Wichitopekington

Lawmakers believe the Kansas Legislature may have to cut a lot more state spending — including dollars for public education — when they return to Topeka in a couple of weeks.

“My best guess is we’ll have to cut $200 million more from the budget,” said Sen. Karin Brownlee, an Olathe Republican. “I think K-through-12 will have to absorb some of that.”

Brownlee’s comments were made during the “Let’s Talk Issues” cable television program broadcast Wednesday in Johnson County.

To view the one-hour public service program featuring Brownlee, Rep. Kevin Yoder, Rep. Gene Rardin and Rep. Arlen Siegfreid, go to http://video.jccc.edu/ and click on the 2009 Let’s Talk Issues link.

Sen. David Wysong, a Mission Hills Republican and a member of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, echoed Brownlee’s prediction in an earlier interview.

Wysong said he was told by legislative budget experts that the reduction could even be greater than $200 million.

The senator said there was no way to spare public schools from a cut that large. Education, including higher education, makes up about two-thirds of the state’s general fund spending.

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By DAVE HELLING

The Star

A 22,000 percent return on investment?

Three professors at the University of Kansas say dozens of America’s largest companies got that sweet deal four years ago — not by hiring workers or purchasing new equipment, but by investing in Washington lobbyists.

Those lobbyists, the three said, helped write a federal tax break that eventually put roughly $100 billion in tax savings in the pockets of the firms and their shareholders, at a cost to the companies of just pennies on the dollar.

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