By MIKE CORN

mcorn@dailynews.net

Cigarette and alcohol taxes are on the table, as is a tax on sweetened beverages, but Sen. Ralph Ostmeyer isn't sure how far any of them will go.

"I'm not in leadership, and I'm not in that circle," he said. "It looks to me, what they're trying to do is find out what they can pass. It's going to take something to get us out of here.

"I don't think $400 million in cuts is going to get us out of here."

In fact, Ostmeyer, R-Grinnell, thinks someone will "run a sales tax up the flag pole and see what we all say."

That hasn't happened just yet.

He's wondering if anything will happen before the end of the month.

"I think they're going to wait until April 1," Ostmeyer said.

That's the scheduled end of the session, but if the budget isn't wrapped up by then, the Legislature would reconvene April 5.

While he's expecting to see a sales tax proposal introduced, he doubts it will pass muster in the House.

That's because every House member will be up for election this year -- soon enough after the vote, he said, that "it's still going to be fresh in (voters') minds."

The Senate, Ostmeyer said, might have the 21 votes to send a tax to the House.

"When I vote, I want to get the best for western Kansas," he said.

If the budget is balanced by cuts, Ostmeyer said school districts in the 18 counties he represents will suffer.

"If we do this, I've got some school districts, they won't have their doors open very long," he said. "Out there, we've got old buildings, but give us money to keep our schools open. We're happy with that."

He's not at all in favor of state-mandated consolidation, preferring instead to let local districts decide their fate.

"The state will screw it up," he said of any state-directed consolidation plan.

How he would vote on any tax increase will depend on what is offered up.

"When I vote, I want to take as much as I can back home," he said. "We see the suffering a little more, a little quicker than they do back east."

Ostmeyer said he's seen the effects in his town hall meetings.

In a good year, he said, 300 people would turn out. This year, it was more than 1,000.

The meeting in Bird City, for example, attracted more than 300 people.

Ostmeyer agrees it just might be time to look at a tax increase, rather than simply urging cuts.

"This economy is so stagnant, all around the nation," he said. "If we can't make the cuts, I think the sales tax is probably the fairest way. I don't like it. But we've got to do something to get out of this.

"I don't think there's ever a good time to raise taxes. But it may be time to get out of here."

Ostmeyer also is convinced the cuts to social services have been too deep already.

"As long as we want to be compassionate and have social services, it's got to be funded," he said. "I'm 66 years old. I'm hoping we'll have some good long-term care homes that maybe I'll be in."

For Ostmeyer, it's been a difficult year.

"I sometimes wish I had a fishing pole and was sitting out there on the bank," he said of how difficult the session has been. "But hey, we knew this coming in."