Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, left and House Minority Leader Tom Burroughs D-Kansas City, talks to reporters Friday Jan. 23, 2015. The two criticized Republican Gov. Sam Brownback's budget proposals saying that the governor's proposals would hurt ordinary Kansans. Hensley argued that Brownback's proposal to repeal the current school funding formula was unconstitutional.

Topeka ? Democratic leaders in the Kansas House and Senate said Friday that Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax and spending plans for the next two years would hurt public schools and working families.

But they offered no alternative of their own, saying only that they want to be “part of the discussion” as the 2015 legislative session progresses.

“We have nothing drafted at this time,” said House Minority Leader Tom Burroughs of Kansas City. “We will continue to have that discussion. As the governor moves forward with his budget, I believe we can find opportunities in which to assist in resolving this budget crisis.”

The news conference came a full week after the Brownback administration unveiled its budget plan, which calls for filling a projected $714 million revenue shortfall over the next two and a half years. It calls for a combination of one-time fund transfers, steep hikes in tobacco and alcohol taxes, and spending cuts, including $127 million from K-12 education.

Brownback also called for repealing the school finance formula — the laws that govern how money is distributed among the state’s 286 school districts — and instead funding “block grants” to schools while lawmakers try to come up with a new formula.

Republican majorities

Republicans now hold 78 percent of the seats in the Kansas House and 80 percent of the seats in the Senate. That means in most cases, they don’t need a single Democratic vote to pass legislation unless Democrats offer an alternative that can peel away a significant number of votes from across the aisle.

“As I said in my State of the State address, I welcome discussion on the issues and encourage legislators to put forth their suggestions on what they would do to make it better,” Brownback said in a statement after the Democrats’ news conference. “I reinforced that message with Senator Hensley and Representative Burroughs when I met with them earlier this week.”

But Hensley said he doesn’t believe Brownback has enough Republican votes to pass his latest tax proposals, and there were some indications Friday that his school finance plan will take a lot of negotiation to pass.

“I think in the Senate it’s dead on arrival, and in fact I’ve been told as much from the other side,” Hensley said of Brownback’s tax proposals.

Earlier in the week, Sen. Les Donovan, R-Wichita, who chairs the tax committee, said there would be a number of Republicans opposed to raising any taxes, even cigarette and liquor taxes.

But despite some disagreement within Republican ranks, Rep. Scott Schwab, R-Olathe, said Democrats still do not have much bargaining power.

“There’s a reason why they’re the minority party,” Schwab said. “Because they’re the minority opinion in the state.”

School finance complications

Meanwhile, the idea of repealing and replacing the school finance formula is already becoming politically complicated.

Part of that is because the word “formula” is loosely defined and refers to a whole collection of laws governing both spending and taxation.

In essence, it defines how much spending authority each district gets based on the number of students in that district plus certain “weighting” factors that take into account things such as the local poverty rate, the number of special-needs students in the district, its property tax base, and whether the district is growing or shrinking in population.

But the formula also spells out how much of the budget comes from local property taxes and how much from the state general fund. And it places limits on how much additional money beyond the “base” budgets — what are called “local option budgets” — districts can raise through local property taxes.

Hensley said that repealing the formula entirely could mean local districts would have unlimited authority to raise as much property tax as they want. Or it could mean repealing all of their authority to levy any property taxes.

“I don’t know what the impact of it is. That’s why I’m asking these questions,” Hensley said.

Brownback’s budget director Shawn Sullivan said last week that the governor was only referring to the spending side of the equation, and that he was not calling for any changes in those tax laws.

But so far, the administration has not drafted a bill that explains what the governor meant, and some Republican leaders were saying Friday that the entire system may be up for discussion.

“Those are all questions that are being discussed and debated,” said Rep. Ron Ryckman Jr., R-Olathe, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee.