Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Kansas Board Of Regents topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Regents office testimony prompts committee questions on recurring funding and budget process
Summary
A Board of Regents representative clarified the regents' FY2026 request and explained differences in the legislative budgeting process, prompting lawmakers to ask the regents to reconcile which current-year appropriations were intended as recurring funding and to explain decisions about moving some requests to the Department of Commerce.
Elaine Frisbie, vice president for finance and administration for the Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR), appeared before the House Committee on Higher Education Budget to explain the regents' written testimony and to answer questions from lawmakers about recurring versus one-time funding.
Frisbie told the committee that the Board of Regents coordinated a budget submission that covers many lines: state financial aid, pass-throughs to coordinated institutions, and operational funding. She said Blake Flanders, KBOR president and CEO, would present to the committee on a later date and that the written testimony before members summarized the board's FY2026 request and the supplemental items the board recommends.
Lawmakers pressed KBOR staff on several points: how the regents determined that some current-year appropriations were one-time rather than recurring; why the board did not include a $14.3 million business-and-industry apprenticeship request in its FY2026 ask and instead suggested the Department of Commerce might house that request; and whether KBOR supported the legislature's forward-funding approach for financial-aid programs. Frisbie said the regents' budget was developed on the Board's timetable and that the board elected to recommend moving certain apprenticeship/business-and-industry funding to Commerce; she said the board would provide the committee with the requested details on what had been included in the board's October submission and what appears in the House budget draft.
Representative members asked for clearer statutory transparency in the budget bill so institutions can plan; Frisbie said KBOR and its staff are coordinating with institutions and would provide detail about recurring items and the board's rationale for reductions.
Why it matters: KBOR is the coordination point for state higher-education funding. Committee members said discrepancies between the board's submission and the House budget complicate colleges' planning and requested reconciled documentation.
No formal committee votes were taken. Committee staff and KBOR were asked to supply reconciled lists of recurring and one-time appropriations and to produce figures requested earlier by colleges about their funding shortfalls.
