(March 9, 2023) – Today, the Senate Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Senator Rick Billinger (R-Goodland), began assembling the budget package the subcommittees and committee have spent the last few weeks reviewing.

The committee moved the discussion on items to either before they meet for conference or at omnibus:

Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services

• Delete $5.0 million State General Fund for the fiscal year 2024 to reimburse health care providers, law enforcement agencies and counties on an hourly basis for patient observation and transportation following an evaluation and approval for stay at a mental health hospital
• Delete $6.0 million SGF for increased allocations for substance abuse use disorder services for the uninsured for FY 2024
• Delete $30.8 million, including $12.4 million SGF, for FY 2024 to establish an additional Medicaid reimbursement for nursing facilities based on the percentage of Medicaid residents served
• Delete $15.0 million, including $5.9 million SGF, to provide a 7.0 percent rebase of the nursing facility's daily Medicaid rate for FY 2024

Kansas Department of Health and Environment – Health

• Delete $3.0 million SGF for community-based primary care grants for FY 2024
• Add and review later the emergency medical air ambulance language for FY 2024 and increase the rates to 100 percent of Medicare rates from SGF
• Delete $938,756 SGF for the Kansas Tobacco Use Prevention Program for FY 2024
• Delete $700,000 SGF to increase funding to local health departments using the statutory distribution formula contained in KSA 65-242 for FY 2024
• Delete $671.4 million, including the addition of $71.5 million SGF, to remove funding for Medicaid expansion for FY 2024

Office of Governor

• Delete transfer of $50 million from SGF for state match for agencies applying for federal grant programs
• Delete transfer of $220 million from the Governor's Infrastructure
• $500 million to the Budget Stabilization Fund for FY 2023

Statewide

• Delete $169.5 million, including $65.5 million SGF, to not implement a statewide 5.0 percent salary increase among state employees for FY 24 for review at omnibus
• Delete $24.6 million, including $17.8 million SGF, for agency salary adjustment plans for FY 2024 and FY 2025

Kansas Department of Revenue

• Delete $9.8 million SGF, and add $9.8 million from the License Plate Replacement Clearing Fund, for the replacement of embossed license plates for FY 2024. Transfer of $9.8 million for the State Highway Fund

Kansas Department for Children and Families

• Delete $6.0 million, including $5.1 million SGF, for Children's Alliance of Kansas to fund the development of a Foster Care Therapeutic Program for Child Placing Agencies to recruit, train and retain therapeutic foster homes for FY 24
• Delete $780,000 SGF and add the same amount of temporary assistance for needy families for the Boys and Girls Clubs for operational cost increases for FY 2024
• Add language allowing customer information file accounts in the Kansas Children's Cabinet to reappropriate for FY 2023 and FY 2024

Kansas Bureau of Investigations

• Delete $3.4 million SGF for a surge initiative and additional operational support, leaving $900,000 SGF for the replacement of a heating, ventilation and air conditioning system at the Great Bend laboratory for FY 2024

Department of Education

• Delete language extending the sunset on the High Density at Risk Weighting

Board of Indigent's Defense

• Add language directing the Board of Indigents' Defense Services to report to the Senate Committee on Ways and Means on or before Jan. 1, 2024, regarding the number of cases handled by assigned counsel, the total number of state attorneys in the agency, the average tenure of those attorneys over the last five years, the FY 2023 turnover rate, and any other information the agency deems valuable to evaluate the effectiveness of salary adjustments implemented over the last two years

The committee placed the remaining budget items in Senate Bill 155 and recommended favorably for passage. The committee will meet again next week.