(Updated to include more details of the debate and fate of tax plan)
A compromise tax plan that Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly said she would sign hit a pothole early Thursday night when the House balked and sent it back to a conference committee, ending the possibility that a deal will be reached before the regular session ends.
House Republicans and Democrats joined together in a voice vote to derail a plan that would cut taxes on income, property and Social Security while expanding a tax credit for child care.
The vote was so overwhelming it didn’t require a separate vote for lawmakers to cast votes individually.
The plan goes back to conference committee with a day left in the regular session of the Legislature.
There are no plans for a conference committee to meet Friday, leaving the matter to be resolved when lawmakers return for a wrap-up session at the end of April.
“When something like this happens, it usually takes a while to work it out,” House Speaker Dan Hawkins said in an interview.
A spokesperson for the Senate president said the issue would be left to be decided at the wrap-up session at the end of April and said no other statement was forthcoming.
The move by the House came hours after the Senate voted 38-1 to approve a new tax plan that costs $1.4 billion over three years but was within financial constraints set by the governor so taxpayer services would not be jeopardized because of a revenue reduction.
House members – Republicans and Democrats alike – favored a plan that they passed that created a new dual-rate income tax plan and cut income taxes, property taxes and eliminated the income tax on Social Security.
The House unanimously backed their plan, which was sidelined in the Senate when President Ty Masterson declared it materially altered and sent it to committee, a rare procedural move that was seen politically as the “nuclear option” in the process.
A new plan emerged, but there were complaints that the new bill didn’t go deep enough to cut taxes nor do as much for the less affluent taxpayer as the first House bill.
“We sent a bill across the rotunda that took care of many Kansans. Everybody benefited,” said Republican state Rep. Stephen Owens of Hesston, who made the motion to send the bill back to committee.
“We sent it to the Senate, and they trashed it,” Owens said.
“The bill we’re presented here today is inferior on so many levels,” Owens said.
“The reality is Kansans deserve better,” he said.
“Kansans deserve a tax bill that represents true savings in their pockets, and that bill was the bill that was sent across the rotunda unanimously.”
Vic Miller, the top Democrat in the House, also alluded to Masterson’s procedural treatment of the House tax bill.
Miller said the House sent its bill to the Senate expecting that it would be “given some respect” that it was the House position on taxes.
“It was totally disrespected. It was never considered. It was never discussed. And we are entitled to have them at least act like they care what our position is,” he said.
“Why anyone would want to serve in that chamber is beyond me,” said Miller, who is running for the Senate later this year.
The governor had expressed concern about the cost of the House plan and wanted any final tax package to include a child care tax credit.
The governor had adamantly opposed any effort by the Legislature to move to a single-rate structure, a proposal that she has vetoed twice.
The Republican plan that passed unanimously would have moved the state to two tax brackets and would have cut the rates in each one.
It also would have eliminated the income tax on Social Security and accelerated elimination of the sales tax on food.
It also would have increased the standard deduction and tied increases for an additional two years to the rate of inflation.
However, the new compromise plan backed by the House was about $171 million less expensive over three years than the one the House passed last week.
Democratic state Rep. Tom Sawyer said the original House bill was better than the new version considered on Thursday.
“It’s broad tax relief for everybody in Kansas,” he said.
He said the work the House did deserves a more thorough consideration by the Senate, where it not only ran into opposition from Masterson but Democrats as well.
“The work that we did deserves that opportunity,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Gov. Laura Kelly met with House Democrats in an effort to cajole them into support the new compromise plan.
She tried to rally House Democrats to support the new tax bill that she declared would be a “huge victory” since it moved Republicans off their quest for a single rate tax structure.
Kelly warned them about joining any effort in the House to send the bill back to committee.
She cautioned that it could potentially produce results worse than the current tax plan that Democrats fear doesn’t do enough to help low-income earners.
“The other side has gone a lot farther than they wanted to go,” Kelly said of GOP lawmakers. “We should be applauding ourselves.”
“This is a huge victory for our side,” she said. “When I look at what we have here, I just am amazed that we came out like this. There’s so much of what we wanted.
“We should be embracing this and taking credit for it,” she said.
The governor’s office did not comment after Thursday’s House vote.
