The Kansas Statehouse is going to shake Thursday afternoon, when a group of economic/tax/business experts deliver the Consensus Revenue Estimate (CRE) for the state for the upcoming fiscal year.

That obscure document will become the legislative basis for the budget for the remainder of this four-month-old fiscal year, and the number on which the upcoming legislative budget machinations will be based.

And…while the state is looking a little better in terms of revenues—that’s the taxes you have paid—there remains all that talk about a recession that would reduce state receipts.

While the CRE talks about the state of the Kansas economy and makes observations and predictions about the state’s health, the real key will be the prediction of the movement up or down and by how much of the State General Fund (SGF).

It is the SGF which is the fuel for almost everything Gov. Laura Kelly will propose in her upcoming—second—budget as governor, and almost everything the Legislature will do in this upcoming session, after which House and Senate members will stand for re-election.

Will there be enough revenue flowing into the SGF to make good on its spending approved last session for the remaining months of this fiscal year? Will there be enough revenue flowing into the SGF for meeting the state’s expenses, to pay the bills that it agreed to last year?

And…will there be enough money to expand programs that are beneficial to the state and its people, and which people?

Nope, the CRE isn’t likely to become the topic of discussion in many bars across the state, but it is going to be a major factor when the upcoming session convenes in January.

If revenues remain stable…well, that’s good news because it probably means that the state can meet its obligations—and remember, those obligations include a boost in spending on K-12 schools over the next four years which lawmakers approved last session and which the Kansas Supreme Court is going to enforce if necessary.

But for nearly everything else ranging from spending on highways to raises for state employees to ever-increasing spending on social service programs and just keeping the lights on, that CRE is the key to how Kansans live.

Will there be spare money for some sort of tax cuts that we all like? Enough that the revenue stream from, say, sales tax on food can be reduced through a tax reduction, and keep everything else running? Enough that the state can expand Medicaid to maybe 130,000 Kansans without health-care insurance, at an estimated cost of maybe $40 million?

Those are all the downstream calculations that are going to be made based on that CRE memo we’ll get later this week.

Putting together that CRE has been going on for several weeks. It’s this week that the Division of Budget, Legislative Research, the Department of Revenue and three economists from state universities will assemble their final best-guess of the money that is going to be available to finance state government for the rest of this fiscal year and next.

Remember, this is the election year legislative session, and while one can expect a little reach by lawmakers who want something catchy to campaign on, bullet points for their palm cards, such actions will cost the state money, or reduce income to the state.

And remember, also, that we are heading into an election year in which the governor’s name isn’t going to be on the ballot, and she’ll be looking into the future when she can stand for re-election and would like to have some nice moves to use in that 2022 election year.

Happy Thursday?

Syndicated by Hawver News Company LLC of Topeka; Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report—to learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit the website at www.hawvernews.com

This time of year, when the eight-letter word “football” fills many people’s thoughts, our thoughts as hunters and trappers should dwell on another eight-letter word, “scouting.” Here in the farm country of the Midwest, game movement patterns often change from year to year and even from season to season because of annual crop rotation, weather extremes and habitat changes, among other things. Although many good hunting and trapping hotspots produce game and fur year after year, many do not because of these factors.

Annual crop rotations play a huge part in the daily lives of wildlife. Where we used to hunt deer in southern Meade County, the terrain is rather bleak and the main crop by far is wheat. There’s always some hay around for deer to eat, but the tender green wheat is their mainstay. Any changes in wheat field locations from year to year mean certain changes in deer patterns and often in their home ranges. Here around McPherson County, annual crop changes don’t have such a drastic effect because there’s always an edible field crop of some sort near a deer’s chosen home range. Crop changes here effect wildlife movement most of all. For instance, tall crops like corn and silage offer excellent cover for deer and coyotes as they travel. Movement or harvest of those crops probably won’t change where these animals hunt, feed and bed, but it will often change the way they travel to get there.

Weather extremes, namely droughts and floods change wildlife patterns dramatically. Floods have a very temporary effect as they dictate where wildlife can and cannot travel, feed, hunt and bed during those times of high water. When the waters recede, life soon goes on again as usual. Drought on the other hand can have a long-lasting effect on wildlife patterns as they are often forced to relocate nearer to the few sources of water.

Habitat changes probably have the most effect on wildlife patterns. Removing overgrown tree and fence rows, bulldozing old orchards, tearing down and cleaning up old buildings in overgrown woodlots and even new construction such as building a new home on a previously empty and overgrown lot all destroy travel ways and hunting areas of local wildlife.

So, what to do? It’s called “mud on the boots!” Physically getting out into the areas you plan to hunt and trap before season is the only way to compensate for man and natures changes. Trail cameras are a good way to do that’ especially for deer. Hanging it near a trail will soon show you if the trail is used, by what and how often. Another good way is scouring the area for tracks. Be it deer, raccoons or coyotes every creature has four feet and wherever you find tracks you can bet the animal belonging to those four paws was mighty close! Last week I drove into and walked some new property I have permission to trap. I was becoming disappointed at the few coyote tracks I saw…until I crossed over a brushy overgrown lane into another field and suddenly found more coyote tracks than I’d ever hoped to see. I had walked that field this summer and found nothing, proving my point about seasonal wildlife patterns.

Even in this age of digital trail cameras and GPS technology the best and most reliable scouting tool available to the hunter and trapper is still the farmer and land owner. If you have permission to harvest game on their land, they are usually more than happy to talk with you about where and when they see that game, especially deer and coyotes, and no one knows that better than the farmers.

Just like we have to find new ways to travel around construction projects, or choose a new place to shop when our favorite grocery store is closed, so wildlife must adapt to the ever-changing world in which they live. So, to remain successful harvesters of that wildlife, we must occasionally get “some mud on our boots” and adapt our harvesting strategies to their changes…Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors.

Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at [email protected].