Douglas County commissioners remain willing to help push for increasing sales taxes to bolster budgets for public schools.

And if the Lawrence, Baldwin and Eudora school districts want the county’s help, they’d better speak up soon.

“We need a fish-or-cut-bait decision by the end of the month,” Commissioner Charles Jones said.

Commissioners agreed Wednesday to seek the opinions of officials from all three districts before deciding whether to move ahead with proposed legislation that could put a new sales tax in motion.

The legislation, which would be forwarded to the Kansas Legislature, would be designed to allow the county to call a special election to determine whether the county should levy a 1/2-cent sales tax to help finance public schools.

The tax would be expected to generate $5.8 million a year and would be split among districts that have students living in the county.

A month ago, commissioners had agreed with members of the Lawrence City Commission and the Lawrence school board that a countywide tax should be pursued.

But within a couple weeks, board members decided that asking the City Commission to seek an election for a city sales tax — which would generate money only for use in the Lawrence district — would be the best option. Getting the city’s permission for a vote would not require permission from the Legislature, which has faced criticism from school officials about its inability to adequately increase financing for schools.

Such political expediency didn’t do much to ease the frustrations of county commissioners, who still haven’t received formal notice that the board isn’t interested in their help.

“It kind of irritates me a little bit that the Lawrence school district is getting cold feet, playing chicken and running and hiding somewhere else,” Commissioner Jere McElhaney said. “It upsets me a little bit that they’re running scared and backing out of their agreement.”

Jones and Bob Johnson, commission chairman, said they would prefer to pursue a countywide sales tax because the money would benefit all children attending public schools in the county, rather than being limited only to Lawrence.

“We should treat all of our students in the county equally,” Johnson said.