Budget battle heating up this week

The Legislature returns Wednesday for its wrap up session where they'll have to trim over $330 million from the budget. Democrats and some moderate Republicans are pushing hard for every kind of "revenue enhancement" (aka "tax increase") they can think of without calling for an across the board income, sales or property tax increase.

$330 million is about 2.5% of the $13 billion budget. That's certainly nothing to sneeze at. If the $13 billion budget was instead a $50,000 a year income, a 2.5% cut would be $1,250. A noticeable cut, but one that would certainly be possible.

The other number that is being left out of the budget conversation is how much spending has increased since 2004. That would be 48% according to Americans for Prosperity - Kansas.

So to put that in perspective, that would be like a family spending $26,000 a year and then four years later spending $50,000 a year. Now, would it be possible for them to cut a measly $1,250 after nearly doubling spending over just four short years? I'd hope so.