Kansas House GOP walks away from flat tax plan after failing to override Kelly’s veto
Kansas House Republicans are abandoning their top policy goal for the year – a single-rate income tax.
For more than a year Kansas GOP leadership have pushed aggressively for a flat income tax despite a promised veto from Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.
Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, acknowledged defeat on Tuesday, weeks after his chamber failed to override Kelly’s veto on an earlier flat tax plan.
“You can only do what you have votes for and it became very evident to me that we’re not going to get to an override vote,” Hawkins said during a press conference at the Capitol.
“At some point in time you have to give up maybe what you want and move to what you can get passed.”
The decision to move is a remarkable departure for Hawkins who spent months before the legislative session traveling the state advocating for a flat income tax and a major concession to Kelly. In interviews earlier this year Hawkins had said a flat income tax was a must have for any tax plan.
Hawkins and Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, have long argued the flat income tax is fair and will draw people and businesses to Kansas. But Kelly has been vehemently opposed to the proposal which she says will harm the state’s budget and deliver a disproportionate amount of tax relief to higher income Kansans.
Last month the House fell four votes short of a veto-proof majority when they sought to override Kelly’s veto. After weeks of conversation, Hawkins said, it was clear a flat tax was not possible this year.
Instead Hawkins and other top House Republicans rolled out a new tax plan this week that eliminates one of Kansas’ three income tax brackets moving the state to a dual rate income tax.
In addition to adjusting income tax rates, the new plan would phase out income tax on Social Security over the next four years and reduce the amount of income tax collected by the state.
Kelly’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the plan. The governor has repeatedly said she would veto any tax package that includes a flat income tax but has expressed an openness to negotiating on other items.
But the plan has drawn cautious interest from lawmakers who voted against the last plan. Rep. Mark Schrieber, an Emporia Republican who voted against the flat tax, said the change to a dual rate could make the policy more acceptable to him.
“The feedback I got in my district on the single-rate plan wasn’t as favorable,” Schrieber said. A dual rate, he argued, “could be more palatable” because it’s a less severe change to Kansas’ tax structure.
Across the aisle, Rep. Tom Sawyer, the top Democrat on the House Taxation committee, called the bill “promising” but said he’d like to see a few changes.
The proposal is almost certain to hit hangups in the Kansas Senate where just last week Republicans approved a new flat tax plan with a veto proof majority.
Following the vote, Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican who has championed the flat tax, said he was looking for a flat tax plan that kept the overall cost to the state low enough to maintain that support.
“Frankly, I’m not pleased where the rate’s at, but the structure is what’s important to me,” he said of the Senate bill.
This story was originally published March 19, 2024 at 12:37 PM with the headline "Kansas House GOP walks away from flat tax plan after failing to override Kelly’s veto."
