TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) New figures from the Kansas Legislature’s staff project that a compromise plan for cutting taxes will leave the state with a budget shortfall exceeding $700 million by mid-2018.
The new figures from the Legislative Research Department circulated Wednesday, two days after the same agency projected that the tax plan would create a budget shortfall of $161 million by July 2018. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the projections from a legislative source.
Lawmakers in both parties say they need assurances that the tax plan they pass won’t create a shortfall.
The plan, drafted by House and Senate negotiators, would cut the state’s individual income tax rates, exempt 191,000 businesses from income taxes and reduce the sales tax to 5.7 percent in July 2013 from its current 6.3 percent.
