Topeka ? A group that lobbies on behalf of Kansas public school boards told its members Wednesday that legislation will likely be introduced in the Legislature next year aimed at limiting their ability to maintain cash carry-over balances in many of their funds.

Mark Tallman, a lobbyist for the Kansas Association of School Boards, said that’s one of at least six bills that have been drafted at the request of the K-12 Student Performance and Efficiency Commission, a group lawmakers formed last year to study and recommend ways schools can be more efficient with their budgets.

But he also said those funds have long been a target for conservative critics of school spending, especially the conservative think tank Kansas Policy Institute, which has argued that school districts have been amassing large cash balances in recent years and should be required to spend down those reserves as a substitute for state aid.

Dave Trabert, president of Kansas Policy Institute, is also a member of the K-12 efficiency panel. He was appointed by House Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell. The group is scheduled to meet next week and begin finalizing its recommendations.

In September, KPI proposed a five-year budget plan that calls for, among other things, capturing $147.8 million in school district reserves in the next fiscal year. That plan would also require universities to spend down $37.8 million of their fee fund reserves next year.

Speaking to local school officials during a webinar Wednesday, Tallman agreed that districts did build up those reserves during the Great Recession, “because what was happening in those years, state aid payments were being delayed.”

Earlier Wednesday, the school boards association released a position paper arguing that districts need those cash reserves in various funds to meet cash-flow needs throughout the year because much of the revenue they receive throughout the year comes at irregular intervals, especially federal funds and revenue from local property taxes.

In 2006, according to the position paper, total cash reserves held by school districts equaled about 25 percent of their previous year’s spending. That grew to more than 30 percent at the height of the recession in fiscal year 2011, and has since fallen slightly to about 29 percent this year.

However, more than half of those reserves are in districts’ capital outlay funds, which are used primarily for major purchases or building projects, and districts are legally restricted in how they can spend those funds.

In 2012, Kansas lawmakers passed a bill expanding the number of allowable uses of capital outlay funds. That law also gave districts more flexibility to transfer money from other special funds into their general operating funds.

According to the school boards group, total reserves in those funds that now have more flexibility add up to only about 9 percent of total school district spending.

Tallman said that is comparable to the state’s own general fund, which is required by statute to maintain a 7.5 percent ending balance, although the Legislature frequently waives that requirement during lean budget years.

He also compared school districts’ reserves with private-sector businesses, citing Federal Reserve statistics that estimated total cash holdings by U.S. firms in 2010 were about 30 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product.