This should come as no surprise to any of you: Kansas Government spending is out of control. Since 1970, the State General Fund (“SGF”) has increased over 1500%. In just the last three budget cycles, SGF has increased 8.6%, 9.6% and 8.6%, respectively. All this with virtually flat population growth and wages rising only about 3.5% a year. At the same time, Kansas continues to sink further and further into debt. In 1992, Kansas debt was $424 million … today, Kansas debt is an astounding $4 billion dollars. This dramatic decent into debt puts Kansas second behind only Wyoming in growth of state debt since 1992.

The Kansas Legislature must start to impose upon itself some form of spending discipline, and “cutting up the credit card” and not taking on more state debt is a great start. In addition, during this time of growing tax revenues, cutting taxes and paying off some of the debt load to lower yearly principle and interest payments for future Kansas generations is vitally important.

Thankfully, a number of individuals and organizations have come together to try to tackle this challenge this year. For example, in January 2007, the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy ran an article, “The Virtue of a Self-Imposed Spending Cap for the Kansas Legislature,” in which the author argued that legislators should impose upon themselves a limit above which they would not spend.

Along that vein, Americans for Prosperity – joined by coalition partners consisting primarily of pro-business organizations – created radio messages emphasizing the need for lawmakers to constrain their spending and suggested a reasonable cap on spending of $5.9 billion in SGF. These radio messages ran statewide with the hope that a majority of Legislators would refrain from exceeding the offered self-imposed spending limit.

It appears to have worked, at least initially. The House and Senate each passed versions of the budget that were at or less than the $5.9 billion figure, and the compromise budget that both chambers finally agreed upon was only slightly higher than $5.9 billion figure. Thus far, the 2007 Legislature has dramatically reduced the rate at which government is growing, in large part due to the leadership demonstrated by a small number of dedicated legislators.

Regrettably, it now appears there will be an effort by some "pro-spending" legislators to add substantial spending amendments onto the Omnibus budget during the Veto Session scheduled to begin April 25th.

This means that it is critically important that you contact your Representative and Senator before April 25th to let them know how important it is to their constituents that NO MORE SPENDING BE ADDED TO THE BUDGET!

If we are all successful in this historic effort, Kansas will have successfully curtailed its spending habit and, hopefully, fiscal discipline will be returned to the Capitol in the years to come. Again, however, this cannot happen without meaningful citizen involvement – legislators must hear from their constituents and be told that they do not want pork spending, they want less spending and more tax cutting.

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Rep. Eric Carter represented Kansas House District 48 and is an attorney in Overland Park, Kansas. He is a graduate of Harvard and Cambridge in Economics and UMKC Law School. Eric and his wife Heather have four children.