Late Thursday, following fiery speeches on both sides of the aisle and lengthy debate, Kansas senators approved a new iteration of a flat tax plan that favors the state’s top earners and would cost the state nearly $650 million annually once phased in.
Republican leaders of the Kansas Legislature said a two-thirds majority of House members were committed to overriding Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a tax reduction bill but a supermajority hadn’t crystalized in the Senate to complete the maneuver.
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly announced her veto of a sprawling flat tax proposal Friday, calling the plan “reckless,” and one reminiscent of former Gov. Sam Brownback’s disastrous tax cuts.
After declaring themselves a united family, “like brothers and sisters,” the top Republicans in the Legislature announced they will work together to resurrect and pass a massive flat tax plan in the first weeks of the upcoming legislative session.
Senate President Ty Masterson responded to a second failure to override Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a bill collapsing the state’s three-rate individual income tax structure into a single 4.15% rate and speeding elimination of the state’s sales tax on groceries by stripping a dissident Republican of a committee chairmanship.
Senators failed to override Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a flat tax proposal that primarily benefits the state’s wealthiest residents.
