GOP leaders huddle on school finance compromise

? Republican legislative leaders were trying to draft yet another school finance plan after the House refused to consider a $107 million bill that required higher taxes.

House Speaker Doug Mays, emerging from his office Monday night following more than an hour of talks, offered no details but said the new proposal would be “a true compromise.” The House has already approved tax-raising measures, but the Senate has rejected everything requiring a tax increase.

“I think we’re going to take one more shot,” said Mays, R-Topeka. If the new plan fails, he said, “I don’t know where we go.”

Negotiators were scheduled to resume deliberations Tuesday.

Senate and House negotiators had offered the $107 million package earlier Monday, only to see it die quickly. House Democrats and moderate Republicans, sensing that the Senate would defeat the measure, effectively killed it with procedural maneuvers that blocked debate on it.

Last month, the House passed a bill raising sales and personal income taxes to add $155 million to the $2.77 billion of state aid already appropriated for school districts next year. The Senate on Friday adopted a $72 million school aid plan that relied on the state’s cash reserves and other existing funds.

The compromise $107 million plan would have raised the state’s 5.3 percent sales tax to 5.5 percent and imposed a 2 percent surcharge on individual income taxes. It would also have let school districts seek voters’ approval for a collective $40 million rise in local property taxes.

School districts would have received additional aid for all students, plus money specifically targeted for bilingual education and for programs for poor and minority students at risk of academic failure.

“The House passed a very clear position. I don’t think the Senate has broken a sweat on the plan they passed,” said House Minority Leader Dennis McKinney, D-Greensburg. “I guess we’ll see what the courts say.”

The state has appealed a December ruling from Shawnee County District Judge Terry Bullock that held the state’s school finance formula unconstitutional. The Kansas Supreme Court is expected to hear the case later this year.

Sen. John Vratil, one of his chamber’s negotiators on school finance, said it is growing more apparent that schools may get no additional funding.

“At some point we’ve got a very clear decision to make,” said Vratil, R-Leawood. “We either compromise or we get nothing.”

On Saturday, each chamber soundly defeated the other’s packages, setting the stage for Monday’s discussions.

——–

Compromise school finance is SB 393.