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Local coverage of education issues, health care, and science and technology.

Brownback Wants Sales Tax Extended

May 7, 2013
Bryan Thompson
/
KPR

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback wants lawmakers to extend a temporary sales tax hike as a way to fund the state's universities.

The governor says cuts to higher education would be a momentum-killer at a time when he thinks a lot of positive things are happening in Kansas.

Lawmakers are hesitant to extend the sales tax hike, which was approved in 2010 on the condition that it would expire July 1 of this year. Following a tour of the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Salina, Gov. Brownback called the facility a great place to invest.

“There’s opposition to any taxes.," he said. "People don’t like to pay taxes. I don’t like people to pay taxes. But your revenue and your expenditures have to match.”

The medical school in Salina has been targeted by KU for closure, if budget cuts as deep as those under consideration in the House are adopted. The Salina program was established two years ago to train doctors for rural Kansas.