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Kansas lawmakers open talks on schools amid work on tax plan

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Kansas legislators began working Thursday on the final version of a plan to boost spending on public schools and reopened talks that are supposed to result in a plan to raise the revenue to pay for it while also fixing the state budget.

Negotiators for the House and Senate opened discussions on a bill that would boost aid to the state's 286 school districts in response to a Kansas Supreme Court ruling in March that education funding is inadequate. The Senate approved a plan to phase in an increase of roughly $230 million over two years; the House approved one calling for a $285 million boost, also phased in over two years.

The court didn't say how much the state's $4 billion a year in aid must increase when it set a June 30 deadline for lawmakers to pass a new school funding law. Attorneys for the four school districting that successfully sued the state have said both the House and Senate plans are inadequate.

“An incomplete is a good metaphor for it,” said Rep. Brett Parker, D-Overland Park. “It’s like you did half of your homework and you’re just counting on well the teacher will tell me what else I have to do.” 

A freshman lawmaker, Parker decided to run for state office because of school funding. He teaches elementary English language learners in the Olathe School District. 

“Those things have a direct impact on the quality of education our students get. There is only so much we can do on a local level, the rest has to come from here,” he said. 

As for the differences between the two chambers, lead House negotiator Larry Campbell, an Olathe Republican, said "I don't think we're far apart."

The school funding group planned to resume talks Friday morning.

Another set of legislative negotiators met to discuss tax issues but did not make progress on a big revenue-raising plan, though they hoped to meet again Friday as well. Lawmakers have struggled to agree on a plan for rolling back past income tax cuts championed by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, and some lawmakers want a mix of revenue-raising ideas.

The state faces projected budget shortfalls totaling $889 million through June 2019. The figure grew slightly Thursday when the state Department of Revenue reported that Kansas collected $1.9 million less in taxes in May than anticipated.

Kansas collected $441 million in taxes, compared with a projection of $443 million. The shortfall was 0.4 percent.

The state saw a small surplus in tax collections in April and the department noted that the state remains on track to meet projections for the current budget year. The state has collected about $5.2 billion in taxes since the fiscal year began in July 2016,

The projections were set in a fiscal forecast issued last month.

Thursday was the 104th day of what was supposed to be a 100-day annual session, making it one of the longest in state history.