Kansas City Star Thursday editorial

The Kansas Legislature’s new budget, which takes effect July 1, will force hard choices for Johnson, Wyandotte and other Kansas counties.

Recently, Johnson County Manager Mike Press flipped through a list of potential reductions that could affect everything from social services to road repairs. The numbers confronting the state’s largest county aren’t pretty.

Officials expect to take a $2 million hit in tax revenue reimbursements that the state was expected to provide. Johnson County also might not receive hundreds of thousands of dollars it expected this year for programs focused on health, developmental disabilities and senior care.

At some point, the County Commission will have to decide how to adjust the current budget, which took effect on Jan. 1, to account for the reductions in state funds.

Commissioners can approach the shortfall in one of two ways:

1) The better choice is to dip into the county’s still-healthy financial reserves.
Usually, the county correctly resists using reserves for operating expenses. Those funds are better used for one-time expenses, such as capital improvements.

However, county officials have good reasons to use some of the reserves now to maintain essential social programs. If the economy improves in the next year or so, state revenues to the county could improve. In effect, that would limit the financial drain on the reserves.

2) The less desirable option is to reduce services as state funding goes away. In effect, commissioners would eliminate already-approved spending for programs in the county’s budget. Social service agencies and their clients would bear much of the brunt.

When the Legislature pulled the plug on providing millions of dollars to counties, state officials merely offloaded their budgetary problems. Elected leaders in Johnson, Wyandotte and other counties must find ways to keep the most effective programs going, while being open to the possibility of reducing or eliminating others along the way.