Mega tax bill compromise stalled by House

TOPEKA (KSNT)- The Kansas House is sending a bipartisan tax package back to committee.

In a turn of events on Thursday, the House motioned to "agree to disagree" on the conference committee report for the bill, after the Senate overwhelmingly voted to approve the plan.

"This is a long process and House Republicans remain committed to delivering broad and sustainable tax relief to all Kansans," said Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita.

The move comes after Representative Stephen Owens, R-Hesston, made a plea to further negotiate a deal.

"Let's rise up and send a message that Kansans deserve more," Owens said.

A conference committee was appointed Thursday evening. They're hoping to convince Senate negotiators to take up parts of their plan, which Owens said was "trashed" by Senators last week.

"It was totally disrespected, it was never considered, it was never discussed," said House Minority Leader Vic Miller, D-Topeka.

The House proposal that was scrapped, SB 300, would have set the state to a two-rate system. It passed the House unanimously, but was shot down by the Senate.

Meanwhile, the bill that's now getting sent back to committee, HB 2036, would've likely gone over well with Kansas Governor Laura Kelly, who said she intended to sign the plan in a statement to Nexstar's Kansas Capitol Bureau. It maintained the state's three-tier income tax system, while cutting the top bracket by 0.2%, which would apply to people making $30,000 or more.

The Senate also voted 38 to 1 to approve the plan on Thursday with only one Democrat voting against the bill. Senator Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, voted against HB 2036, citing his opposition to the bundling of tax legislation in general.

"I was really hoping that your tax conference committee could've put separate tax vehicles out on the floor of what these members wanted. Here's a bill for social security, here's a bill for residential property tax relief, here's a bill for income stuff. But no, the special interest didn't want that," Holland said.

As for how the governor feels about the House's two-rate system proposal, Nexstar's Kansas Capitol Bureau spoke with her about the bill in March, she said she's "comfortable" with the three-tier system that the state currently has.

"We abandoned that in some ways a few years ago, and it didn't work... I don't see any particular need to switch it out," Gov. Kelly said. "You don't really see impact to individual taxpayers that much, by eliminating that third tier. I think there are other ways we can provide more tax relief."