Kansas state budget director disputes House speaker’s assertion of budget thriftiness
Adam Proffitt, the Kansas state budget director, and Gov. Laura Kelly address a Salina audience at a town hall forum on the state government's budget. Proffitt is challenging House Speaker Dan Hawkins' statement that the budget approved by the 2025 Legislature spent $30 million less than was recommended by Kelly. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)
TOPEKA — The Kansas budget director objects to claims by House Speaker Dan Hawkins the state government budget adopted by the 2025 Legislature spent less than the amount proposed by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.
Adam Proffitt, who also serves as Kelly’s secretary of the Kansas Department of Administration, challenged the narrative repeatedly shared by Hawkins that the Legislature succeeded in trimming expenditures to a level $30 million below the governor’s budget recommendation.
Hawkins, who is campaigning to be elected state insurance commissioner, mocked Kelly’s decision to host eight public forums devoted to budget issues by asserting the GOP-led Legislature’s version of the budget was leaner and more businesslike. In a statement, Hawkins said the budget for the current fiscal year was evidence of thriftiness among Republicans in the House and Senate and wastefulness by the Kelly administration.
“The Legislature took the bull by the horns, implementing a new budget process that cut spending,” Hawkins said. “A reduction of over $30 million from the governor’s own proposal.”
Proffitt said Hawkins’ interpretation of the bottom line was inaccurate and incomplete. He said the final budget approved in April documented expenditures that were $23 million below what Kelly sought in January — not $30 million. In addition, Proffitt said Hawkins failed to take into account commitments by the Legislature that didn’t have funding attached, which artificially lowered projected expenditures through the fiscal year.
The budget director said the House speaker didn’t acknowledge the $13 million annual cost of complying with the Legislature’s pledge to expand services to disabled Kansans.
In addition, Hawkins didn’t reckon with interest payments of $16 million to $18 million annually on $215 million in bond debt the Legislature authorized in the 2025 session.
Proffitt said the state budget crafted by Republicans in the Legislature wasn’t more economical than what the governor outlined at start of the session.
“It now becomes pretty clear that its actually more expensive, not just in a first year, but when we have debt service for another 20 years, it’s more expensive in the out years as well,” Proffitt said.
House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, says the Republican-led Legislature produced a state budget that spent $30 million less this fiscal year than recommended by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. The state’s budget director, Adam Proffitt, disagrees with Hawkins’ analysis. In this image, Hawkins speaks at a September news conference in Topeka. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)
‘Gimmicks, tricks’
Kelly, in Salina last week for the first of eight town halls on the state government budget, said her two terms as governor had been devoted to reversing budget mistakes made by Gov. Sam Brownback and the Kansas Legislature in the years before she took office in 2019.
She said that she forwarded to the 2025 Legislature a budget that was balanced, targeted spending on priorities of education and health, effectively used one-time expenditures rather than add debt for capital projects and would be sustainable in the future because it wouldn’t dramatically erode the state’s cash reserve.
“Unfortunately, this past session, the Legislature passed a budget that threatens the progress to prosperity that we’ve made,” Kelly said. “I know the budget that was put together last year by the Legislature is not sustainable over time. We’re back on the road to gimmicks and tricks, funny math.”
She said the Legislature’s approach to the budget would spend $300 million to $700 million more annually than the state collected in revenue. She said that at the current pace the state’s $3 billion surplus would be eaten away in three fiscal years.
“That is a huge concern to me, even though I won’t be governor then,” said Kelly, who leaves office in January 2027.
‘Gaslighting’
Hawkins said the governor didn’t have a grasp on the state’s revenue stream and anticipated expenditures. In September, the House speaker made that point after reports showed state tax revenue exceeded estimates by $47 million in the first two months of the fiscal year starting July 1.
He said the governor’s statements claiming Republicans had set the stage for crashing the budget were flawed.
“Another month, another gaslighting press release from the governor,” Hawkins said. “While the governor tries to point the finger at the Legislature, the reality is this: Real spending reform didn’t happen until lawmakers took the lead on the budget this year.”
He was referring to a decision by House and Senate leadership to appoint a special legislative committee that met in fall 2024 to craft an alternative budget to what Kelly proposed in January of this year. The Legislature, with Republican supermajorities in both chambers, generally ignored the governor’s recommendations.
Proffitt, the state budget director, said it was a mistake for the Legislature to reject the Kansas tradition in which governors set the starting point for budget debate during the annual session.
“I would say it was a highly inefficient process this past year and not one that I would recommend repeating,” he said. “It’s important for any governor to have input on the budget process and the way that it worked last year, and the way it’s being proposed to work next year, that’s not going to happen.”
Hawkins promised that work of the 2026 Legislature would resemble the results achieved in the 2025 session.
“When the Legislature returns in January, we’ll continue to hold the line, take a hard look at government spending and make sure your tax dollars are used effectively,” he said.
Hawkins encouraged Kelly, in her final full year as governor, to join Republicans in the effort to control state expenditures.
“I won’t be holding my breath,” he said.