LAWRENCE � Kansans exhausted by years of state government budget emergencies driven by income tax cuts and economic weakness in key industries are eager for stability that places them in a more aspirational frame of mind, forum participants said Thursday.



Economists, educators, lobbyists and retiring legislators gathered at the University of Kansas to share thoughts about implications of state fiscal policy undercut by revenue shortfalls and to offer insights into how they imagined Kansas� future.



Dominating the discussion were budget woes linked to individual income tax cuts and an income tax exemption for 330,000 business owners adopted by Gov. Sam Brownback and conservative Republican allies, and subsequent sales tax hikes to inject cash into the treasury. More spending cuts or tax increases are on the horizon as voters head to the polls Nov. 8.



�We�re far less able to be aspirational today than we were at times in my 14-year career,� said Rep. Don Hill, an Emporia Republican not seeking re-election. �It has everything to do with stabilizing the budget.�



Tom Bell, president of the Kansas Hospital Association, said lack of tax revenue hindered a campaign to expand Medicaid eligibility to 150,000 low-income Kansans under the Affordable Care Act. About 30 states have adopted expansion programs, but Kansas has not.



An estimated $1.5 billion in federal aid could have flowed into a state health care system layered with financially struggling hospitals, health departments and emergency services.



�I�m hopeful we�ll have a bigger discussion next session,� said Bell, who anticipates election in 2016 of more moderate Republicans and Democrats.



Randall Allen, executive director of the Kansas Association of Counties, said pushing down the cost of government to municipal entities was driving interest in functional consolidation of services. He said the state was so desperate for cash that support for indigent burials was cut off, indicating something was �terribly wrong� with the state�s finances.



Congress needs to change federal law to give states power necessary to collect sales tax on internet transactions that could deliver $300 million annually to the state�s coffer, Allen said.



Policy and financial restraints imposed on K-12 public school districts during the Brownback administration have �dramatically hurt� capacity of districts to deliver education to children, said Sally Cauble, a Dodge City member of the Kansas State Board of Education.



Reduction in the number of school counselors and librarians � incorrectly viewed as out-of-classroom extras by some politicians � diminishes the academic enterprise, she said.



�I believe it�s a lack of knowledge about how education is run,� Cauble said. �We can no longer meet the needs of kids we have in our schools.�



Rep. Tom Moxley, R-Council Grove, said the Legislature and Brownback had to reshape tax policy to deliver important government services and get serious about making expenditures reflect economic realities. Despite the governor�s explanations for modest economic growth, Moxley said, the state�s voters were eager to end the era of jumping from one state budget calamity to the next.



�There is an avalanche from BS mountain. They�re ready to move,� Moxley said of voters. �Taxpayers are tired of being hit. We have one of the most unfair tax systems in America right here in Kansas.�



He�s a cattle rancher who benefits from the income tax exemption on business owners signed into law by Brownback in 2012, meaning the representative only pays state income tax on his legislative salary. The tax code must be amended, he said, but the hollowing out of transportation, education, pension and other pieces of the budget won�t be corrected quickly.



He said tax reform ought to be combined with streamlining of spending, and indicated K-12 consolidation should be a priority. Typically, he said, such an appeal is politically toxic to people dedicated foremost to school preservation.



�I refuse to think that we need 117 high schools that are less than 107 students,� Moxley said. �What that means to me is there�s a lot of kids who are missing a lot of programming and they�re not getting the education they ought to get.�



Chris Courtwright, principal economist for the Kansas Legislative Research Department, said the state moved away from 1990s policy attempting to balance property, sales and income taxation. Brownback�s income tax cuts place more emphasis on sales taxes, he said.



The Legislature deflected proposals from the governor to replace some lost revenue, he said, as the state�s financial landscape suffered as farm commodity prices tanked and a bid to make Kansas a major oil fracking state fizzled.



Courtwright said he was uncertain whether reform of the process of estimating state tax revenue would be amended based upon recommendations of a task force appointed by the governor. The revenue projections will be adjusted Nov. 10 � two days after Election Day.



Jeremy Hill, director of the Center for Economic and Business Research at Wichita State University, said state lawmakers need to quit approving budgets with thin ending balances.



Three months into the current fiscal year, revenue is $60 million less than projections built into the current year�s budget.



�You�re just going to have to plan for inaccuracies,� Hill said.



Contact reporter Tim Carpenter at (785) 393-2621 or @TimVCarpenter on Twitter.