TOPEKA — The Kansas House on a voice vote decided Thursday to send a three-year, $1.4 billion tax cut package back to House and Senate negotiators, overriding a call from House Speaker Dan Hawkins to pass the bill and defying guidance of Gov. Laura Kelly.
Hours earlier the Kansas Senate seized upon the compromise bill in an attempt to resolve the most vexing issue of the 2024 legislative session by voting to pass a tax reduction package Kelly promised to sign into law.
The property, sales and income tax legislation was borne of behind-the-scenes talks among House and Senate Republican leadership and the Democratic governor’s office. House Bill 2036 cleared the Senate on a vote of 38-1.
Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, acknowledged that it wasn’t as good as the bill unanimously passed last week by House. But, he said, the House had to make a decision.
“Are we going to decide because it doesn’t come up to what we love the most, a week and a half ago, that we’re going to trash it and we’re gonna stop everything and we’re gonna go home without a tax bill?” Hawkins said.
The alternative, according to Hawkins, was to accept the House-Senate conference committee bill that would guarantee “pretty much everybody out there” received tax relief.
“I would bet before we put our heads down on our pillows tonight, if we send it back, you know what the headline is gonna be? House scuttles tax relief for Kansans. Yeah, you get to try to message that one. Because I know what the press does. They always use the most salacious headline that they can get,” Hawkins said.
House Minority Leader Vic Miller, a Topeka Democrat, said the House passed its plan 123-0 with the expectation that it would be treated with respect by the Senate.
“It was totally disrespected. It was never considered, it was never discussed. And we are entitled to at least have them act like they care what our position is,” he said.
Miller, who has filed to run for the Senate, then said: “Why anyone would ever want to serve in that chamber is beyond me.”
Rep. Stephen Owens, a Hesston Republican who made the motion to send the bill back to conference, said Kansans “deserve better” than the bipartisan compromise presented to the House and Senate. Kansans deserve “true savings in their pocket,” he said.
“Let’s be real. We heard that this isn’t a bad tax relief bill. We heard about making sure we get to go home. We heard about headlines,” Owens said. “Well how about this headline: House fights for more tax relief that Kansans deserve. Or, maybe it’s past time the House finally takes a stand. Folks, today is that day. Let us rise up and be united and send a message that Kansans deserve more.”
Senate lauds bill
In the Senate’s view, the tax-policy logjam created in January by the governor’s veto of the GOP’s tax bill had been resolved through negotiation on components of HB 2036. Part of that shift came about after Senate President Ty Masterson of Andover gave up on his strategy to move Kansas from a three-tier income tax system to a single-rate income tax system, a change criticized by Kelly and others as being overly generous to wealthy taxpayers.
Masterson said prolonging that debate could jeopardize passage of popular tax provisions such as exempting Social Security benefits from the state income tax and ending the state’s sales tax on groceries July 1 rather than Jan. 1.
“I don’t think there is anybody in this room who doesn’t know how much I value the single-rate structure. That is, by far, the best structure for our state,” the Senate president said. “However, I understand the process and where we are. I came to the realization there are at least 14 people in this chamber so committed to that (three-tier) tax structure they weren’t going to let the people have the Social Security piece. This truly is a compromise plan in every sense of the word.”
He concluded he couldn’t get the 27th vote in the Senate to override another gubernatorial veto of a single-rate bill. Pressure to reach a deal escalated as the clock wound down to Friday’s adjournment of the Legislature.
