Topeka ? The Ways and Means Committee was expected to finish drafting a plan allowing state government to spend more than $13 billion during the fiscal year that begins July 1. But members already have conceded it’s not likely to balance, requiring them to consider tax proposals later this week.

State officials and economists are projecting a $510 million gap between anticipated revenues and spending commitments. A proposed penny-per-teaspoon tax on sugar in canned and bottled beverages is among the revenue-raising ideas before legislators.

The prospects of such a tax — new for Kansas and relatively rare across the country — brought dozens of employees of bottling and distribution companies to the Statehouse. Some wore yellow “SAY NO” stickers.

Committee Chairman Jay Emler, a Lindsborg Republican, is predicting that the panel’s proposed budget will require at least $350 million in tax increases.

Members of the GOP-dominated committee so far have been unwilling to seek further cuts in aid to public schools, an idea Democratic Gov. Mark Parkinson also opposes. Such aid consumes half of the state’s general tax dollars.

Legislators also are under increasing pressure from educators and advocates for the disabled and needy to increase taxes to avoid cutting school funding and social services.

“Let us all stand together to save Kansas for the future of our children and grandchildren, in ways that resemble the state we are proud to call home,” a coalition of such advocates, Kansans for Quality Communities, said Tuesday in an open letter to legislators.

The proposed soda tax would raise $90 million a year. Legislative researchers say it would increase the cost of a 12-ounce can of soda by 10 cents; beverage industry officials say a 2-liter bottle would cost 56 cents more.