Taxpayer advocates commended the Kansas Legislature for holding the line on spending, but warned that troubling trends – including the traditional politician's habit of spending more than the state earns – still cloud the state’s financial future.

“The positive is that we’ll see about a 5 percent increase in spending over last year, when we’ve been averaging 9 percent increases the past few years,” said Alan Cobb, state director of Americans for Prosperity. “And there seemed to be a real focus among legislators of both parties on how to limit spending.

“The negatives,” Cobb added, “are that spending will still exceed inflation, and they still will spend more than they take in.”

Preliminary figures suggest the state will spend 5.2 percent more than last year.

Karl Peterjohn, director of the Kansas Taxpayers Network, said he was somewhat dubious about the 5.2 percent figure. But, he conceded: “The budget could have been worse.”

“We’ll see what happens next year, when the entire Legislature isn’t facing the inconvenience of an election,” Peterjohn said.

Both Peterjohn and Cobb said they believed the spending restraint exhibited by lawmakers this year could intensify pressure next year for tax increases.

"They’ll be looking at a new highway program next year and there’s already talk of an increase in the state gas tax,” Peterjohn said. “And, if the economy continues to have problems, it’s likely that revenue growth will decline.”

Cobb said Americans for Prosperity would oppose tax increases in favor of spending rescissions.

Another positive aspect of the budget is that it didn’t significantly increase state debt.

Cobb pointed to a bill overwhelmingly approved by the House that called for a debt ceiling. The measure would have prevented the amount of state debt that is serviced through the general fund from exceeding 20 percent of annual general fund revenues.

Even though a bill did not emerge during the Legislative session, Cobb said the debt accumulation still would have been within that guideline.

Before this year, Cobb said, Kansas was accumulating debt faster than 48 other states, and was 17th in per-capita debt among states.

He added that it was likely the debt-ceiling bill would be reintroduced next year.

Cobb also is encouraging legislators to consider at least some zero-based budgeting.

“I think there are a lot of legislators who are interested in seeing better management of the budget,” Cobb said. “What the Legislature tends to do is not evaluate past spending, so if an agency spends $10 million one year and wants to spend $11 million the next, the legislature only tends to look at the new spending. That’s something we’ve talked to legislators about, and when we put together our model budget next year, we might take an agency or program and take it apart.”