Gov. Laura Kelly not timid about using veto pen in hunt for sustainable tax policy
TOPEKA — The Kansas Legislature passed a tax reduction plan early Wednesday that closely mirrors the package vetoed by Gov. Laura Kelly and includes property tax relief, elimination of sales tax on groceries, an income tax exemption for Social Security benefits, an increase in the standard deduction on tax filings, and transition to a two-bracket income tax system.
House Bill 37 would lower personal income tax rates below current law, but rate changes were slightly less generous than under a plan the Democratic governor had rejected. On Monday, the Senate refused to follow the House’s lead and override Kelly’s veto. On the rebound, the Senate voted 25-9 for the revised tax overhaul bill consuming a projected $2.3 billion in revenue over the next five years. The House expressed greater appreciation for latest plan and passed it 108-11.
On the final day of the 2024 regular session of the Legislature, weary Republican and Democratic legislators predicted Kelly would also find this bill unsustainable for the state treasury. In advance of that vote, the governor’s chief of staff warned she would veto the bill and call the Legislature back to Topeka in a couple weeks.
“This bill is not going to become law,” said Sen. Tim Shallenburger, a Baxter Springs Republican who voted for the latest incarnation of tax reform. “It’s time we go down to the second floor and try to figure out what in the world the governor will accept. If we can’t accept it, we go home and do nothing. If we can, we ought to do it.”
The governor has repeatedly vetoed tax bills presented by the GOP-led Legislature likely to create revenue problems for state government within three to five years. Those financial projections assumed legislators would sidestep the politically challenging task of adopting budget cuts.
Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, a Lenexa Democrat who voted against the latest bill, said other packages floated in the Capitol during Tuesday’s marathon workday might have earned the governor’s signature. She said the bill passed by lawmakers guaranteed a special session in May dedicated to the search for common ground on tax policy.
“I think this has been an exercise in futility,” said Sykes, who cringed at the GOP’s interpretation of fiscal responsibility. “Republican leadership sent yet another plan to the floor that they knew was dead on arrival.”
‘For our constituents’
Kelly said the bill that she vetoed would carry a five-year price tag of $2.5 billion, which was too expensive — especially when combined with other tax legislation passed by the Legislature. She said it would be irresponsible for the state to burn through reserves and create a state revenue shortfall by 2029.
Sen. Caryn Tyson, a Parker Republican and chair of the Senate’s tax committee, said lawmakers ought to place interests of Kansas taxpayers above personal political considerations by accepting the $2.34 billion version.
“This is for our constituents,” Tyson said. “Not for the people in this building.”
House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita, sought to rally House Democrats to the bill. He said the House and Senate negotiators made a good-faith effort to reduce the overall cost of the program and make effective use of the state’s surplus cash reserve.
With the clock ticking on the session, Senate and House Republicans scrambled to revise details of a tax bill while fully aware the governor could call them back to the Capitol during campaign season if they chose not to adopt sustainable tax cuts.
In the tax negotiations, Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, confronted Rep. Adam Smith, the Weskan Republican and chairman of the House tax committee, about the state’s long-term financial outlook.
“When you look at the cost of the fiscal note in the out years, you feel comfortable that you can hit that on the budget?” Holland asked.
Smith said revenue was only one side of balancing the budget. The other option would be to slash expenditures, he said.
“If we force this tax relief into our state law, it forces us to be more responsible on the budget,” Smith said. “I wish I could guarantee more than that, trust me, but we need to manage our budget as well.”
Other Republicans expressed concern about ballooning budget appropriations. Lawmakers adopted a revised budget that included a litany of last-minute additions.
Rep. Trevor Jacobs, R-Fort Scott, said the spending blueprint was packed with “a lot of pork.”
“We’re supposed to be here to protect our constituents, not lobbyists, not special interest groups,” Jacobs said. “And this is the problem. It’s not about the next generation. It’s about the next election. And this is one of the reasons why I’m happy not to come back — because of the backdoor deals, of all of this nonsense that happens.”
More of the details
Under the bill sent to the governor, the state income tax for top earners in Kansas who were married and filing jointly would decline from 5.7% under current law to 5.57%. The last bill to be rejected by Kelly would have reset that upper bracket at 5.55%. Instead of cutting the lower bracket from 5.25% to 5.15%, the rate in the bill headed to Kelly’s desk was 5.2%.
The new bill would exempt Social Security income from the state’s individual income tax in the 2024 tax year. It would accelerate elimination of the state’s 2% sales tax on groceries to July 1 rather than Jan. 1.
The legislation would increase standard deduction amounts from $3,500 to $3,605 for single filers, $8,000 to $8,240 for married filers, and $6,000 to $6,180 for a head of household beginning in tax year 2024.
The governor also must take into account an increase in the personal exemption allowance, currently set at $2,250 for all persons on the return, to $18,320 for married couples filing joint returns and $9,160 for all other filers. The bill included an additional $2,320 exemption for each dependent listed on the return.
It would raise the amount of appraised value residential property value exempt from the statewide school finance levy to $100,000 from the current amount of $42,000. In addition, the K-12 public education mill levy was cut from 20 mills to 19.5 mills with that financial gap to be backfilled by the Legislature from the general state treasury.
Rep. Henry Helgerson, D-Wichita, had a parting message to the Legislature: “We don’t have money for this tax bill.”
Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.
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