Topeka ? With her goals shaped by the campaign she had run, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius went into her first legislative session seeking to avoid tax increases and further cuts in education spending.

When legislators adjourned Wednesday morning, Sebelius had accomplished both while also providing additional money for social services and planning for cash reserves to cushion against future revenue shortages.

If Kansans don’t dig too deeply into the details of how she and legislators managed to do all that, she’ll look like a political winner. Even if the budget-balancing plan approved in the 2003 session’s final hours comes under heavy scrutiny, Kansans still may give the new Democratic governor high marks.

“The governor’s substantially gotten her budget and fulfilled her campaign promises,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls. “She came out pretty good — no tax increase, and she didn’t cut education.”

At first glance, the session seemed to produce extraordinary results, given what all parties agreed was an awful budget situation.

Sebelius and legislators erased a projected $254 million deficit in the $10.2 billion budget for the 2004 fiscal year, which begins July 1. The plan she and lawmakers forged would leave a balance of $152 million at the end of fiscal 2004.

Finally, legislators finished their work in 85 calendar days, making the first legislative session of the Sebelius administration the shortest since 1974, when the Kansas Constitution still specified 60-day sessions in even-numbered years.

“I think she’s shown she has the ability to work with a Republican-dominated Legislature and is willing to find compromise where compromise is needed,” said Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka.

Accounting maneuvers

A close look at the budget-balancing plan Sebelius helped move through the Legislature does raise questions about her as a policy-setter.

The plan’s main components are accounting gimmicks.

The first postpones a $213 million aid payment for school districts from June 15 to July 1, the first day of the new fiscal year. That allows the state to show it ended the current fiscal year with a positive cash balance, then carry that balance over to the new fiscal year.

Anyone who’s lived only two steps ahead of the water department or gas company will understand the result. Perpetually, school districts will be paying old bills with the next check.

The second gimmick is a so-called accelerator, which would force Kansans to pay half of their property taxes in May instead of June each year.

That would help balance the budget by artificially inflating the revenues that local governments receive in fiscal 2004.

To determine how much aid it owes school districts, the state takes their budgets, then subtracts the amount of local property tax revenues available to them, and pays the difference. With the accelerator, the aid obligation temporarily drops — in fiscal 2004 only — by $163 million.

Legislative gamble

In addition, the expectation that the state will be able to build its budget reserves ignores the gamble legislators took Wednesday morning in killing a bill allowing the state to continue taxing corporate dividends even if Congress exempts them from federal income taxes. That tax is worth $51 million a year to the state.

And, of course, neither the accelerator nor the entire plan solves state government’s basic financial problem: Costs for current programs are outstripping tax collections in a slow economy. Many legislators acknowledge they are likely to be discussing the same kind of proposals when they deal with the fiscal 2005 budget.

Sebelius buys time

Politically, none of the plan’s flaws seem to matter.

The reason is simple. Sebelius had promised not to cut education spending, and came close to promising not to increase taxes.

When people outside her circle of supporters said she could not do both at the same time, she found a way — albeit one that horrifies anyone with fidelity to accounting principles.

Sebelius also has another year to go hunting for efficiencies in government, something she told voters would make a significant difference in budgeting.

“By and large, she has enough resources to operate government for another year,” said Sen. Stan Clark, R-Oakley. “She has a year to do whatever program of reorganization she wants. We’re treading water.”

And this year, maintaining the status quo in the face of severe financial problems made Sebelius look good coming out of the session.