Lawrence city commissioners appeared ready Tuesday to pay the $1.4 million price tag of sports programs in the school district.

No formal vote was taken, but a majority of commissioners — Mayor David Dunfield, along with Commissioners Sue Hack and Boog Highberger — said they supported helping the district with its budget woes.

“We are looking at problems with the city budget, but the school district is in a state of crisis,” Mayor David Dunfield said.

“If we lose a generation of schoolchildren, we’ve lost them,” he said. “We’re not going to let that happen; we can’t afford to let that happen.”

Commissioner Mike Rundle was skeptical of the proposal. Commissioner David Schauner said he was torn over the issue, noting that commissioners also were being asked to increase funding in traditionally city-funded programs.

“The demands on the city budget are Solomonesque,” Schauner said. “I don’t know which constituency doesn’t get what it wants.”

The $1.4 million cost would translate to a bit more than 2 mills of property tax — or roughly $34.50 a year in additional taxes for the owner of a home valued at $150,000. A mill is $1 of tax for every $1,000 in assessed valuation.

Commissioners heard about an hour of public testimony Tuesday night, much of it opposed to city funding of school programs. Some speakers didn’t want their taxes to go up; most said athletics was the wrong priority for city funding.

“Sports, while exciting, is not educational,” said Lawrence resident William Dann. “There are many educational activities in town where that money could be spent.”

Commissioners said state law didn’t allow the city to directly fund school district educational activities. Paying for athletics, they said, would allow the district to shift its sports budget to classroom programs.

The proposal received support from the Lawrence Association of Neighborhoods, Douglas County Commissioner Charles Jones and State Rep. Paul Davis, D-Lawrence.

“Nobody wants to spend more on taxes,” Jones said. “But there are things we value, and as a mature place, we understand we’ll have to pay for the things we value.

“I think it’s reasonable to assume a majority, a strong majority, are in favor of paying for stronger schools.”

Highberger said allowing the schools to falter ultimately would hurt the city’s economic development efforts.

“If a company asks about our schools, are we going to tell them we don’t have athletics? That we don’t have art?” Highberger said. “How are we going to attract companies to add to the tax base that will help us fund city services?”

¢ City to weigh funding school athletics (5-31-03)¢ County officials divided on helping with school nurse program (5-20-03)¢ City, county weigh help for schools (4-21-03)

He asked city staffers to research the cost of funding school district libraries as an alternative to sports funding.

Randy Weseman, superintendent of Lawrence schools, watched the commission’s discussion on television and said he was intrigued by the amount of interest the proposal generated on the commission. He said he looked forward to further talks between the commission and the school board.

“We’re interested in serious discussions; obviously they’re interested in serious discussions,” he said.

The commission meets at 9 a.m. today in City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets, to continue its talks on the 2004 budget. Commissioners are scheduled to adopt next year’s budget in August.