Rather than just apply a quick fix to an ill-conceived cap on local property taxes, Kansas legislators have another, better option: Eliminate the measure and decide next year whether to put the cap through the full deliberative process that such a law deserves.

In the waning days of the legislative session, lawmakers mistakenly passed two versions of the bill that will bar cities and counties from increasing their property tax revenues by more than the rate of inflation unless they hold an election to approve that increase. One version has the law taking effect next week (July 1), while the other has it taking effect in 2018. Legislative leaders say they plan to correct the discrepancy on Friday when lawmakers gather for their ceremonial sine die adjournment.

The fact that such a basic problem could arise is a clear indication that this measure didn’t receive the kind of scrutiny it deserved — and would have received if it had gone through the prescribed legislative process, including committee hearings. Such hearings would have given local government officials an opportunity to raise some basic concerns about the bill. Key among those is the virtually impossible timeline for scheduling a public election in the middle of the budget process. There also are issues related to the cost of such elections — not to mention the extreme irony, in light of the recent state budget process, of state legislators presuming to tell local officials how to balance their budgets.

It’s not even completely clear which effective date legislators will choose for the property tax measure. The 2018 date would give local governments some time to prepare, but it seems likely that many local governments would preemptively raise property taxes now to beat that deadline. For that reason, some legislators might think it’s necessary to implement the law immediately so local officials wouldn’t have that chance.

Both the substance of the bill and the handling of this bill is extremely disrespectful of the authority that local elected officials have to make local budget decisions. After passing what some have called the largest tax increase in state history, legislators are setting limits on the primary source of revenue for local governments. And they are doing that without even giving local officials an opportunity to be involved in the discussion.

Delaying the effective date for this legislation until 2018 would at least give the state some time to clean up and clarify this bill. An even better strategy, however, would be to eliminate this proposal entirely and, if it still seems like a good idea next year, introduce the measure again and run it through a full legislative review.