New Kansas governor promises to focus on 'basics

Brownback has acknowledged that he's the most conservative Kansas governor in at least a generation. Outgoing Gov. Mark Parkinson is a Democrat who successfully pushed a sales tax increase through the Legislature last year. GOP Gov. Bill Graves did the same thing in 2002, during another economic downturn, also to preserve aid to public schools and social services.

The state is facing a shortfall despite last year's tax increase largely because it has used federal economic stimulus funds to prop up aid to public schools and social services, and those funds are expected to disappear in the next fiscal year. The gap between projected revenues and current spending commitments is about 9 percent.

"The threats we face today are primarily internal — not foreign tyranny or conquest, but excesses of cynicism, selfishness and despair," he said in his inaugural address.

Brownback has talked about making government more efficient and "sweeping" the state budget for savings. In an inaugural ball toast, Kansas House Speaker Mike O'Neal, a Hutchinson Republican, looked forward to a "permanent reset of state government."

"Sam has to deliver," said Mary Alice Lair, a long-time GOP activist and Brownback supporter from Chanute who served in the past on the Republican National Committee. "He maybe has to be not the most popular governor in the next two years."