Board of Regents outlines FY2026 budget request, flags salary shortfalls, cybersecurity and campus restoration funding

Brianna Horton, a budget analyst with the Kansas Legislative Research Department, briefed the Committee on Higher Education Budget on the Kansas Board of Regents’ (KBOR) FY2026 revised estimate and systemwide requests.

Horton said KBOR’s FY2025-to-FY2026 reappropriations and line items include $19,500,000 in State General Fund (SGF) reappropriated balances from FY2024, with large items such as $8,600,000 for the Kansas Promise Act and $1,100,000 for state scholarship programs. She also outlined that the Legislative Budget Committee (LBC) deleted roughly $3,900,000 in SGF reappropriations and that the LBC “did a sweeping motion to delete all supplementals and enhancements,” removing multiple FY2026 enhancement requests in HB 2007.

President Blake Flanders of the Kansas Board of Regents told the committee the board’s top budget priorities are addressing state employee plan shortfalls for system employees, a cybersecurity initiative for campuses, and full funding of the two‑year college cost model. Flanders said state employee pay adjustments historically paralleled other state employees but that in FY2024 and FY2025 university employees received smaller increases, leaving an estimated $27,000,000 shortfall to equalize past salary adjustments. He added a separate market‑adjustment cost estimate of about $80,000,000 to bring positions to market levels, which the board did not include as part of its FY2026 ask.

On cybersecurity, Flanders said the board requests $20,000,000—split evenly between two‑year colleges and universities—to hire analysts and improve defenses against frequent cyberattacks that have disrupted higher education nationally. He also described a FY2026 request of roughly $7,000,000 to fully fund existing two‑year college formulas, including a $3,900,000 component for high‑school career and technical course reimbursements.

Horton reviewed a range of other KBOR items: a $32,700,000 request from the newly created Kansas Campus Restoration Fund established by SB 552 (the Kansas Campus Restoration Act); reductions and transfers related to the Educational Building Fund (EBF) and state capital renewal; and distribution of NIST playbook and need‑based aid appropriations to universities. She said some funds previously appropriated to KBOR appear as increases in individual university budgets because the board transferred allocations directly to campuses.

Committee members asked how tuition and enrollment could be affected by budget reductions. Flanders said the board will aim to keep tuition as low as possible, but prolonged reductions (the committee requested modeling of a hypothetical 7.5% SGF reduction) could force consideration of both revenue and expense responses. He noted that student success initiatives and need‑based aid have improved on‑time graduation rates and reduced debt for some graduates.

On the Blueprint for Literacy, Flanders said the Legislature appropriated $10,000,000 and that the board requested staff FTE tied to the program; he described the initiative as an early step with ongoing reporting and a task force overseeing metrics.

There were no formal votes or recorded motions on the record for the committee during this presentation. Several technical clarifications were raised, including a question about obsolete language in HB 2007 regarding a financial aid services fee; Elaine Frisbie, KBOR vice president for finance and administration, said the fee language is a carryover and that the agency “does not have any plans to institute a fee” but would research whether any nominal balances tied to that language remain.

The presentations combined systemwide totals, details on reappropriations and transfers, and a list of deleted supplementals that the LBC removed from HB 2007; committee members asked for follow‑up on specific line items and the board’s priorities going forward.