Kansas faces a $349 million budget shortfall

TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas faces a $349 million shortfall in its current budget and even bigger gaps in the near future after officials issued a new, more pessimistic fiscal forecast for the state.

The forecasters slashed the state’s previous projections for tax collections through June 2017 by 5.9 percent, or $355 million. They also issued the first projections for the two fiscal years beginning in July 2017 and kept their estimates for revenue growth conservative.

Legislative researchers projected budget shortfalls totaling $1.1 billion through June 2019, based on current legal requirements for spending. The state’s annual spending is $15.5 billion.

The state’s fiscal woes come amid a national debate over taxes. Presidentelect Donald Trump prom- ised big income tax cuts while campaigning. Kansas has struggled to balance its budget after slashing personal income taxes in 2012 and 2013 in hopes of stimulating its economy, and Republican Gov. Sam Brownback touted the experiment as a national model.

Brownback blames the state’s ongoing budget woes on slumps in agriculture and energy production that have also affected other states. The new fiscal forecast — replacing one issued in April — assumes that the sluggishness continues for the next two years.

Kansas slashed its top income tax rate and reduced its number of tax brackets. Trump has proposed doing both with the federal income tax while also reducing corporate income taxes.

“Some of the Trump tax package is things that we’ve done here,” Brownback said during an interview Wednesday.