In a question-and-answer period on Wednesday with the Kansas Board or Regents, Republican Gov. Sam Brownback provided some insight into the end of the 2013 legislation session in June in which Republican legislative leaders demanded cuts to the universities and Brownback accepted those cuts.

Brownback said at the end of a legislative session, “Often you’re crowding everything into a chute, and we’re going to get this done tonight — this is going to happen tonight, and then things happen and it doesn’t always come out exactly the way your wanted it to come out. And things get traded here and there to get something on through the final process.”

Brownback said perhaps the perception from legislative leaders was that higher education could handle the cuts. “You have a lot places you get money from, and maybe you can handle this, whereas other places don’t have the options,” he said.

On the final day of the session, Republican leaders mustered enough votes within their caucuses to pass a state budget that cut universities 3 percent over two years and to push through a tax package that increased the state sales tax while reducing deductions and racheting down income tax rates.

Brownback has made phasing out the state income tax one of his major goals.

Brownback has praised GOP legislative leaders, but has vowed to fight for restoration of the cuts when the 2014 session starts in January.