January 20, 2016
Legislative update Jan. 19
The Kansas Legislature convened Jan. 11 at the State Capitol in Topeka and went right to work. Gov. Sam Brownback presented the State of the State on Tuesday, Jan. 12. Earlier that day Alvarez and Marsal presented the State Efficiency Report to the House and Senate budget committees. The committees will spend the remainder of the session studying the recommendations and implementation of those recommendations.
On Wednesday Shawn Sullivan, state budget director, presented the governor's budget recommendations to the Legislature. The recommendations for Kansas State:
FY 2016
- Continues current funding and offsets State General Fund reduction with an increase from Educational Building Fund allocation for information technology operations expenses.
• Main Campus — $1,427,497
• Research and Extension — $639,574
• Veterinary Medical Center — $202,825 - Reduces Global Food Systems grant allocation from $5 million to $4 million.
FY 2017
- Continues funding
• $5 million base funding for College of Veterinary Medicine
• $5 million for research initiatives related to NBAF
• $3.5 million for University Engineering Initiative Act - Reduces Global Food Systems grant allocation from $5 million to $1 million
- New funding of $3.7 million from the state's Educational Building Fund toward debt service on the College of Architecture, Planning and Design Seaton Hall building project.
The Legislature will begin reviewing this plan and make final appropriations this session. For a full report on the Kansas Budget click here.
The second week of the session will see hearings in committees start in earnest. Larry Isaak, president of the Midwestern Higher Education Compact will present the annual report to several House of Representatives and Senate committees. The House Pensions and Investment Committee will receive a report on the $1.0 billion in pension bonds authorized by the 2015 Legislature. The House Vision 2020 Committee will begin presentations on higher education. Blake Flanders, CEO of the Kansas Board of Regents, and John Bardo, president of Wichita State University, will testify on Wednesday, Jan. 20. Kirk Schulz will testify before the committee on Jan. 27. Two house committees will hear presentations on Unmanned Aerial Systems on Wednesday. Ray Asebedo, assistant professor of Precision Agriculture at K-State will testify before the House Agriculture Committee.
Weekly updates will be posted in K-State Today on Tuesday. If you would like to receive a listing of bills introduced in the Kansas Legislature impacting Kansas State University, higher education and state agencies please send an email request to kstategr@ksu.edu.