Topeka ? Four days after Gov. Sam Brownback unveiled his budget plan for the next two years, calling for cuts in K-12 education and higher taxes on cigarettes and alcohol, Democratic leaders in the Legislature still have not responded.

“We’re still reviewing that,” House Minority Leader Rep. Tom Burroughs, D-Kansas City, said after the House session Tuesday. “Prudent nature would be to ensure that we have all the information we can; 858 pages is a lot to absorb.”

But some rank-and-file Democrats were already lashing out at the plan, especially Brownback’s bid to repeal the state school finance formula and replace it, for the time being at least, with block grants.

“I think it’s going to be very difficult,” said Sen. Laura Kelly, D-Topeka, the ranking minority member on the Senate Ways and Means Committee. “There are so many things in that budget, because you can’t divorce the budget from the tax plans. I just think there’s so much in there that we’re going to have a very hard time coming to 63 and 21.”

That was a reference to the minimum number of votes in the House and Senate required to pass any bill.

The governor’s budget aims to fill a $714 million revenue shortfall over the next 18 months with a combination of spending cuts, fund transfers and tax increases.

Although public schools, which consume about half the entire state budget, would start off getting the same level of funding for the next two years, it would come in the form of block grants, and districts would have to use about $107 million of that money to pay for things normally paid by the state, including part of the increased cost of pension contributions.

“Block grants are a no-go,” said Rep. Jim Ward, D-Wichita, who ran unsuccessfully for the minority leader post this year. “Giving us the same amount of money, but making us spend more of it on different things that are typically a state responsibility is a cut. You can dress it up any way you want to, but you’ve cut education.”

But Rep. Amanda Grosserode, R-Lenexa, who chairs the House Education Budget Committee, said the idea of doing away with the school finance formula is popular in her area.

“I would say for quite a few years, the Johnson County delegation has been asking as a whole for a new formula,” Grosserode said.

The plan also calls for steep increases in certain “sin” taxes on cigarettes and alcohol.

Sen. Les Donovan, R-Wichita, who chairs the Senate Assessment and Taxation Committee, said that may be hard to sell, even to senators who don’t smoke or drink.

“There’s always a reluctance to raise taxes, no matter what they are,” Donovan said. “Seventy-five percent of people don’t smoke, but some people won’t vote for a tax increase on that just because they’re against voting for tax increases.”

The Senate Republican caucus heard an additional briefing on the budget Tuesday from Brownback’s budget director Shawn Sullivan. House Republicans are scheduled to meet early Wednesday morning.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to begin formal hearings on the budget plan Thursday. It was unclear Tuesday when the House Appropriations Committee might begin its own hearings.