Rep. Don Dahl starts fourth term in House
By JENNIFER WILSON
News editor
There's no doubt about it: This year's state legislative session is all about budgets.
With Kansas facing a budget deficit in the hundreds of millions, every state senator's and representative's mind is focused on making the state budget break even.
That's what Republican Rep. Don Dahl faces when he heads for the 2003 legislative session, which opens on Monday. Dahl, of Hillsboro, is starting his fourth term as representative for District 70, which encompasses Marion and Chase counties as well as northern Butler County.
Dahl knows that concerns about the budget will loom large.
"That's going to permeate the whole session," he said.
But Kansas' problem isn't unique, Dahl said — 43 other states are facing budget deficits of their own. It's a reflection of the nation's economy slump that followed the Sept. 11 attacks.
To put Kansas' situation simply, the state budget is like a household, Dahl said. You've got expenditures and income, and when the expenditures exceed the income, there's trouble. The solution is to either reduce your expenses or get a job with more income.
But in the case of Kansas, there's no "extra job" to get more money. For the legislators, it boils down to trimming programs or raising taxes.
State legislators will have to look at everything when looking for places to cut, Dahl said. No program should be excluded. That means a lot of hard decisions.
"It's like playing with a porcupine — you're going to get stuck," Dahl said.
One specific area that legislators need to keep an eye on is the rising costs of insurance premiums.
"They've just skyrocketed," he said.
It's an area that hurts everybody, Dahl said, from SRS programs to schools.
The public school system in particular is one issue that Kansans are passionate about. But as legislators look at how to trim programs to reduce the budget deficit, they can't overlook the schools completely. Education isn't the only program funded by the state, Dahl said.
He wants to take a closer look at the school finance formula and the local option budget guidelines. Dahl also would like to have schools reduce the liability teachers face if they're sued over a discipline dispute.
As legislators tackle money matters, they'll also deal with a change in the state's leadership.
When Kathleen Sebelius takes over the governor's seat this month, it will be only the second governor Dahl has served under. Sebelius will bring with her new department heads and a whole new administration, Dahl said.
He looks forward to hearing any budget-cutting ideas that Sebelius and her teams have developed, although Dahl says that he and his colleagues have already been "turning every stone" for the past four years.
One possible revenue source, some say, is increased gambling. But Dahl doesn't think that is the way to go.
"That's very short-sighted,"he said.
Gambling doesn't earn a state more revenue, it just shifts it around from the gamblers to the gambling company, Dahl said. And normally, an out-of-state entity owns the company.
The state would do better to bring in more businesses, which in turn bring jobs, he said.
