Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer said Thursday night that he wants to restructure the state tax code in a way that would be simpler and fairer to Kansas taxpayers.
Speaking in broad terms to the Sunflower Republican Club in Olathe, Colyer said he “loves” reducing tax rates and promised that some specific tax proposals would be forthcoming.
Colyer said Kansans have indicated they want a tax system that’s simple, easy to understand and fair to everyone.
“I think we can restructure the tax code in a way that makes it lower,” Colyer said. “We have not truly looked at our entire tax code — the entire tax code — ever. Now that the federal government has redone theirs, I think it’s probably time for us to go and say, ‘How does this look?’
“You’ll be seeing some very specific proposals,” he added.
Colyer’s comments come in the heat of a Republican gubernatorial campaign where his chief rival, Secretary of State Kris Kobach, has said he wants to restore former Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax cuts that were repealed last year as the state struggled with deficits.
A proposal intended to return to taxpayers a potential windfall in revenue from a change in the federal tax code failed to pass the Legislature in part because many lawmakers were nervous about the Brownback-era tax cuts that led to fiscal struggles.
The proposal would have let Kansans continue to itemize on their state tax return if they took the standard deduction on their federal taxes. Current law requires Kansans who take the federal standard deduction to take the state standard deduction.
The state stands to gain money because the federal tax code change encourages taxpayers to take a generous standard deduction on their federal return rather than itemize.
The federal standard deduction, which Congress doubled, is much more valuable than the state’s standard deduction. That could mean an inability to itemize would effectively lead to a state tax increase.
The bill also would not have taxed multinational corporations on money made overseas that’s returned to the United States. Those companies could have to pay more in state taxes. The so-called repatriation tax approved by Congress last December was intended to encourage U.S. companies that do business abroad to return their money back home.
After the meeting, Colyer said he would have signed the bill that died in the House after it was narrowly passed by the Senate last week.
“At this point, I’d like to simplify our tax code and return money” to taxpayers, Colyer said. “The Legislature couldn’t get it done. Let’s see where we go. We’re going to be proposing some things.”
A Republican gubernatorial rival, former state Sen. Jim Barnett of Emporia, also talked to the Sunflower Club. After the meeting, Barnett said it would be premature to change the state tax code so soon after the Brownback cuts were repealed.
“We just corrected a very serious failure in a tax experiment,” Barnett said. “We need to get our financial house in order before we do anything like that.”
