TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - The Latest on the Kansas Legislature’s debates over increasing taxes to fix the state budget and raise additional money for public schools (all times local):
6:40 p.m.
Kansas legislators have advanced a bill that would phase in a $280 million increase in spending on the state’s public schools over two years.
The House gave the measure first-round approval Wednesday on an 81-40 vote. It plans to take another, final vote Thursday and is expected to approve it and send it to the Senate.
The state spends about $4 billion a year on aid to its 286 local school districts, but the Kansas Supreme Court ruled in March that education funding is inadequate. The court did not say specifically how much spending must increase in setting a June 30 deadline for lawmakers to pass a new school finance law.
Attorneys for four school districts suing the state have said the original plan is not sufficient. Many Republicans disagree.
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5:15 p.m.
The Kansas House has refused to debate a transgender “bathroom bill.”
Freshman Republican Rep. Trevor Jacobs of Fort Scott offered the proposal Wednesday as an amendment to an education funding bill. It would have mandated that transgender students use restrooms, locker rooms or other facilities according to the gender on their birth certificates. Under the measure, transgender and other students could ask to use separate, single-occupancy restrooms.
His measure was similar to a bill in committee that has not received a hearing.
The House Rules Committee declared Jacobs’ amendment out of order. The House upheld that ruling on a lopsided voice vote.
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4:20 p.m.
Republican legislators in Kansas have blocked an attempt by Democrats to increase the new spending on public schools provided by an education funding plan.
The state House was debating a bill Wednesday that would phase in a $280 million increase in education funding over two years. Kansas currently spends about $4 billion annually on aid to its 286 school districts, but the Kansas Supreme Court ruled in March that education funding is inadequate.
Democratic Rep. Ed Trimmer of Winfield proposed phasing in a $600 million increase over three years so that the increase after two years would be $400 million. The House voted 75-47 against his amendment, and debate continued.
Attorneys for four school districts suing the state have said the original plan is not sufficient. Many Republicans disagree.
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1:37 p.m.
The Kansas House is planning to debate a proposal to increase the state’s spending on public schools before it considers a plan for raising taxes to pay for it and fill holes in other parts of the budget.
The House was debating a proposal Wednesday afternoon to phase in a $280 million increase in education funding over two years. The bill is a response to a Kansas Supreme Court ruling in March that said education funding is inadequate.
Attorneys for four school districts that sued the state have said such an increase would not be sufficient to satisfy the court. GOP lawmakers disagree.
The House initially had planned to take up tax issues first. But a measure that would boost taxes to raise $953 million over two years wasn’t ready.
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11:22 a.m.
Kansas legislators have rewritten parts of their latest plan for raising taxes to fix the state budget and provide additional dollars for public schools.
House and Senate negotiators agreed Wednesday on a revised plan that would raise $953 million over two years by increasing income taxes, boosting liquor taxes and imposing the state’s sales tax on a few services.
The House planned to debate the plan Wednesday afternoon and then take up a measure that would phase in a $280 million increase in spending on public schools over two years.
House negotiators on tax issues wanted the tax plan to pledge to drop the 6.5 percent sales tax on food to 5.5 percent in July 2020 in an effort to make the new taxes on services easier to sell.
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10:12 a.m.
Kansas lawmakers are postponing debates on a new plan for raising taxes to fix the state budget and another measure that would boost spending on public schools.
House and Senate negotiators were meeting again Wednesday to rewrite parts of a plan for raising $948 million over two years with income and liquor tax increases while also imposing the state’s sales tax on some services.
The House hoped to debate taxes Wednesday afternoon and then the school finance plan on the 100th day of the Legislature’s annual session.
The education measure would phase in a $280 million increase in spending on schools over two years.
Kansas faces projected budget shortfalls totaling $887 million through June 2019, and the state Supreme Court has said funding for public schools is inadequate.
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