Kansas state government bond debt surges $2 billion since 2010

Tax-supported borrowing by Kansas government expanded nearly 50 percent in the past two years and contributed to an increase since 2010 of more than $90 million in annual debt payments from the state general fund, a Kansas official said Wednesday.

An analysis by the Kansas Development Finance Authority showed credit-rating agencies consistently pointed to Kansas’ greater reliance on borrowing as a fundamental weakness. That conclusion is based on depletion of the treasury, a structurally imbalanced budget and the unfunded liability in the pension system, said Jim MacMurray, senior vice president for finance at KDFA.

The net tax-supported debt per capita in Kansas as of last year was $1,534. Moody’s Investor Services offered comparable numbers for Kansas’ neighboring states with Missouri at $574, Colorado at $424, Oklahoma at $397 and Nebraska at $8.

“That is much higher than our surrounding states,” MacMurray said. “The state should probably not be considered a low-debt state any more.”

Read more: http://cjonline.com/news/local/2017-01-12/kansas-state-government-bond-debt-surges-2-billion-2010#