Republicans in the Kansas Legislature are crafting a counter response to Gov. Laura Kelly’s latest tax proposal.
Tax committees and Senate leadership have been set on working the single rate plan for filers once again. It’s likely the bill will have a combination of a single rate income tax at 5.25% and some form of property tax reduction. 51st District State Rep. Kenny Titus, of Manhattan, says he believes legislators will attempt to fund that using the local ad valorem tax reduction fund to achieve this.
“I think they’ll repeal that statute and then they’ll use that either to pay for an exemption like Gov. Kelly’s proposed and we proposed last year, that would exempt the first x-amount of your house from that state mill levy or they’ll just drop the state mill levy a couple of mills and use the LAVTR funding to make the school districts whole for taking that off of property taxes,” he said.
Titus says he expects the governor will veto the GOP proposal. After that, it will be up to Republicans to see if there’s enough support for an override.
“If they don’t override it, then we’ll have done it early, so before turnaround we’ll have the two positions staked out and then it’s just a matter of what sort of compromise plan (can be reached). Everybody wants to lower taxes so we’ll see sort of see how that comes out,” he said.
Some top Republicans have called for a flat income tax, which Gov. Kelly has said is a non-starter for her. Titus says he doesn’t believe a flat tax is the best way forward.
“I can make a case for the flat tax, but it’s not necessarily the hill that I’m willing to die on. At the end of the day I want to lower taxes,” he said.
Titus says other options are in play for legislators, including a percentage reduction off of the three income tax rates, or even the creation of a two-rate system.
Republicans are expected to vote on their response to Gov. Kelly’s tax plan before the end of the week.
