Kansas legislative leaders on Wednesday authorized two more interim committees, one to begin work crafting a new school finance formula and another to examine the state’s long list of sales tax exemptions.

The most interesting aspect of the sales tax panel appears to be that none of the Republicans on the Senate tax committee want to serve on it. At least that was the explanation given by Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce, of Hutchinson. So instead, it will be chaired by Sen. Ty Masterson, who chairs the Senate’s appropriations committee.

Lawmakers included a proviso in this year’s budget bill calling for a study of sales tax exemptions. That was offered as a compromise between those who wanted to repeal some of those exemptions as part of the budget package and those who said the Legislature has already been down that road, and there is simply no political support for doing it.

Over the years, numerous items have been exempted from sales tax. Some of them, like Girl Scout cookies and other items sold by nonprofit charitable organizations, are in line with other tax laws that allow income tax deductions for charitable contributions.

But others have been added over the years for purely political or economic development reasons. They include taxes on “services,” which can include everything from haircuts to health care and legal services. They also include labor and materials used in new home construction.

The most outspoken critic of reopening that subject was Senate tax committee chairman Les Donovan, R-Wichita, who said the Legislature has studied those exemptions numerous times, and each time learns that every exemption that exists was put into the tax code as a result of strong political support, and repealing them is nearly impossible.

On the school finance front, lawmakers have given themselves two years to craft a new school finance formula to replace the old per-pupil funding formula they repealed earlier this year. For the time being, lawmakers have authorized a system of “block grants” to school districts, basically giving them the same amount of money they received under the old formula for the next two years, with a little more flexibility to shift money between various funds.

The Legislative Coordinating Council, a group made up of the top Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate, endorsed a proposal from House Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, to form a 13-member panel that will meet for at least three days between now and the 2016 session. Specifically, according to Merrick’s proposal, that group will study:

• The outcomes-based standards known as the Rose Standards, which the Kansas Supreme Court has said will be the measuring stick to determine whether state funding for education is adequate.

• The best funding mechanism to ensure adequate money is invested “in the classroom.”

• The definition of what constitutes a “suitable education.”

• Outcomes to ensure that students are well-prepared for their future endeavors.

• And uniform accounting across all districts.

Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley, of Topeka, had offered a different plan that would have focused more on actually writing a new formula. He said the topics outlined by Merrick are many of the same conceptual topics that lawmakers have debated for several years.

But Merrick said the panel won’t be limited just to those bullet points, and he said the panel may request additional meeting days if it feels that would be necessary.

A three-judge panel in Shawnee County ruled in June that the block grant formula now in place is unconstitutional, both because it provides inadequate funding and because it doesn’t provide equitable funding between school districts.

That decision has been appealed to the Kansas Supreme Court, which has divided the appeal into two parts. It will hear oral arguments on the equity issue in November, suggesting a decision could come early in the 2016 legislative session.

But it will wait until the spring of 2016 before hearing arguments on the much larger adequacy question. That suggests that a ruling on adequacy may not come until after lawmakers adjourn next year.