proposal. On the expenditure side, the governor’s proposal for FY 2013 (July 1, 2012–June 30, 2013) is just $34.8 million higher than the budget that was approved last May for FY 2012 (July 1, 2011–June 30, 2012).

Although the governor proposes a new school finance formula and a revamped approach to Medicaid, those proposals do not have a large effect on the FY 2013 budget. The new proposals would have a much greater effect on future budgets, and to really understand that effect, they should be analyzed over multiple years, rather than just the first year.

What are the big changes for FY 2013? Two charts from the governor’s Budget Report (Vol. I, pages 38–39) (PDF) are helpful in following how the governor put together his puzzle. (View a PDF of the governor's Budget Puzzle results).

The first shows the big moves that the governor wants to make on the already adopted FY 2012 budget, and the second shows the big moves for FY 2013.

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In the FY 2013 chart, what appear to be large expenditure cuts — “Use ELARF (gaming revenue) to pay off debt” and “Shift Highway Patrol Off SGF” and “Wildlife, Parks & Tourism to EDIF” — are not real program cuts, but simply proposals to pay for those items from a different source and lower State General Fund spending.

The governor wants a $74 million spending increase to the FY 2012 budget that was approved last May. His proposed FY 2013 spending is lower than his revised FY 2012 budget proposal but higher than the spending currently approved for FY 2012.

→ View the governor's Budget Puzzle results (PDF).