Area state legislators are waiting on a Kansas Supreme Court ruling in a school finance lawsuit.

If the court rules the state must provide an additional $450-million dollars more for public K-12 education the question is where will the money come from.

State Senator Jeff Longbine told a Geary County Commission audience the State doesn’t have the money. “The possibility of that court decision, and then reaffirming the judgement of the lower court is weighing heavily on all of our minds. With our current financial situation with the income tax reductions and the reduction in revenue that we’ve had, and the difficulty that we’ve had in making our revenue estimates, even though they’ve been greatly revised we don’t have $450-million dollars laying around that we could supplement the schools. ” Longbine added, “But if that’s the Court order, then my hope would be my hope would be that the Legislature figures out a way to do that.”

Longbine is hopeful the Court decision will come within the next week or two.