Topeka — Gov. Bill Graves today will take a second stab at proposing a financing plan for Kansas public schools, and this one may include a tax increase.
On Jan. 8, the first day of the legislative session, Graves told lawmakers that school funding was his top priority.
Gov. Bill Graves, seated, is expected today to unveil his plan to increase money for the state's public schools. During a news conference earlier this month, Graves hinted at some of the methods he may propose to finance education programs but did not have any definite answers.
Hemmed in by limited revenue, Graves proposed a modest increase for education but invited lawmakers to try to do better, even to the point of sending him a tax increase to sign into law.
The Legislature turned down the offer.
Now two-thirds of the way into the legislative session, Graves hopes to get the discussion back on track by proposing a new funding plan.
Lawmakers said Monday that they had heard Graves would call for more new spending than he originally proposed, which was $68 million and would have increased base state aid by $50 per student.
The original proposal was short of the $215 million increase recommended by Graves' task force on education, and a request of more than $600 million from public school groups.
By increasing his original offer, lawmakers say they have heard, Graves will propose a combination of tax increases and revenue transfers to pay for the increase.
Some have said Graves will propose either an increase in the cigarette tax or a small increase in the state sales tax, or even apply sales taxes to the sale of lottery tickets. Other revenue-raising ideas include using highway funds for education and replacing those monies with bonds.
But details of the plan were being guarded.
"The governor wants to make sure that it all happens at once," said Don Brown, a spokesman for Graves.
Brown said he didn't even know what the governor had in mind.
Graves is scheduled to unveil his proposal today during a public meeting of the State Board of Education.
Sen. Derek Schmidt, R-Independence, said he spoke with Graves in his office Monday, and asked the governor about his plan, but Graves declined to answer.
Schmidt, who was on Graves' staff last year, said the governor was working on a laptop computer and had notepads strewn around.
Other lawmakers also said Graves had not told them what he intends to propose.
But the lobbying had already started.
Karl Peterjohn, executive director of the Kansas Taxpayers Network, asked Graves in an open letter to stand by the tax-cutting platform he ran on when he was re-elected in 1998.
"Hard-working Kansas taxpayers are already overburdened with excessive taxes," Peterjohn said.
He said Kansans are suffering from increased property appraisals and gasoline tax increases that went into effect to help pay for the state highway building program.
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