The “state of our state is strong,” Gov. Sam Brownback said Thursday night, but it was clear from the rest of his speech and the budget proposal he revealed Friday morning that the governor has some significant changes in mind.

Thursday night, the governor pledged that “we will continue our march to zero income taxes.” The budget released on Friday does continue that march, but at a slower pace next year. And, in the two years after that, Brownback’s plan calls for halting that march altogether unless state tax receipts increase — an unlikely prospect according to a number of projections.

To deal with projected revenue shortfalls, the governor also has recommended a large increase in the state liquor tax (from 8 percent to 12 percent) and a huge increase in the cigarette tax (from 79 cents a pack to $2.29). Those taxes combined are projected to raise about $100 million in additional revenue.

In addition to those revenue moves, the governor found it necessary to carry over the 4 percent across-the-board cuts to agency budgets instituted late last year.

The governor’s budget holds K-12 funding about steady next year, but how that money will be allocated and how that plan fits with a recent court ruling declaring state funding insufficient, remain unclear. Thursday night, Brownback described a plan that would repeal the existing school finance formula while the Legislature draws up a new formula. For at least the two years covered by Brownback’s budget, the Legislature “should appropriate money directly to school districts,” he said, but it’s unclear how that money would be allocated without any finance formula in place.

In addition to revamping the state’s school finance formula, Brownback recommended a couple of other measures that could fundamentally change the operation of government in Kansas. Key among those is his desire to change the way members of the Kansas Supreme Court are selected. Rather than tweaking the composition of the Supreme Court Nominating Commission to reduce the number of members elected by Kansas attorneys, Brownback wants to throw out the commission entirely. Instead, he wants a constitutional amendment that would either institute a “federal system” in which justices would be appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Kansas Senate or — an even much worse idea — would have justices selected in direct partisan elections. Brownback says either scenario would provide “a more democratic selection process,” but it actually would provide a far more partisan process more subject to political influence.

The governor also seemed to be casting his lot with election “reforms” being pushed by Secretary of State Kris Kobach by calling for local school board and city council/commission elections to be moved to the fall. That proposal is being promoted as a way to boost voter turnout, but it also likely will be tied to a move to make all local elections partisan races, another terrible idea.

Dealing with the short-term budget prospects for Kansas will be a primary focus of the coming legislative session, but policy issues like changing the formula for funding K-12 education, moving local elections to the fall and altering the selection of the Kansas Supreme Court could have a much more significant long-term impact on the state.

“Kansas is on the rise,” Brownback said Thursday night. Let’s hope this will be the case.