Topeka -- If you want to buy the world a Coke, you might have to bring some extra change.
A Senate committee Wednesday recommended a $110.5 million tax increase that would go toward public schools.
The proposal includes increases in state sales, alcohol and cigarette taxes, which have been discussed at the Statehouse for weeks.
But it also includes something apparently never before considered in Kansas: A tax on carbonated beverages.
Under the proposal adopted by the Senate Education Committee, the state would tax carbonated beverages -- Coke, Pepsi and other soda pops -- at 20 cents per gallon, or about 2 cents per 12-ounce can. Legislative researchers said about six states have a similar tax.
Committee Chairman Dwayne Umbarger, a Thayer Republican, said the package of tax increases represented "thinking outside the box."
"We're not hitting anybody too heavy in the pocket," he said.
Umbarger said the full Senate will consider the measure Wednesday. He predicted it will pass.
House leaders unmoved
The plan is bound to lose fizz when poured in the House, which has signaled opposition to most any tax increase.
"I still feel that the House is going to be extremely reluctant to raise taxes at this time," House Speaker Kent Glasscock, R-Manhattan, said.
The division over taxes and public school funding was sharp Wednesday. As the Senate committee molded its spending plan, some House leaders grumbled that public schools held hundreds of millions of dollars in reserves while poor-mouthing their budgets to legislators.
A report by the Kansas Department of Education showed that the state's 304 school districts held reserves of about $386 million. But school officials said most of that money was part of their capital outlay budgets and could not, by law, be used to pay for general operating expenses.
Makings of a plan
Meanwhile, the Senate Education Committee put together most of Gov. Bill Graves' education proposal and some of the House's plan to bolster academics in early grades and then substituted its own tax plan.
Under the proposal, base funding per student would be increased $110, from $3,820 to $3,930. The committee also added a second-year increase of $130 per student. The measure earmarks extra funds for special education, at-risk children and full-day kindergarten, though it would leave the decision whether to have full-day kindergarten up to local districts.
Under the committee's plan, the state sales tax of 4.9 cents per dollar would be increased to 5 cents on June 1 and 5.1 cents on June 1, 2002.
Taxes on beer, wine and alcohol would be increased. Officials said the beer increases would raise the price of a six-pack of beer bought in a grocery store by about 4 cents. Cigarette taxes would be increased 10 cents a pack.
Sen. Jean Schodorf, R-Wichita, said the mix of tax increases was innovative. Part of Graves' proposal would have increased motor fuels taxes, but Schodorf said that was just too unpopular.
But Sen. Lynn Jenkins, R-Topeka, said she opposed tax increases because of the slowdown in the economy and the fact that the House has shown no desire for a tax increase.
"Every House member says a sales tax increase is dead on arrival," she said.
Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka voted for it, saying he would try to change parts of it before the full Senate.
"This is an evolving process. No one needs to draw a line in the sand," he said.
-- Staff writer Scott Rothschild can be reached at (785) 354-4222.
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