Topeka ? A Washington-based group spent nearly $112,000 in April on a postcard and radio advertising campaign against raising taxes, setting a record for lobbyist spending in Kansas.

The campaign pitted the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, which is new to lobbying in Kansas, against established education groups and school districts, which together had three dozen lobbyists at the Statehouse. Legislators adjourned their session Saturday without approving a tax increase — or any school funding plan.

Until Americans for Prosperity’s activities in April, the Kansas-National Education Assn., the state’s largest teachers’ union, had been the leader in lobbyist spending for the year. Through April, the KNEA spent nearly $49,000, most of it on newspaper advertising.

Lobbyists for the KNEA and Americans for Prosperity disclosed their expenditures for April in reports filed this week with the secretary of state’s office. Lobbyists must report expenditures on food or small gifts for legislators as well as efforts to build public pressure on an issue — but not their salaries or what they spend in traveling to Topeka or setting up offices.

The previous record for annual lobbyist spending was $82,839, set in 1981 by the Independent Producers Group, which fought efforts to impose a severance tax on oil and natural gas production.

Americans for Prosperity reported spending $11,045 in April on mass media, a category that covers radio advertising, and $100,736 on “communications,” which covers attempts to contact Kansans and get them to influence legislators. The group’s total spending was $111,781.

“Americans for Prosperity saw significant efforts to increase taxes,” Alan Cobb, the group’s lobbyist in Topeka, said Wednesday. “We were simply trying to educate voters on issues before them.”

KNEA ran advertisements in newspapers in February, March and April, saying the state needed to increase taxes because schools were strapped for money.

The advertising cost KNEA $47,082 through April. KNEA spent an additional $1,658 on providing meals and gifts to legislators, making its total spending $48,740.

But KNEA lobbyist Mark Desetti acknowledged being impressed — and troubled — by the Americans for Prosperity campaign.

“It was a slick campaign,” he said. “It’s not something we’re used to here. It’ll be interesting to see the fallout and whether this kind of thing goes on in the future.”