The House made short work Friday of rejecting the latest Senate tax compromise.
Both chambers subsequently adjourned until after the Memorial Day weekend. But tax negotiating teams stayed behind long enough for the Senate to accept the House offer, which was not substantially different from what the House began presenting two weeks ago and hardly different from the House plan voted down by the full Senate on Thursday evening.
Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce, R-Hutchinson, said he doubted the House formula had gained “substantial support” in the Senate overnight but that it was “time to start voting,” until agreement is found on the budget and taxes.
In short, it wasn’t clear what progress, if any, was made the last two days in settling differences between the Republican dominated House and Senate.
The Senate tax proposal, intended to lure House votes with a cut in the sales tax on food to 4.95 percent, only got five votes when the House took it up early in the day.
House and Senate tax negotiators met at 11:45 a.m. meeting and sat down together again about 3 p.m. to hear the latest House offer. By about 3:35 p.m., Senate conferees had accepted it.
“I doubt it has any substantial support in the Senate,” Bruce said, but might set both chambers in motion for finding agreement when members come back after the holiday.
Sen. Les Donovan, R-WIchita, was replaced as the top Senate tax negotiator because he was traveling out of state for a long-planned vacation. Sen. Caryn Tyson, a Parker Republican, took Donovan’s seat. She was joined by Bruce on the Senate bargaining squad. The Democrat representing the Senate was Sen. Tom Holland of Baldwin City.
The House negotiators were unchanged: Rep. Richard Carlson, the St. Marys Republican who chairs the House tax committee, and Reps. Julie Menghini, a Pittsburg Democrat, along with Rep. Arlen Siegfreid, an Olathe Republican.
The plan agreed to, at least by the four Republican negotiators, would hold the state sales tax at 6 percent. It also would incrementally reduce the bottom income tax rate from 3 percent to 2.3 percent by 2018. The top rate would be reduced from 4.9 percent to 3.5 percent over the same period.
Senators and Gov. Sam Brownback have been trying to hold the sales tax at 6.3 percent or close to it in order to pay for last year’s massive income tax cuts and to help pay for future income tax reductions.
The tentative agreement also would decrease itemized income tax deductions by 50 percent by 2018.
Together, the various changes would increase state tax revenues by about $770 million over five years, according to legislative researchers. The plan offered by the Senate on Thursday would have increased taxes by about $878 million over the same period.
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