The pressure is on the Kansas Legislature again this year to improve education funding, but this time a state judge is watching what legislators do.

That means a possible tax increase, legislators said during a breakfast forum Saturday morning.

“We’re probably going to have to address some form of tax relief,” to improve funding, Sen. Mark Buhler, R-Lawrence, told local business and public officials. “This is the difficulty we’re faced with.”

Buhler was one of several legislators who spoke during the Capitol Connections breakfast and forum at the Hereford House, 4931 W. Sixth St. The event was sponsored by The World Company, which publishes the Journal-World, and SBC.

A tax increase plan will need bipartisan support, and that has Rep. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin, concerned.

“I think it’s reverted to a game of politics as usual,” Holland said of the school-funding issue.

Last year Shawnee County District Judge Terry Bullock ruled the state’s school-finance method was unconstitutional because it underfunded the cost of educating all students. He told legislators to come up with a fix by July 1. The Supreme Court may or may not weigh in on the issue by that deadline.

“There’s a strong risk of the court taking over school funding if the Legislature doesn’t act this session,” said Rep. Paul Davis, D-Lawrence. “I don’t want to see us shut the issue off for a future session.”

Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence, said he favored increasing education funding from kindergarten through college.

Sen. Bob Lyon, a Winchester Republican whose district reaches into Douglas County, said he would propose a bill for alternative teacher certification methods next week. Instead of requiring midcareer professionals to spend two or more years getting certified at a university, the bill would allow each district to hire teachers with bachelor’s degrees in fields unrelated to education.

Legislators can’t spend all their time on education, either, they noted. Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, expressed concern about eliminating or cutting back on services for people with mental illness, especially children.

“If we are going to do that we have to make sure the services are available in our communities,” Ballard said.

Ballard also is pushing for a bill that would make low-income people who are raising their grandchildren eligible for state financial support. Grandparents in such situations would be eligible for 70 percent of what licensed foster parents receive, she said.

Holland is pushing for several bills he thinks will help small-business owners. One of them removes the corporate franchise tax for more than 20,000 small businesses and prevents “big box” stores from selling gasoline at less than cost, undercutting convenience stores.

Holland is planning a news conference for 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in the Statehouse, to discuss a bill that will strengthen penalties against businesses that hire illegal immigrants.

Lawrence legislators said they agreed with Gov. Kathleen Sebelius when she said a state constitutional amendment specifying that marriage must be between a man and a woman is unnecessary. The state statute already does that and is adequate, they said. Lyon, however, supports the amendment.

“I think it would be very prudent for us to do this in advance if the courts should happen to challenge our state law,” he said.