Topeka ? A new budget plan unveiled Tuesday cures the state’s projected $700 million treasury shortfall.

But it does so with deeper cuts to school spending than previously proposed while denying assistance to possibly thousands of elderly and disabled Kansans.

The plan, which calls for no new taxes, also would mean “draconian” cuts for universities and other post-secondary schools, some officials said.

Reaction from education officials and others already reeling from weeks of worsening budget news ranged from disbelief to anger.

Lawrence Supt. Randy Weseman said the proposal would leave Lawrence schools with no counselors, almost no nurses and no sophomore sports. Taking into account inflation, the plan would set back school funding to 1980 levels, he said.

Weseman, who already has shepherded a $5 million package of cuts and fee increases in anticipation of reduced funding from the state, said the new proposal would require another $1.7 million in cuts.

“The bottom line is if they don’t want to do a tax increase, we’ll just have to reduce services,” he said.

House debate set

Rep. Kenny Wilk, a Lansing Republican and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said he and other lawmakers devised the plan after the House last week rejected tax increases to help bridge the record $700 million revenue shortfall.

The committee endorsed the plan Tuesday, paving the way for debate by the full House next week.

“We want to take a budget to the floor that fits the money we have. We certainly are not claiming this is a great work product,” Wilk said. “We’re going to roll it out. I think there will be a lot of concern. We need to get a budget to the floor, listen to the debate, and see where the votes are at and move from there.”

The biggest cut would be in aid to public schools, where the proposal would reduce base state aid for schools by $303 per student, a cut of $170 million.

“This is tough stuff,” Wilk said.

State universities, which were promised three years ago that their budgets would rise in fiscal 2003, instead would lose about $50 million.

Janet Murguia, executive vice chancellor at Kansas University, said the proposal would help lawmakers see what kind of “draconian” cuts would be needed without a tax increase.

“This is an exercise the Legislature has to go through to get further along the process. It is scary to think that they would ever move forward on a document like that. It would have a devastating impact on KU and all of higher education,” Murguia said.

Elderly and disabled

The budget proposal would also affect hundreds, possibly thousands, of elderly and Kansans with disabilities who receive assistance that allows them to stay at home and not in nursing homes.

Under the bill, a level-of-care score that a person must meet to become eligible for services would be raised significantly.

“These are real short-term fixes and will end up costing us a lot more in the long run because people are just going to continue to stay on waiting lists and their illnesses and disabilities will just get worse,” said Gina McDonald, president and chief executive of the Kansas Association of Centers for Independent Living.

Bob Mikesic, advocacy coordinator for Independence Inc. in Lawrence, said about half of the 162 people who receive home-based services for the physically disabled would not qualify under the proposed eligibility requirement.

“People’s health and well-being would really be jeopardized,” Mikesic said.

He said the no-new-taxes budget shows taxes must be increased.

“I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect people with disabilities and senior citizens to balance the budget by withdrawing services,” he said.

Total package

Another $36 million would be saved by furloughing all state employees without pay for two days in the current fiscal year. In the next fiscal year, classified employees would be furloughed six days, and unclassified employees for 10 days.

Added up, the appropriations bill would reduce state spending by more than $500 million, plus it fails to provide $45 million to higher education, which was promised as part of reforms adopted in 1999. It also disallows $150 million in revenue transfers to help pay for highway construction. Together that bridges the $700 million gap.

The plan would set state spending for the next fiscal year at $4 billion  down 11.4 percent from spending in the fiscal year that ends June 30.

At the start of the legislative session in January, Gov. Bill Graves endorsed a 65-cent increase in the cigarette tax, which would raise $111 million per year, and a one-quarter cent increase in the state sales tax, which would raise $95 million annually, to help fund the budget.

But because revenue estimates have fallen since then, Graves is expected to propose another plan later this week.

Budget bills are HB 2743 and 3008.