The Kansas Legislature missed a significant opportunity Wednesday to plug a billion-dollar hole in the state’s budget.

“We’re at a seminal point in this state’s history,” state Sen. Tom Holland said in appealing to his colleagues to override Gov. Sam Brownback’s veto of a bipartisan tax bill. “We can continue to flounder or we can do the right thing.”

The Senate voted 24 to 16 to override the veto, three votes shy of the two-thirds majority necessary. That put the Legislature back to square one in dealing with its fiscal crisis. What happens next is unclear, but it’s hard to argue with Holland and his 14 years of experience in the Legislature.

Get ready for floundering.

The tax bill would have raised $1 billion in new taxes by repealing many of the tax cuts Brownback championed during his administration. It would have repealed the LLC “loophole” that exempts more than 330,000 farmers and business owners from paying income taxes on business income. The bill would have reinstated a third income tax bracket for individuals earning more than $50,000 a year, or married couples filing jointly who make over $100,000 a year. All changes would have been retroactive to Jan. 1, 2017.

The bill was approved last week on a 76-48 vote in the House that included support from 40 Republicans and 36 Democrats. The bill passed the Senate on a 22-18 vote with 14 Republicans and eight Democrats voting for it.

There was significant public and legislative momentum behind the bill. Even after Brownback vetoed the bill Tuesday, the House responded quickly by voting 85-40 to override the veto, setting up the dramatic Senate vote late Wednesday.

The tax bill was far from perfect. There were concerns that the bill taxed the state’s poorest residents too much. Lawmakers worried about making the tax retroactive. Some felt it was premature to discuss taxes when spending cuts haven’t been fully addressed. But as Holland pointed out, those are issues that could have been addressed once the bill had passed.

Now, it’s back to the drawing board on a tax plan. Assuming that plan will include repealing the LLC loophole, the plan will again need two-thirds support in both houses because Brownback is as committed to the LLC loophole as lawmakers are committed to repealing it.

Here’s hoping that lawmakers weren’t bluffing when they said Wednesday that other tax plans are waiting in the wings that the Legislature can act quickly upon. But history tells us that isn’t likely to be the case. As Holland warned on the floor Wednesday, “it’s going to get a lot uglier now.”