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Kansas Will Do Less Internal Borrowing To Pay Its Bills This Year

The state of Kansas will need to do less internal borrowing next fiscal year to pay the state's bills. Tuesday, a group made up of legislators and the governor approved $300 million in transfers for the new fiscal year, which starts July 1.

Every year tax collections go up and down month to month, meaning the state has to temporarily move money from various programs into the general fund to pay the bills. Those transfers have been going down in recent years. Gov. Sam Brownback says that’s good.

“When I first came into office we were borrowing $700 million dollars to basically operate the state, float the state for the year," he says. "Now we’re down to $300 million. So we continue to improve the fiscal situation of the state, which is really good news for the people of Kansas.”

The transfers peaked at around $775 million in 2009. Democratic Senator Anthony Hensley from Topeka doesn’t believe the downward trend will continue. He says tax cuts in the coming years will shrink state revenues and could require the state to increase the borrowing again.

Stephen Koranda is the managing editor of the Kansas News Service, based at KCUR. He has nearly 20 years of experience in public media as a reporter and editor.