The Kansas House has bypassed a compromise plan for reducing income and sales taxes and instead approved larger cuts, sending them to Gov. Sam Brownback.
The House voted 64-59 for legislation cutting individual income tax rates, exempting 191,000 businesses from income taxes and reducing the sales tax to 5.7 percent in July 2013 from its present 6.3 percent.
The measure would to provide $233 million in tax relief for the fiscal year beginning July 1, with the figure growing to $911 million after four years.
A Washington think tank says the plan would shift part of the tax burden to the state's poorest residents.
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy says on average, the changes would raise taxes slightly for Kansans earning less than $20,000 while producing the largest cuts for those earning $400,000 or more.
The Legislature's own research staff said the plan approved by the House would create a budget shortfall of more than $2.7 billion by July 2017.
The Senate had previously approved the package. The House acted before senators could vote on a less aggressive alternative.
“In my 10 years in the Kansas House of Representatives, I have never witnessed such an unprecedented disregard for democracy," said House Democratic Leader Paul Davis (D-Lawrence).
"Speaker O’Neal completely ignored legislative procedure to bully through the most detrimental tax legislation ever passed by the Kansas Legislature. The House of Representatives spent more time debating what would be the official state grass than it did discussing a tax bill that will create a $2.7 billion deficit. In 4 years the rich will be richer, the middle class will have dissolved, schools will be decimated, the state will be bankrupt, and Kansans will have Sam Brownback and reckless, right wing Republicans to thank for it.”
Gov. Brownback released the following statement late Wednesday:
“As with all bills approved by the Kansas Legislature, I will carefully review and consider HB 2117. It would create tens of thousands of new jobs, and combined with spending restraint, will help to reverse a lost decade of declining employment.
“I am prepared to sign the bill but I encourage Kansas Legislators to continue their work on reforming our state’s tax policy and to consider some of the alternatives I proposed in my original pro-growth tax reform to off-set the cost.
“It is important to recognize that the debate in Kansas has changed from how we grow state government to about how we grow the state’s economy. After a decade of lost jobs and people, Kansas is now on the path of economic growth and job creation.”
