Appropriations committee approves higher‑education budgets, adds research and project funding

The Committee on Appropriations approved revised fiscal‑year 2026 and 2027 budgets for the state’s major public higher‑education institutions and added discrete funding for several research and infrastructure projects.

Chairman Turk led the presentations and said the University of Kansas asked for a revised FY2026 estimate of $1.2 billion — including $199.9 million in state general funds (SGF) — and flagged that many higher‑education FTEs are research‑focused and temporary. He said the increase reflected a $49 million football stadium renovation and transfers from the educational building fund and campus restoration act.

The committee voted to move the University of Kansas budget for FY2026–27 after brief questions about deleted reappropriations and FTE accounting. "Their endowment funds exceed the state's rainy day fund," Turk said in explaining why the committee concluded the university could absorb a roughly 2.5% operational reduction.

The committee also approved the University of Kansas Medical Center budgets. Turk said KU Med’s FY2026 revised estimate was $794.3 million, driven in part by additional resident positions, federal cancer‑center grants and KBOR transfers. The House committee added $5 million SGF in FY2027 for an Alzheimer’s research and education effort intended to deploy blood‑based testing and physician education statewide; Turk and members said the state funds will draw federal matching funds. "This research will bring Alzheimer's care to our populations right to our doctors living in our neighborhoods," Turk said.

Kansas State University’s FY2026–27 budgets were approved with committee additions: $5 million SGF for a nuclear research accelerator to support lab‑based courses and energy research, and committee language encouraging continued work on a Dairy Innovation and Education Center. Chair Mosier outlined a proposed three‑party financing model — $5 million per year from the legislature, $5 million per year from the university and $5 million per year from industry/stakeholders over three years — intended to reach an inflation‑adjusted facility target (discussed at an estimated $45 million).

For K‑State’s veterinary medical center, members pressed for a report on in‑state versus out‑of‑state applicants after several constituents said in‑state applicants were denied admission in favor of out‑of‑state students paying higher tuition. The committee approved moving an $11 million debt‑service placeholder for an animal diagnostic lab to the Department of Administration and approved the vet med budgets as amended. Committee members also discussed existing scholarship and loan‑repayment programs aimed at incentivizing large‑animal veterinarians to practice in rural Kansas and asked staff for more detailed scholarship breakdowns by in‑state/out‑of‑state and rural focus.

The committee approved Kansas State University Extension Systems and Agricultural Research budgets for FY2026–27, with the House committee deleting a $21.5 million SGF line from Cooperative Extension Services pending certification of a reorganization plan and limiting certain remaining funds to 4‑H obligations in 2027.

Votes at a glance: the committee passed motions to approve the FY2026 and FY2027 budgets (voice votes) for the University of Kansas, KU Medical Center, Kansas State University (including veterinary and extension budgets), and approved the movement of the $11 million animal diagnostic lab debt‑service funding to Department of Administration.

The committee concluded with a brief bill introduction and scheduling announcements and adjourned until Monday at 9 a.m.