TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Top Republicans in the Kansas Legislature moved closer Monday to a confrontation with GOP Gov. Sam Brownback over his signature fiscal policies, accelerating work on proposals that would backtrack on personal income tax cuts he’s championed.
The Senate Assessment and Taxation Committee reviewed a new plan from the chamber’s GOP leaders to raise $660 million in new revenues over two years. The state faces projected budget shortfalls totaling nearly $1.1 billion through June 2019, and the tax measure would fill much - but not all - of the gaps. The committee hoped to vote on the plan Tuesday.
Brownback issued a statement strongly criticizing the plan, saying it punished the poor and middle-class families, as well as “job-creators.”
But the House Taxation Committee is preparing to be even more aggressive. During a discussion Monday, a majority of committee members indicated by informal shows of hands that they want to raise between $900 million and $1.2 billion over two years, with some Democrats and GOP moderates willing to raise $1.5 billion.
Kansas has struggled to balance its budget since Republican legislators heeded Brownback’s calls in 2012 and 2013 to slash personal income taxes. His goal was to stimulate the economy, and while he and aides insist the tax-cutting experiment is working, even some GOP voters have come to see it as a bust.
“We’re getting rid of the insanity that took place in 2012,” said Rep. Tom Sawyer, of Wichita, the top Democrat on the House committee.
Kansas legislators already have enacted large tax increases since passing the first personal income tax cuts in 2012, including by boosting sales and cigarette taxes in 2015 to fill budget holes. But lawmakers have preserved core Brownback policies: moving from three to two income tax brackets, decreasing rates and giving an exemption to more than 330,000 farmers and business owners.
A bill before the House committee ends the exemption for farmers and business owners, to raise a projected $412 million through June 2019. But Chairman Steven Johnson, an Assaria Republican, said his committee would consider other income tax proposals, and the discussion Monday showed there is an appetite for other ideas.
But the House committee is still drafting its plan and has yet to take any votes. The Senate committee will act first, with approval of a bill setting up a debate by the full chamber.
“This is just to get the discussion going,” said Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican.
The Senate bill boosts income tax rates, from 2.7 percent to 3 percent for the lower bracket and from 4.6 percent to 4.9 percent for the top bracket. It also ends an income tax exemption for 388,000 of the state’s poorest taxpayers - including married couples earning less than $12,500 a year.
Some House committee members expressed support for boosting the top income tax rate to 5.45 percent.
Brownback has proposed increasing cigarette taxes again, along with liquor taxes, and increasing for-profit companies’ annual filing fees. The governor also would tax farmers’ and business owners’ royalties and rents.
The governor also has proposed a number of other accounting gaps and stopgap measures such as scaling back state contributions to public employees’ pensions.
Senate GOP leaders said they want to continue trimming spending, particularly during the current budget year, which ends June 30, because the state can’t raise new tax revenues so quickly. But Sen. Laura Kelly, of Topeka, the ranking Democrat on the Senate budget committee, said she doubts Republicans can build support for big spending cuts.
Brownback said the plan from Senate GOP leaders “needlessly harms the real people that serve as the lifeblood of Kansas.”
“Most egregious is the burden this plan puts on the poor,” he said.
___
Follow John Hanna on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apjdhanna .
Please read our comment policy before commenting.