Topeka ? Two state senators got into a brief debate Monday on how many of them voted for a tax increase.

Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence, maintained a total of 38 of the state’s 40 senators voted for a tax increase.

Francisco noted that 23 voted for the one-cent sales tax rate increase, while 15 different senators voted earlier for an amendment that increased the sales tax rate by nine-tenths of a cent and would have also levied sales taxes on abortions.

Francisco’s assertion caused state Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, R-Shawnee, to stand up quickly.

Pilcher-Cook was the author of that amendment.

Pilcher-Cook maintained her amendment was really a tax decrease because it would have reduced the proposed increase by one-tenth of a cent. Francisco disagreed, saying Pilcher-Cook’s amendment proposed increasing the state sales tax from the current rate of 5.3 cents per dollar to 6.2 cents per dollar. The amendment failed.