Larry Campbell said Tuesday morning that he has retired as the state budget director.
Campbell said his retirement had been planned for some time and that his decision to leave Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration is his own. His last day was Monday.
“This is all good, it’s my choice,” he said. “I’ve got some things going on in my life and I need to take care of them.”
He’s leaving at a time when the state’s fiscal health has been improving during the pandemic.
“They’re going to be in great shape. I feel good about where we are through all this. They’re going to be OK,” Campbell said. “The state will be OK.”
A new consensus revenue forecast released last month showed the state running a $363 million surplus in the current fiscal year ending next June and a $152 million deficit for the following fiscal year.
It’s significantly better than the estimated $700 million deficit projected for the current fiscal year and the roughly $1.4 billion estimated for the following year.
Campbell, 65, said he wants to spend more time with his 95-year-old father in Arizona. He also wanted to be guarded about his health after losing a kidney last year.
Campbell said his doctors have warned him about his health during the COVID-19 pandemic after losing a kidney.
“The COVID thing really concerns me,” Campbell said. “They’ve really put the fear in me that you’ve got to be careful. With session coming back and my age, it’s time.”
Campbell said he leaves state government with warm feelings about the governor.
“I highly, highly respect the governor. I really believe in her,” he said. “I hope they do great. I know they will.”
Campbell is a longtime Republican who has served in city and state government. He was named budget director in 2018 by then-Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer, and Democrat Kelly decided to keep the former Olathe Mayor in that position when she assumed office.
Campbell represented Olathe in the Kansas House from 1997 to 2005 and then again from 2012 to 2018.
Campbell served on the Olathe City Council from 1991 to 1995 and as the city’s mayor from 1995 to 2001. He returned to the City Council in 2007 and has stayed in that post.
He plans to keep that position although he doesn’t plan to seek re-election in three years.
The governor’s office announced that Campbell will be replaced by former state Medicaid Director Adam Proffitt, who left the state health department earlier this year to become operations finance manager for Amazon in the Kansas City area.
Proffitt had been at KDHE since December 2017 when he went to work as director of finance and informatics for KDHE’s Division of Health Care Finance.
He became state Medicaid director in 2019 and had been one of the key players in the state’s debate over Medicaid expansion.
Proffitt has a long history of working in finance in the private sector, most recently as manager of financial planning and distribution for Payless ShoeSource.
He had been at Payless more than 10 years. He also worked as a financial analyst for Capital Federal Savings Bank.
He has a bachelor’s degree in economics and business management from Washburn University.
