Kansas House fails to override Brownback veto on STAR bonds

An attempt to override a veto by Gov. Sam Brownback failed in the Kansas House on Wednesday.

The governor had vetoed a budget provision that would have restricted the approval of new STAR bonds projects in Wyandotte County.

Brownback has been working to lure the American Royal from Kansas City, Mo., to Wyandotte County, an expense that many lawmakers balked at given the state’s budget constraints.

The Senate voted last week to override the veto. That action requires a two-thirds majority in both the House and the Senate.

The override effort failed to gain traction in the House in the face of the governor’s promise to halt all STAR bonds projects indefinitely if the veto was overturned. The proposed veto override was voted down 97-24.

STAR bonds enable local governments to use sales tax revenue to pay for construction bonds to build entertainment districts and other tourist attractions.

Several lawmakers cited the governor’s plans to halt all STAR bonds. Rep. J.R. Claeys, R-Salina, said this would stop $100 million in economic development in his city, which is pursuing a major project.

“I prefer to make good decisions about reform legislation without a gun to my head,” Claeys said, noting that a pair of bills in the Legislature would enact reforms to the STAR bonds program.

Claeys said the Legislature would be in a stronger negotiating position if it sustained the governor’s veto.

Rep. Scott Schwab, R-Olathe, who carried the override motion, repeatedly noted that the legislation applied only to Wyandotte County. He dismissed the governor’s promise to halt projects in the rest of the state.

“That’s just a threat,” Schwab said. “I don’t take threats well.”

Schwab told his colleagues that if they sustained the governor’s veto, they would be putting the governor in the driver’s seat on the issue.

“I want us to drive that ship,” he said.

Schwab said that allowing the project to proceed would divert sales tax revenue from state coffers at a time when the state desperately needs revenue. But other lawmakers defended STAR bonds as a useful economic development tool and objected to the concept of passing a law that applied to only one county, saying this would be unfair.

Brownback said Wednesday that he didn’t think the bill should “pick on one county.”

He said he was open to reforming the STAR bonds program, but defended the disputed project and the economic development tool in general.

“I think the STAR bond tool is a fabulous tool … and I’d hate to see it ruined because we can’t get agreement,” he said. “The American Royal is an incredible project.”

This story was originally published March 23, 2016 at 1:41 PM with the headline "Kansas House fails to override Brownback veto on STAR bonds."