Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) still won’t offer a specific plan for closing his state’s budget gap, even when he was pressed by reporters on the subject on Monday.
Facing a $400 million deficit, Brownback in January offered a set of tax proposals that would close roughly half the gab, according to the Kansas City Star.
But the Kansas governor still hasn’t released a plan for closing the rest of it even as revenue estimates dropped in April.
Brownback did say though that he had been meeting with a number of lawmakers to review options.
“We’ve been floating different ideas,” Brownback told the Kansas newspaper. “I don’t think that it’s useful in the process right now to be putting out grand plans. This is really the time that the legislature’s really got to come around with what they decide.”
Brownback added, “We have lots of different ideas.” A reporter then asked for a specific example.
“Nope,” Brownback replied.
The state’s fiscal woes have been so serious that the conservative Brownback has had to even consider expanding Medicaid through Obamacare, a cardinal sin among the hard right in the Republican Party. Brownback has also proposed raising taxes on healthcare maintenance organizations as well as on cigarettes and liquor as a way to get more revenue to shrink the budget hole.
