As Kansas continues the Battle of the 2010 Budget and prepares for the Battle of the 2011 Budget, there’s much to be said for 20-20 hindsight. If Kansas had kept spending increases since 2004 to just a bit over inflation the state would have more than enough money to cover the damage done by the recession.

From 2004 though 2009 state general fund (SGF) revenue increased a healthy 23.6 percent; spending, however, went up 40.5 percent.  In spite of this imbalance, Kansas Secretary of Revenue Joan Wagnon says the current budget crisis is caused by tax cuts and exemptions resulting in too little revenue. According to Wagnon, revenues in FY 2009 would have been $1.2 billion more if legislators hadn’t given away so many tax breaks and exemptions.

Wagnon has called for a sunset on tax exemptions after three years. House Appropriations Committee vice chairman Jason Watkins, R-Wichita, wants to do the same thing for appropriations, a sunset commission for agencies that spend state dollars. He also asked, in a recent committee meeting, for a bill to examine the mechanism for performance based budgeting.

Wagnon has called for similar measures for revenue. “I would not object to a budgeting process review and reform either,” Wagnon said in a recent email to KansasWatchdog. “Our current fiscal crisis is caused by too much spending and too little revenue. We can’t keep cutting taxes and increasing spending and expect to get balanced budgets and fiscal solvency.”

Consensus Revenue Estimate