Kan. House takes up Senate-passed bill to increase sales tax but quickly tables $314M measure

Kan. House takes up but tables proposed tax hike

TOPEKA, Kan. — The Kansas House on Friday took up — then quickly tabled — proposal to raise the state’s sales tax by a full percentage point to bolster its next budget.

Putting the contentious proposal to a vote would have been a high-stakes move: Either the bill would have gone to Democratic Gov. Mark Parkinson, who supports it, or it would have died. The House’s 69-52 vote to table it indicated supporters of raising taxes weren’t ready, perhaps because they worried about being short of votes.

“It just wasn’t time,” said Rep. Jim Ward, a Wichita Democrat. “Until we actually vote, we don’t know for sure, but we feel pretty comfortable.”

The activity in the House came the morning after the Senate approved the tax bill, 23-17, a victory for Democrats and moderate Republicans who hope to avoid cuts in social services and aid to public schools.

The measure would increase the state’s 5.3 percent sales tax to 6.3 percent on July 1, the start of the new budget year. It would raise $314 million for that fiscal year.

The additional revenue would be necessary to balance a $13.6 billion budget the Senate already has approved. Democrats and moderate Republicans in the House were pushing a similar — but not identical — spending plan.

The House began debate on its bipartisan budget proposal Thursday but suspended it so that a member could attend his mother’s funeral. The debate resumed Friday, with members airing frustrations about the process used to debate spending and tax issues.

Conservative Republicans, including House GOP leaders, have sensed that they won’t be able to stop a tax increase.

“Will there ever be enough money to feed this appetite for government?” said House Taxation Committee Chairman Richard Carlson, a St. Marys Republican. “There’s a feeling that it has to stop somewhere.”

Parkinson has told the Republican-controlled Legislature he won’t accept further cuts to education funding or reductions in social services. But conservatives and many business owners and groups believe raising taxes will prolong the recession in Kansas by raising the cost of what people buy and depressing sales.

Under the Senate bill, the full sales tax increase would remain in effect through June 2013. Afterward, the tax would drop to 5.7 percent, with some of the revenues from the tax dedicated to highway projects.

House GOP leaders backed a budget-balancing plan that would have cut aid to schools by $86 million, though they said local districts could make up such a loss by tapping reserve funds or raising local property taxes. But that plan didn’t have enough support in the House, and proposals to cut education funding failed in the Senate.

Meanwhile, some advocates for the disabled wanted the coalitions of Democrats and moderate Republicans in each chamber to go farther. They hoped legislators would add money to the budget to reduce a waiting list for in-home services for the disabled.

“Every day they don’t do their job, things happen to people who are on the waiting list who could be receiving services,” said Stephanie Sanford, a Topeka advocate who’s stood with a protest sign outside the entrance to the Statehouse garage.

Senate tax plan is Senate Sub for HB 2360. House budget bill is House Sub for SB 572.

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Kansas Legislature: www.kslegislature.org