Last Friday the Kansas Legislature approved the Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 budget that begins July 1st of this year. Legislators had a daunting task of addressing a predicted $330 million revenue shortfall for FY 2010 and with pressure from AFP and others, doing so without raising taxes. In the end the budget they passed represents a 6.5% cut in overall spending, with some state agencies receiving more than a 6.5% cut.

Other agencies however avoided as severe of cuts. The thought being that one area of government in particular represented a more vital function to the citizenry than others and simply cannot sustain a severe cut and still provide the services needed. Even in AFP's fiscal year 2010 Model State Budget, we recommended more funding for a vital area of government than then Governor Sebelius did in her proposed budget.

The only problem is that there ended up being a large disagreement over what that "vital area of government" is. You see at AFP we consider "Public Safety" to be the most important function of state government. Our view being that correctional institutions need the appropriate staff and bed space to safely keep criminals locked up instead of on the streets. We also believe that the Highway Patrol should be spared budgetary cuts that could possibly lead to fewer troopers protecting our roads and highways. And we don't believe that the Kansas Bureau of Investigation should be restricted in the amount of resources at its' disposal for investigating the most challenging and often, heinous crimes committed in our state. Cases that local law enforcement often request their help on.

Unfortunately there were just enough legislators in Topeka that didn't view public safety as being as important as we do. The final budget bill passed last week contained a 2.75% cut to K-12 education. Again the overall reduction in state government spending was 6.5%, so K-12 was spared a potentially much deeper reduction. Many of the legislators that voted for the budget bill simply didn't believe that K-12 could absorb any deeper of a cut, despite the fact that K-12 spending increased 53% between 2003 and 2008. Let me repeat that... 53% increase between 2003 and 2008. With that kind of massive spending increase, I find it hard to believe that they couldn't take on more than a 2.75% cut.

But here's the real political peanut. The legislators that voted to spare education, voted at the same time to slash funding for public safety by $8 million. This cut will hit every correctional institution, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, and the Highway Patrol. Potentially leading to job layoffs and inferior resources for the most important part of state government.

So if and when a legislator brags about voting for the budget this year, you may want to ask him or her the question of: "Just why exactly did you choose K-12 over protecting Kansans?"