Topeka ? Kansas legislators were able to see budget choices a little clearer Tuesday after officials revised state revenue projections.

Lawmakers welcomed an increase of $39.8 million after five straight years of cutbacks in April revenue estimates. Despite the revision, it wasn’t enough to provide an increase for school funding, which has become the major political impasse of the year.

The Legislature reconvenes next week to put the finishing touches on the budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1, and to consider, after numerous failed attempts, increases in school funding.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, said the tight budget would preclude schools from getting more state funds.

“Schools ought to be happy if we can replicate last year’s budget,” he said.

But state Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, and a member of the appropriations panel, said a tax increase was needed for two reasons: to address a court order on school finance and to prevent schools from having to make cuts in programs.

“Schools are woefully underfunded,” Ballard said, noting that school districts across the state are cutting back on programs at a time when federal law requires improved standards.

In brief remarks to reporters, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius indicated she believed that when lawmakers returned next week, a school-funding increase in the $80 million to $90 million range would be “a reasonable place” to start debate.

Shawnee County District Judge Terry Bullock declared the $2.6 billion Kansas school-finance system unconstitutional and gave lawmakers until July 1 to fix it. Bullock said the system underfunded all students, especially minorities.

“We still have to deal with Judge Bullock’s ruling. If we don’t do something it shows that we are not making any effort in the direction that he says we need to go,” Ballard said.

The new revenue figures showed the economy making slow, steady improvement, officials said, though they noted that the recovery was precarious, and the state has lost 27,000 manufacturing jobs since 1999.

“The bottom line is there is some good news, however slight,” said Alan Conroy, director of the Kansas Legislative Research Department.

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The $39.8 million increase in revenue projections covers a two-year period out of $9 billion in revenue.

Income taxes — corporate and individual — were above the last round of projections in November, but sales-tax revenue, especially on cigarette sales, was down.

Officials attributed the decline in cigarette sales taxes to purchases on the Internet, from American Indian stores and smuggling.

Neufeld attributed a drop in projections of retail sales taxes on the state’s new collection system that sends sales taxes on delivered goods to the goods’ destination point.

The state also faces the possibility of losing tens of millions of dollars through changes in federal rules governing Medicaid and legislation in Congress that would expand a pre-emption of state sales tax on certain telecommunications services, officials said.

Neufeld said lawmakers must hold the line on spending during the wrap-up session.

“There isn’t any pots of money left out there,” he said.