Kansas officials find $80M error in school funding measure

By JOHN HANNA
17 minutes ago

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas officials have discovered an error in a public school funding bill lawmakers approved that lowers the size of its spending increase by at least $80 million, potentially complicating the state’s efforts to satisfy a court mandate.

Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer still plans to sign the bill and will work with the GOP-controlled Legislature to fix the flaw, spokesman Kendall Marr said Tuesday. But the fix might come only days before an April 30 deadline for Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s office to report to the state Supreme Court on how lawmakers have addressed education funding problems.

The bill approved by lawmakers early Sunday was meant to phase in a $534 million spending increase over five years, and with the flaw, the figure is $454 million or perhaps a little less.

In Kansas, local school districts impose local property taxes to supplement their state dollars. Legislators included a provision setting a minimum for local tax revenues to be raised — all districts already surpass it, anyway — and counting those dollars toward the state’s total aid. Instead of allowing a mere accounting move, though, the technical language inadvertently created a calculation that replaced state dollars with local dollars.

-snip-