Boosting Douglas County’s sales tax to bolster funding for cash-strapped school districts is an incomplete and inadequate solution, members of a panel said Wednesday.

The five-member panel organized by the League of Women Voters of Douglas County was unanimous in opposing a proposed half-cent increase in the county’s sales tax. If adopted, it would bring in an estimated $5.8 million annually for schools serving Douglas County children.

“A local sales tax is not the solution,” said Cathy Cook, founder of Kansas Families United for Public Education. “Public education is a state responsibility.”

About 50 people attended the league’s 90-minute forum at Lawrence High School.

Cook said the sales tax adopted in Johnson County, which is expected to generate $45 million for school districts there, hadn’t been a solution to budget problems. The extra revenue didn’t prevent staffing cutbacks that raised class sizes and reduced access to gym, art, music and library educators in the school her fourth-grade child attends, she said.

Panelist Adela Solis, a teacher at Cordley School in Lawrence, said local sales taxes for education fostered division between have and have-not districts in Kansas.

“It’s become: ‘Let’s take care of mine. The heck with everybody else,'” she said. “We need to be in something together, not standing by ourselves.”

State Rep. Paul Davis, a Lawrence Democrat who was part of the panel, said statewide tax increases that could improve spending on public education in Kansas had a “very strong chance of passing” if Gov. Kathleen Sebelius put her political muscle behind a plan.

Sebelius will outline her budget for the 2004 session Monday night in the State of the State speech.

6News video: League of Women Voters discuss school funding

“With the governor behind a tax increase, it makes all the difference in the world,” Davis said.

Davis said there were enough votes in the House to pass a tax increase. He’s less certain about the Senate, where President Dave Kerr, R-Hutchinson, appears willing to stand in opposition to legislation that might help Sebelius win re-election.

“He seems intent on being a thorn in the governor’s side,” Davis said.

Another panelist, Schoolfunders founder Richard Heckler, of Lawrence, said intense pressure should be applied on politicians in Topeka to embrace a change in public school funding.

“Ultimately, they are the final authority,” he said. “We need to give this governor and these legislators a chance to fund our education system.”

Panelist Steve Lopes, a Lawrence resident and staff member of Kansas-National Education Assn. for 22 years, said a ruling by Shawnee County District Judge Terry Bullock that the state’s school finance system was unconstitutional could help spur a statewide solution.

“We’ve got a perfect storm here with a governor, a judge and an irate public, I hope,” he said.

A countywide sales tax election first must be authorized by the 2004 Legislature. If that occurs, county voters also would have to approve the measure.

The current proposal would divide sales tax revenue based on enrollment of Douglas County residents. The Lawrence, Baldwin, Eudora, Perry-Lecompton, Wellsville, Santa Fe Trail, West Franklin and Shawnee Heights districts serve students living in the county.