Candidate Don Johnson says he’s pretty sure he’s figured how to give Kansas schools all the money they need without a tax increase.

“We can borrow from the transportation budget and pay it all back at the end of the year,” said Johnson, who’s challenging incumbent Mark Buhler in the Aug. 3 Republican primary for the Kansas 2nd District Senate nomination.

“I’ve looked at the budget,” Johnson said, “and there should be enough overage in the budget — that’s money from natural growth in the economy — to take care of schools. We can just take from transportation and pay it back when it comes in.”

Buhler said Johnson was either dreaming or ill-informed.

“You can do that, but at some point you’re going to have to look the state transportation plan straight in the eye. Then what?” Buhler said. “As much as people wish it were true that there are piles of money sitting in the corners of a room somewhere, it’s simply not the case.”

And to dedicate all or most of the coming year’s growth to public schools, he said, “assumes they’re the only thing we have to worry about. That denies the reality of the social-service needs we’re facing as well as the needs of the universities.”

Buhler, a moderate, said he was willing to raise taxes for schools. Johnson is not.

“We do not need to raise taxes,” said Johnson, who called himself “more a conservative than a moderate” and whose yard signs include the pledge “No Tax Increase.”

Other differences:

• Same-sex marriage.

Buhler dismissed concerns that same-sex marriages threaten traditional family values.

“The values I bring to being a parent and raising a family are my own,” he said. “My neighbor’s values are not going to change my values.”

Also, Buhler warned that heeding calls to change the state constitution would invite lawsuits, setting the stage for letting judges interpret the change.

“If you’re opposed to same-sex marriage, I would think you wouldn’t want to do that,” he said.

Johnson disagreed, arguing that state laws defining marriage as “between a man and a woman” are vague and warrant clarification. He favors amending the constitution in a way that would define marriage as being between “members of the opposite sex.”

Though he favors the amendment, Johnson said he had “nothing against gays and lesbians.”

• Lottery.

Johnson said he’d vote to spend Kansas Lottery revenues on education rather than economic development.

“I would stop at nothing to get more for schools,” he said.

Currently, most of the lottery proceeds are used to underwrite the state’s economic development efforts. The lottery last year generated about $41 million for economic development projects, including programs at the state universities and vocational schools.

Buhler said he’s “not a fan” of earmarking how lottery income and other state-imposed fees are to be spent.

“I’d rather they all go into the state general fund,” he said.

Still, he said, raiding the lottery would gut the state’s economic development efforts.

“Now, how smart is that?” he said. “I won’t do that.”

• Speed limit.

Buhler voted against bills that would have raised the speed limit on Kansas highways to 75 mph. He called the proposal unnecessary and unsafe.

The bill did not pass.

Johnson said if he’d been in the Legislature, he would have voted for the increase.

“I think more people would drive through the state if the roads out west were 75 mph,” he said. “It would promote tourism.”

Buhler and Johnson each described themselves as pro-choice and opposed to legalizing the carrying of concealed weapons.

The 2nd District includes areas of Lawrence south of Sixth Street, plus most of western Douglas County north of North 900 Road.

After the Aug. 3 primary, Buhler or Johnson will face Democrat Marci Francisco and Reform party candidate Jim Mullins in the Nov. 2 general election.

Francisco, Lawrence mayor from 1981 to 1983, and Mullins are unopposed in their respective primaries.

Mullins is a former president of the Kansas Republican Assembly and a former two-term chairman of the Douglas County Republican Party.