Topeka ? Same song, umpteenth verse.

In good economic times, Kansas elected officials increase spending, cut taxes and win elections.

In bad economic times, they wonder what happened.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and state lawmakers face another round of bad economic times.

They will have to cut the budget by $137 million when the 2009 legislative session starts in January. Without action, the budget is projected to have a $1 billion deficit in the next fiscal year. Just two years ago, the budget had a surplus of $1 billion. That’s a $2 billion swing in about three years.

So, what happened?

Conservatives blame spending, specifically the Kansas Supreme Court-ordered increase in school finance that has boosted school funding by approximately $650 million over three years.

But moderates point to the steady stream of approved tax cuts, most of which were targeted toward businesses. Removing machinery and equipment property tax, approved in 2006, will take hundreds of millions of dollars from the tax base. In all, tax cuts enacted from 2005-2007 will reduce receipts by more than $1 billion cumulatively through 2012, according to state officials.

Now spending and tax cuts have collided with the national economic collapse.

Meanwhile, there are some real needs out there.

“We’re scared,” said Shannon Jones, executive director of the Statewide Independent Living Council of Kansas, which advocates for people with developmental disabilities.

“Tight economic times are hard on everybody but poor folks get hit even harder,” Jones said.

Jones’ organization is seeking $7.5 million in additional funds just to maintain the current level of home-based services to thousands of Kansans with disabilities. Funding those so-called “supplemental budget requests” seems iffy at best.

Sebelius last week ordered 3 percent budget cuts in state agencies, but said she wants to hold harmless school finance and social services.

“My belief continues to be that cutting education, and certainly cutting services to vulnerable populations, just digs a bigger hole,” she said.

But Sebelius noted that higher education funding is not in her hold-harmless net, and that makes Kansas University officials nervous.

Lynn Bretz, a spokeswoman for KU, said the school will do what it can to help out in the budget crunch. “We’re all facing short-term budget problems,” she said.

But Bretz and other education officials say deep cuts to post-secondary schools hurt the state because higher education is key to helping the state rebound.

Although the budget news is dire, Sebelius said Congress may be in a position to provide some post-election assistance.

She wants Congress to approve a $61 billion stimulus package, which was approved in the House in September but blocked by Senate Republicans. The proposal includes some assistance to states, Sebelius said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has said a lame-duck session of Congress could be convened later this month to consider the package.

And Sebelius said President-elect Barack Obama met with her and other governors after his nomination this summer, and is aware of the needs of states in the areas of infrastructure, jobs and health care.

“Kansas will have an ally in the White House,” she said of Obama.