Committee restores $1.9 million for dam repairs and approves Wildlife and Parks budget as amended

The committee reviewing state budgets voted to reinstate $1.9 million in state general funds for one-time dam repairs in the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks' fiscal 2025 budget and then approved the department's budget as amended.

The reinstatement motion, made by Representative Long and seconded by Representative Carlin, passed on a voice vote. A later substitute motion to restore roughly $292,005 for EDIF operating expenditures and $398,359 for park operations was defeated; the committee then passed the Wildlife and Parks budget as amended.

The reinstated $1.9 million had been included in a 2024 appropriation and was identified by the agency as remaining reappropriated funds for dam repair work. "We at the agency ... we've got over $11,000,000 in dam repairs that we need to make on various dams, and this was given to the agency to help us ... begin to nip away at the dam repairs that we have," Christopher Kennedy, acting secretary for Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, told the committee. Kennedy said the agency originally received $2.4 million, has spent about $800,000 on divers and inspections, and intended the remaining $1.9 million for repairs.

Why it matters: agency officials told lawmakers the department manages thousands of dams on public wildlife areas and faces a multi-million-dollar backlog of repairs. Members questioned whether the $1.9 million was still available and why the Legislative Budget Committee (LBC) had recommended deletion; staff said the LBC initially recommended removing the reappropriation but the building committee recommended retaining it.

Committee staff gave members a line-by-line summary of differences between the agency request and the LBC recommendation. Luke Dury, senior fiscal associate for KLRD, told the committee that the LBC recommended deletion of the $1.9 million reappropriation and that, separately, the LBC had proposed deleting all FTE increases included in the agency request. Dury also described LBC reductions in two EDIF line items: a reduction of $292,004.84 from EDIF operating expenditures and $398,359 from park operating expenditures, with an offset of $109 added for National Guard and veterans licenses.

Debate and other questions centered on scope and timing of capital and operating funds. Members asked whether the dams cited by the Department of Agriculture were the same dams at issue for Wildlife and Parks; Kennedy said they were different: the agency's dam repairs are on public wildlife…