Topeka ? When it comes to finding more state dollars for Kansas public schools, most lawmakers plead poverty. The cupboard, they say, is bare.

But the state is flush with cash when it comes to cutting taxes on business.

Bills aimed at eliminating the state’s property tax on new machinery and equipment have sailed through the Kansas House. So, too, has a bill that would wipe out the state’s franchise tax on corporate worth.

Dropping the franchise tax would cost the state about $45 million next year. Phasing out the new-equipment tax is expected to cost $20 million in 2008 and $50 million in 2009.

The state can’t be rich and poor at the same time, said Alan Rupe, the lead attorney in the ongoing lawsuit that accuses the state of underfunding public schools.

“The American Dictionary of Slang defines ‘chutzpah’ as killing your mother and father and then begging for mercy on the grounds that you’re an orphan,” he said Tuesday. “That’s exactly what the Legislature is doing. It’s giving away revenue and then asking the court for mercy because the state is poor.”

The court, he predicted, won’t be amused.

“The Legislature is doing exactly what the court asked it not to do – and that’s turn the education of Kansas kids into a political tug-of-war.”

A political problem

Last year, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled the state’s formula for figuring school aid was unconstitutional, forcing a special session that led to a $290 million increase – 10 percent, roughly – in school funding.

The court also told the state to conduct a study on the actual costs of education. The study called for an additional $400 million for schools.

Legislators have balked at raising taxes to meet the court’s directive.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has proposed an expansion of state-sanctioned gambling to raise the money. That plan, too, has stalled.

Sebelius on Monday warned that another special session was fast becoming unavoidable.

The problem isn’t money, Rupe argued, it’s politics.

“The resources are there,” he said. “Moderate, across-the-board increases in sales and property taxes would be enough to put the state in compliance.”

Kansas Department of Revenue estimates show:

¢ Each one-tenth of a cent increase in the state sales tax would generate $37.2 million. A full cent would raise $341 million.

¢ Each mill added to the state’s property tax would generate $25 million.

¢ Each percent added to the state’s income tax would generate $25 million.

Sen. David Wysong, R-Mission Hills, introduced a bill Tuesday to raise income, sales and property taxes to fund a $660 million, three-year school finance plan.

But he conceded the proposal was probably dead on arrival.

“It’s a starting point,” Wysong said. “Nobody is talking about raising funds to fund education.”

The chairman of the powerful Senate budget committee agreed.

“I don’t think that has any support,” said Dwayne Umbarger, R-Thayer. “I still think gaming has a better chance than tax increases.”

In the House, there’s zero chance of raising taxes, said Rep. Paul Davis, D-Lawrence.

“I don’t think the critical mass is there in either the House or the Senate,” said Davis, who’s on the House Taxation Committee.

“There’s been little or no discussion” about raising taxes, he said. “Obviously, this is an election year.”

Davis said he’s reluctant – but willing – to vote to expand gambling.

“If the gaming bill doesn’t get out of the Senate,” he said, “I don’t know what other road there’ll be to head down.”

Three years ago, Davis and Rep. Joshua Svaty, D-Ellsworth, were among a breakaway group of 16 freshman legislators – 11 Republicans, five Democrats – who pitched a half-cent sales tax increase for schools. The initiative was soundly defeated.

Svaty said he’s in no hurry to repeat the experience.

“The one thing we all learned was not to do something like that unless the votes were there,” he said.

Keeping it local

Senate leaders have said they won’t entertain tax-cut bills until after school finance is resolved.

Svaty praised the Senate leadership’s resistance to voting on tax cuts before school funding is decided. The same, he said, could not be said about the House.

“This is only my fourth year here,” Svaty said, “but I’ve never seen so much divisiveness. We have (legislators) who are barely interested in funding public education in the first place, let alone an increase.”

Mark Tallman, a lobbyist with the Kansas Association of School Boards, warned that lawmakers stingy with schools will have a hard time saying they held the line on tax increases because the costs have merely been pushed elsewhere.

“The fact of the matter is that in recent years, taxes (for schools) have been going up,” Tallman said. “The Legislature has said it’s OK, as long as it’s the local boards that do it and not the Legislature.”

Last year’s school finance package allowed local school districts to increase the local property tax share of their budgets from 25 percent to 30 percent over the next three years.

“That’s fundamentally unequal,” Tallman said.