Local taxpayers understand that state funding decisions have put the Lawrence school district in a tough spot and they probably are willing to pay a little more to offset state funding cuts. Before they do that, however, they would like to know that school officials have done what they can to minimize increases in the property tax levy.

At Monday’s meeting, board members learned that the new block grant funding system would result in a $1.6 million cut for the Lawrence district. That presents a significant challenge for the district.

One option to help deal with that cut, however, seems to have already been eliminated from consideration. “You can be assured,” Superintendent Rick Doll told the board, “that we’re not planning to ask you to cut $2 million more out of the budget, so we need to start thinking about the impact that’s going to have on the mill rate.”

In fact, district officials already had calculated that to offset state funding cuts, a 2-mill increase in local property taxes would be required.

Local taxpayers may be somewhat taken aback at what seems like a pretty reflexive response to the budget cuts: Raise taxes. Maybe the Lawrence school district can’t cut $2 million more from its budget, but how about $500,000? Taxpayers would appreciate any help they can get.

In fairness, this additional pressure on local property tax primarily is a result of state, not local, policies. Gov. Sam Brownback and state legislators are willing to push more of the tax burden onto state sales tax or local property taxes to make up for lost income tax revenue. Protecting the income tax cuts that were supposed to be a “shot of adrenaline” to the Kansas economy is their top priority, and in order to preserve those cuts, they find it acceptable to require local taxes to pick up expenses that previously had been the responsibility of the state. The Lawrence school district certainly isn’t the only district in the state that is feeling the impact of state funding priorities.

Local taxpayers have always supported local schools and they likely want to continue that trend. But we’re all in this together, and taxpayers would appreciate anything school officials can do to trim costs and the subsequent need for more tax money.