Topeka — Kansas would impose a new tax on soda — a penny for every teaspoon of sugar — under a proposal that a key legislator outlined Tuesday while lawmakers considered raising taxes to erase a projected budget shortfall.
The soda tax advanced by Sen. John Vratil, a Leawood Republican, would increase the cost of a 12-ounce can of soda by a dime and raise an estimated $90 million during the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Some Republican senators already are considering proposals to increase sales, tobacco and alcohol excise tax rates and eliminate sales tax exemptions. The Senate Assessment and Taxation Committee began hearings Tuesday on a bill increasing sales and tobacco taxes.
But GOP senators who want to raise new revenues need support from Democrats, because conservative Republicans oppose increasing taxes. And Democrats want the Senate to discuss raising income taxes or repealing past business tax breaks.
Legislators are under increasing pressure from educators and others to raise taxes to sustain state programs. Advocates for the disabled staged several small, quiet protests Tuesday at the Statehouse.
The gap between anticipated revenues and what’s necessary to keep programs at current levels is projected at $467 million for the next fiscal year. Vratil, the Senate’s vice president, is working with Senate President Steve Morris, a Hugoton Republican, on a plan to increase taxes by $300 million.
“There are ideas ping-ponging around under the Capitol dome, and it’s a little unclear which ones are part of the game and which ones are errant shots,” said Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, an Independence Republican.
Vratil introduced his proposed soda tax during a meeting of the budget-writing Senate Ways and Means Committee, which agreed to sponsor it.
The committee also agreed to sponsor a bill doubling the per-gallon taxes paid by distributors of beer, wine and liquor and the tax that retail stores pay on their gross receipts. The measure would raise an additional $50 million.
Vratil said the soda tax is justified because Kansas — like the nation — is facing an epidemic of obesity and diabetes that is increasing health care costs.
Meanwhile, the Senate tax committee heard testimony from public health advocates backing Democratic Gov. Mark Parkinson’s proposal to raise the cigarette tax by 55 cents, to $1.34 a pack, and to quadruple the tax on other tobacco products to 40 percent. They said measure will raise revenue for programs while discouraging tobacco use.
Conservative Republicans argue that any of the tax proposals will slow economic recovery and increase costs for working families.
“I don’t think they can afford any more taxes,” said Sen. Tim Huelskamp, a Fowler Republican.
Senate tax committee members walked between two lines of people in wheelchairs to enter their meeting room and found small signs advocating increased funding for in-home services for the disabled at their spots at the table.
The advocates displayed empty wheelchairs outside the House Appropriations Committee’s meeting room, and two draped in black, representing Death, stood outside the Statehouse garage to hand out fliers.
“People are literally dying while the Legislature fails to take decisive steps to resolve the budget crisis,” said Greg Jones, advocacy director for Southeast Kansas Independent Living.
The advocates noted that 58 people on a waiting list for in-home services have died since December 2008; about 1,700 disabled Kansas residents are on the list. However, the state reported that 467 people who were receiving services died during the same period; about 6,600 are now receiving them.
Comments
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Centerville (anonymous) says…
This is bogus, as tax revenues have risen 40% in the past ten years, but spending has risen 61%.
flux (anonymous) says…
unfking believable!!!!
pace (anonymous) says…
I hope this passes. I get so mad when I see the ads put out by the beverage lobby, claiming they speak for families. that the American family will suffer and this type of tax is an assault on the children. I don't feed my children soda pop and chips. Soda is not a health drink, it is sugar water with chemicals in it. This country has decided there is no money to educate their own children and to let the elderly live under bridges. But they can afford to give sweet deals to the corporate sharks. Tax the corporations, tax the churches, close the corporate loop holes. When we close the neighborhood schools and run the children to mega auditoriums across town, we won't be planning for their future, we will be spending their future for corporate sweet deals and extra pennies for stock holders. If the soda pop corporations can't afford to pay taxes, then they should go out of business. If they can pay taxes, the taxes should go to pay for education.
storm (anonymous) says…
Instead of ten cents, it should be fifty cents tax on all sodas using high-fructose syrup, as an effort to offset the obesity epidemic.
headdoctor (anonymous) says…
paulette2 (anonymous) says…
I was thinking of a different kind of K O C H tax:
simply google 'Koch Industries' off-shore tax shelter and you will find this:
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And how many times are you going to repost or copy and paste the same stuff? Who knows, maybe Koch Industries is doing something wrong but that is up to the Government to figure that out. What part of privately held don't you get? You are not entitled to the information you have ask about before. What part of outside of Kansas don't you get? What part of tax shelters don't you get? What part of Corporations have shut down or moved out of Kansas and corporate tax laws have changed since the 50's don't you get?
The only thing we get is you do not like Koch Industries. A lot of people don't like them and their activities. Kansas is not going to fix all of their problems even if they find some wrong doing on Koch's part and go after them for it.
JustNoticed (anonymous) says…
headdoctor, what part of "unjust" don't YOU get?
rtpayton (anonymous) says…
Won't give the seniors a cost of living raise but tax the poor folks!
headdoctor (anonymous) says…
JustNoticed (anonymous) says…
headdoctor, what part of "unjust" don't YOU get?
___________________________________________________________________
I get unjust. Whining about it, or complaining that someone has a bigger piece of the pie than you have on a small mid west news paper forum doesn't fix it. Just because I smacked Paulette2 around for spamming the threads doesn't mean I approve of the stunts that corporations get away with. If the corporations are operating within the laws there isn't much an individual is going to be able to do about it. Whine to Congress or the State legislature.
BigDog (anonymous) says…
What a crappy idea........ instead of having the the guts to go ahead and if necessary increase sales tax, income tax, corporate or whatever, Senator Vratil finds a new product to place a "sin tax" on.
Next it will be a "fast food" tax, a "fat" tax, "fake tan" tax, etc.
This way they can hide behind it .... along with "fees" they want to raise. Not saying I would oppose a tax increase but lets cut the crap of trying to hide it and only placing it on certain items.
People are tired of politicians playing games and protecting certain groups (corporations) from paying their share.
kugrad (anonymous) says…
Tax porn. Just the state legislators alone would probably bring in $500,000!
Seriously, add a buck to the cost of every porn mag, tax online porn, tax strip clubs, tax porn and fund schools.
none2 (anonymous) says…
Why aren't they taxing coffee?
MacHeath (anonymous) says…
Tax lap dances?? oh come the heck on, can't i do anything!!
mr_right_wing (anonymous) says…
kugrad, I cannot agree with you more! Tax porn, whose going to complain about that? Do perverts have their own lobby?? I'd think that would fit right in with all "sin tax"!
A tax on sugar? Maybe I'm mistaken, but ever since sugar rationing during WWII, most sodas are now made with corn syrup....it's also cheaper.
If you think about it for a moment, soda today is probably as popular as tea was during the revolutionary war times......makes you think, don't it?
mr_right_wing (anonymous) says…
Oh! Wait, wait wait! I just had a revelation! Don't tax the 'sugar' tax the carbination!! Co2 = global warming, you'll get Al Gore and 95% of environmentalists support! (That will also 'get their foot in the door' to eventually tax breathing.)
Katara (anonymous) says…
BigDog (anonymous) says…
What a crappy idea........ instead of having the the guts to go ahead and if necessary increase sales tax, income tax, corporate or whatever, Senator Vratil finds a new product to place a "sin tax" on.
Next it will be a "fast food" tax, a "fat" tax, "fake tan" tax, etc.
This way they can hide behind it .... along with "fees" they want to raise. Not saying I would oppose a tax increase but lets cut the crap of trying to hide it and only placing it on certain items.
People are tired of politicians playing games and protecting certain groups (corporations) from paying their share.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yup. Stop the BS and just get on with what needs to be done and be upfront about it.
jadkansas (anonymous) says…
LOL, guess the coke break is going the way of the smoke break. It starts with taxes folks! *sips tea*
toe (anonymous) says…
Schools have been kicking this tax around for years. School boards around the state have discussed taxes on soda pop and sweets because they see the kids getting fat on it. What this tax will do is shift consumption to other sugar free drinks and bring in far less revenue than predicted. Schools are into one thing and one thing only. Control.
tomatogrower (anonymous) says…
Centerville (anonymous) says…
This is bogus, as tax revenues have risen 40% in the past ten years, but spending has risen 61%.
What is your source for these figures? I think someone is feeding you a line. I don't think tax revenues have risen, but fallen drastically.
This tax works for me, but is the tax on diet pop too. Just wondering.
whats_going_on (anonymous) says…
Maybe a good idea in theory...not really going to work. Soda is made a lot with HFCS. Plus this will just increase drinking of other beverages that claim to be healthy but can be worse than soda...for instance, sports drinks (not the low calorie ones or vitamin water). They are already putting those in schools claiming they are better.
grimpeur (anonymous) says…
25 cents/gallon state gas tax increase. We can afford it. We already have. And still we didn't learn.
Make it 50 cents. Do it now.
parrothead8 (anonymous) says…
Where are all the typical right wing comments about Obama wanting to run all of our lives? Oh...that's right. These tax proposals are all coming from Republicans.
tennesseerader (anonymous) says…
You need to fire half of the state employees. Just go to Topeka and see the government employees filing their fingernails and talking about personal matters while on the clock.
About Koch industries: Kansas is lucky to have Koch industries offices located there. You should be thankful for the tremendous amount of taxes they already pay. Just jerk them around and see what happens! Guess what? Koch will relocate to another state; or worse yet, another country.
I think I'll call them up and see if they'll relocate to Tennessee. We're getting new automobile plants built here and we have no State Income Tax. Our property tax is 1/3 of what yours is. Get a clue.
kansasredlegs (anonymous) says…
How about less services for a change? Suck it up and learn to do without or wait, try doing things for yourself without Nanny government doing everything for you. Government waste more money than any entity under any taxing system. Reading these posts, it astounds me how much poster drone on for more taxes. Studies indicate that we taxpayers work over one-half year to pay all taxes (income / sales), fees (hidden taxes - excise, fuel, vehicle registration, etc.) It's never been a need for more taxes, but responsible spending at all levels of government.
I am not against taxes, as in a free society, we must pay for defense, infrastructure, etc. However, what bothers me about posters here is that if they want to turn over all their income, go ahead, but I will keep every penny I can out of the government wasteland. If you like to pay high taxes so much, move to a socialist country, they still exist. That little Marxist experiment in Communism failed, so I guess your out of luck finding one of them.
Hydra (Roger Ford) says…
paulette2 (anonymous) says…
head doctor certainly has his shoved in the sand.
Hey Paulette are you real sure it's sand?