This week, the Kansas Legislature met briefly each day to either a) see if leadership had come up with a budget (no), or b) consider ill-advised pet legislation to while away the time. In the end, perhaps embarrassed by charging the people of Kansas $42,700 a day to do nothing, they adjourned for an unpaid four-day weekend.

Still no budget. It’s Day 93 of the 2015 legislative session, three days into overtime. At $43,000 per day, it’s not clear why the House and Senate both chose to adjourn before 2:00 pm yesterday afternoon, with plenty of daylight left to burn.

A quick recap of where Kansas stands right now: Expenses exceed revenues by $800 million. Much of that is being closed by transfers from highway funds and other sources. But those stopgap measures, unsustainable as they are, still leave a $406 million gap yet to close.

More than a week into the final session of the Kansas Legislature, and we are going backwards on the budget. The hole is still $800 million. For a while there it looked like the Governor's proposed sin taxes would fill a lot of that hole, and people were talking about a $400 million gap, or even a now-mythical $139 million gap. But this past week the only real movement in the budgetary discussion was to table, un-table, and then basically ignore the Governor's proposals. The gap is still $800 million, and until they actually pass a bill that appropriates money or cuts expenses, that gap will remain.

This is our latest Legislative Update, keeping up with the recent changes in budget plans (spoiler: they have none yet) and last minute policy.

We told you it would be all about the budget now, and so it has... not been? What has happened since the Kansas Legislature reconvened on Wednesday appears to be a lot of backroom deals and head scratching. As soon as one idea is floated (close loopholes in the tax law for small businesses) we hear that this is a "non-starter" (lobbying groups start massive robo-call campaign to "save" small businesses).

The 2015 legislative session recessed the first week in April and is nearly concluded, having moved Kansas further along the Governor’s Christian conservative roadmap with the support of limited-government ideologues.

The Kansas Legislature reconvenes next week, on Wednesday the 29th, to hammer out the budget. According to new revenue projections released this past Monday, the State will be short $800 million. That's right, almost a billon dollars short, and $200 million more than they projected it would be earlier this year.

This week is National Volunteer Week and we would like to take this opportunity to thank the many people who volunteer for MainStream throughout the year. Their commitment and support are greatly appreciated.

It is likely that the local elections this past Tuesday were the last Spring elections to be held in Kansas. Next time we have municipal and school elections, they may be on the Fall ballot, their issues mixed in with partisan elections for State or National offices. We have fought this proposed change, and will continue to do so.