Blake Benson, chairman of the Kansas higher education board, praised the cooperative effort during the past three months to shrink the size of a preliminary version of the budget drafted in June. Residual funding from an initial $10 million state appropriation for the program kept it from going dark. This is foundational.”The Board of Regents requested $15 million be invested in $5 million increments on energy research at the University of Kansas, Kansas State University and Wichita State University. The proposed budget included $4 million each for the three smaller state institutions — Pittsburg State University, Fort Hays State University and Emporia State University. The Republican-controlled House and Senate would review and modify budgets for higher education, and the Legislature’s bill would be subject to line-item vetoes by the Democratic governor.