Kansas Senate calls off tax debate

Democratic Sens. Tom Holland of Baldwin City and Marci Francisco of Lawrence confer on the Senate floor before a scheduled debate and vote on a 96 million tax bill. But Republican leaders called off the debate and rescheduled it for Wednesday of next week.

? Republican leaders in the Kansas Senate called off a scheduled debate and vote on a $496 million tax package on Thursday, then adjourned for an extended Memorial Day weekend.

Lawmakers will return Tuesday for what will be the 96th day of the 2015 session, leaving a number of Lawrence-area legislators frustrated at the lack of progress in solving the state’s looming budget crisis.

“It just shows you how bad the work product is right now,” said Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, the ranking Democrat on the tax committee that put together the bill that was to be debated Thursday. “After four-plus months of being in session, the governor and the leadership still don’t have a plan for closing the session down.”

Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence, said she wished the debate had gone forward.

“I think it was very appropriate to schedule it today so that we’d have some information, and then when we go back to our communities people can weigh in again on the specifics,” she said.

Senate Republican Leader Terry Bruce of Hutchinson said the debate was postponed because of “a plethora of amendment requests” that legislative staff had not had time to draft.

“In order to get our members on the road at a decent hour today, and to accommodate the revisor’s office, as well as our plans to conduct a fruitful debate, we’re going to have to postpone this item until next week, most likely Wednesday morning after most of our senators have returned,” Bruce said.

Lawmakers need to come up with roughly half a billion dollars in new revenue to fund the budget that House and Senate negotiators have tentatively agreed to and leave the state with a positive ending balance at the end of the fiscal year. But there is sharp division within the Republican ranks over how to do that.

Most moderate and even some conservative Republicans have said they believe it’s time to revisit the sweeping income tax cuts that were enacted in 2012. But a solid group of conservatives are refusing even to consider that, saying those tax cuts will eventually spur economic growth.

Most Democrats, meanwhile, say they won’t vote for any new taxes until Republicans agree to repeal the total exemption granted in 2012 for non-wage income for certain types of business owners.

Last week, the House debated a smaller tax bill that would have raised about $363 million, mostly from an increase in the state sales tax.

Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence, who opposed that bill, said the House is no closer to reaching an agreement on taxes now. But he thinks that could change over the weekend.

“I understand there are going to be a series of meetings this weekend among the leadership cadre, and they’re going to come up with a tax plan that will be debated on Wednesday,” Sloan said.

That would mean both the House and Senate will debate tax bills on the same day. But Sloan, a moderate Republican, sees little chance that a tax bill put together solely by the conservative House leadership can pass.

“If they’re not including any of the moderate Republicans, it’s going to be hard to get to 63 votes,” he said. “Not that we need to be sitting there, but they need to know what we can live with and what we can’t.”

Some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have expressed frustration that there isn’t a sense of urgency among most lawmakers to find a solution.

“With some of us, yes there is,” said Sen. Les Donovan, R-Wichita, who chairs the Senate tax panel. “I’d love to get out of here. But until we get agreement with enough people to pass something, we won’t get out.”

Senate Majority Leader Bruce said he thinks a sense of urgency has only started to build.

“I think I’ve noticed a change on the Senate side the last couple of days,” he said. “Folks were coming up with new ideas which, it’s always good to have ideas. However I don’t know if they were going to end fruitfully or be very productive. Sometimes you just have to start closing doors and focusing in on the core issues that are practicable.”

Thursday marked the 95th day of what was supposed to be a 90-day session. Each day the Legislature remains in session costs the state about $43,000, mainly for salaries and daily expense allowances for legislators, as well as pay for the skeleton crew of secretaries who are allowed to continue working after the 90th day.

Because lawmakers formally adjourned for the weekend, they will not be paid for the four days they are off.