Topeka ? Basketball won over education Wednesday, as the Kansas Senate called time-out on debate over a school finance bill so some senators could attend the Kansas University-Kansas State University game.

The adjournment about 6:15 p.m. brought an abrupt end to the first major debate on school funding and taxes this session.

“Athletics is more important than education, and once again the Senate is proving it,” state Sen. Janis Lee, D-Kensington, complained as she left the Senate chamber.

Lee was not attending the game at Allen Fieldhouse but said some members were.

Senate President Stephen Morris, R-Hugoton, and Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence, said they weren’t attending, either.

But they said the session was adjourned, in part, to accommodate senators headed to the game.

“There are some people who would like to go,” Schmidt said, adding: “There was just no reason to pull an all-nighter when it isn’t necessary.”

Morris agreed, saying some senators were getting “cranky” from nearly four hours of debate. “It would have been nice to finish today, but I understand that people have other parts of their lives,” he said.

The Kansas Supreme Court has given lawmakers until April 12 to increase school funding and distribute those funds in a more equitable way. Fifty-two days into the 90-day legislative session, an agreement on school funding has been elusive.

Scaled-back plan

Senate Republicans had proposed a $455 million, three-year plan to resolve the matter, but Wednesday they scaled it back to $169 million over one year.

Sen. Jean Schodorf, a Wichita Republican and the proposal’s sponsor, said she would come back in a week or two to propose financing a second and third year of the plan, either through a tax increase or expanded gambling, or both.

“This plan is a fair plan for all school districts,” Schodorf said.

Senate pares back education funding plan to one year

But Democrats — who earlier complained that the three-year measure was inadequate because there was no plan to fund it — were more incensed when Schodorf announced she was cutting the spending portion of the proposal.

“I would call it bait and switch,” said Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka.

The move to reduce the plan, however, passed 27-11 with only Republican support. State Sen. Roger Pine, R-Lawrence, voted to reduce the size of the plan, and state Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence, voted against that amendment.

Tax increases fail

But several Republicans pushed for tax increases for schools and said it was disingenuous to propose increased spending without the funding to support it.

“The fact is it is going to take new money to make this work,” state Sen. Pete Brungardt, R-Salina, said as he proposed a 7.5 percent one-year surcharge on state personal income taxes. His amendment failed 9-28 with Pine voting against it and Francisco supporting it.

A move by state Sen. Roger Reitz, R-Manhattan, to increase the state sales tax one-half cent from 5.3 cents per dollar to 5.8 cents per dollar also failed, 5-27. Pine voted against it, and Francisco passed.

Democrats failed to win approval for several amendments to increase the spending.

Under Schodorf’s plan, schools would receive $169 million during the next school year. It would increase base state aid per pupil, which hasn’t been increased in four years, by $150 from $3,863 per student to $4,013 per student.

Extra funds for at-risk, bilingual and special education students also would be increased under the plan, she said. The Lawrence school district would receive nearly $3 million more under the bill, while Baldwin would get an additional $342,613, and Eudora, $340,314.

More work to do

Republican leaders say the first year of the proposal could be funded through increased tax receipts and dipping into the state’s ending balance.

Schodorf vowed to come back with a plan to fund the next two years, but Democrats said promises had been made by the Legislature before that were broken.

After consideration of about 10 amendments, Schmidt called for an adjournment; he said senators apparently had many more amendments to propose.

The Senate also has several other bills related to schools to debate when it returns at 2:30 p.m. today.