Kansas House votes not to hold debate on tax plan

The Kansas House lacked the votes to hold an expected debate on taxes Thursday afternoon.

A motion to bring a tax bill to the floor required a two-thirds majority because it was not on the debate calendar. The House voted 72-40 in favor of bringing SB 29 to the floor for a vote, 12 votes short of the 84 needed to hold the debate.

SB 29 contains a provision controversial among Republicans that would put business owners back on the tax rolls. House leaders had planned to offer an amendment to strip out that and other provisions from the bill.

The bill would have only then included a provision to grant amnesty from penalties to people who owe back taxes – which is estimated to bring in $30 million – and several popular provisions unrelated to tax policy.

The intention was to get the bill into conference so that Senate and House negotiators could work on crafting a final fix to the state’s $400 million budget hole.

However, in a GOP caucus meeting before the vote, several Republican lawmakers voiced objections to ceding that power to a conference committee of six lawmakers to decide tax policy for the rest of the 165-member Legislature.

Enough lawmakers voted against bringing the bill forward ensuring that debate on the bill and the amendment did not take place.

This story was originally published May 28, 2015 at 12:44 PM with the headline "Kansas House votes not to hold debate on tax plan."