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Committee reviews Wichita State University budget summary; staff cite reappropriations and revised estimates
Summary
Legislative fiscal staff told the Committee on Higher Education Budget that Wichita State University had roughly $9.8 million in FY2026 reappropriations and significant revised research-award estimates; members asked about the governor's recommendations, one-time aviation funding and how enrollment maps to expenditures.
Members of the Committee on Higher Education Budget on the committee's first hearing reviewed Wichita State University's budget summary and asked staff to clarify reappropriations, revised estimates and how enrollment figures relate to spending.
Dayton Lemunyan, principal fiscal analyst for legislative research, told the committee that "for fiscal year 2026, the agency had $9,800,000 in reappropriations," citing line items such as $600,000 for cybersecurity and IT and $2 million for aviation research. He said the revised estimate included a roughly $53 million increase primarily in federal funds tied to unexpected research awards and noted other adjustments that, overall, "net out to 0 statewide." Lemunyan also flagged a technical $5.3 million decrease in the scholarship fund that he said would be corrected in actuals.
Representative Haskins asked whether the governor's recommendations and the Special Budget Committee (SBC) shorthand were reflected; Lemunyan said the governor's recommendations were being compiled and that the SBC shorthand document provided to members shows deletions to some reappropriations for Wichita State. Representative Wagner pressed staff to explain a one-time $5 million aviation research allocation in FY2026 that reverts to $10 million recurring in FY2027; Lemunyan said the $5 million was a one-time addition in the prior year and that some building debt service may be handled outside the university's state budget (for example, by an affiliated organization), a point he said would require agency follow-up.
On the relationship between enrollment and expenditures, members sought clarity on the charts. Lemunyan said the handout's enrollment column reports full-time-equivalent (FTE) students as reported to the Board of Regents and that the budget charts primarily display expenditures, not revenue, so members should be careful when calculating a per-student cost. He said "all other funds" on the chart includes tuition, restricted fee funds and federal funds.
The analyst concluded by offering additional materials and said updated governor and SBC recommendations would be available to the committee in follow-up materials.
