Insurance Commissioner Kathleen Sebelius is aggressively ducking questions about whether she would support tax increases to shore up the state budget and prevent cuts in education and social services.

When legislators were in session, she deferred to them and Gov. Bill Graves. Now that they’re out of session, she’s still not willing to say whether $252 million in higher taxes represents good public policy.

During a Saturday question-and-answer session with editors and reporters from Associated Press member newspapers, she said she wasn’t going to second-guess the Legislature or Republican Gov. Bill Graves. Sebelius took questions separately from the four GOP candidates, who had an earlier forum.

Reporters and editors gave her another half-dozen chances over the course of 45 minutes to answer similar questions. She dodged them all.

Asked what she would do were she governor now, facing the state’s ongoing financial problems, she replied, “I’m not governor now. This governor has to make those strategic decisions.”

Instead, Sebelius has promised to initiate a top-to-bottom review of government operations if elected as a way to make agencies more efficient. She even told reporters and editors that she has teams already working on such a review.

“I think Kansans are looking forward to a new way of doing business in this state,” she said.

But Kansas voters may want to know more about how Sebelius would handle the state’s ongoing financial crisis.

If Republican candidates have been vague in places about how they’d deal with financial difficulties or where they would cut spending, their forum Saturday at least gave listeners a solid idea of where they are philosophically.

Senate President Dave Kerr and Wichita Mayor Bob Knight both defended the decision to raise taxes this year and promised to protect education and social services. State Treasurer Tim Shallenburger promised not to increase taxes. Dan Bloom, former Eudora school superintendent, strongly opposes tax increases but won’t absolutely rule them out.

Meanwhile, Sebelius talked about her plans to review government operations.

Her refusal to discuss taxes is particularly notable because she said the state hasn’t put enough money into its public schools during the past decade. More than half of the state general fund budget is consumed by direct aid to those schools.

And other large parts of the budget the Department on Aging, for example are heavily weighted toward direct payments to people outside government, like doctors, hospitals and nursing homes.

That means it will be difficult for any top-to-bottom review of government to produce enough savings to solve the state’s financial problems, even if the idea is a laudable one. The next governor could face a budget hole of $400 million or more, if the latest revenue collection figures hold up.

To be sure, it’s early in the campaign, and Sebelius doesn’t face an opponent in the Aug. 6 primary. That means she has plenty of time to give voters plenty more details.

But consider her response when she was asked whether she would sign a pledge not to increase taxes.

She said, “We don’t need sound bites and gimmicks.”

That’s exactly what voters are getting from her right now.