Republican leaders in the Kansas House offered their “trailer bill” proposal Wednesday afternoon that could pave the way for lawmakers to end the 2015 session. But the process of getting both bills through the House, and then getting the trailer bill through the Senate, could be difficult.

House Taxation Committee chairman Marvin Kleeb, R-Overland Park, outlined the proposal in a conference committee meeting Wednesday afternoon.

The trailer bill would clean up, or completely undo, many of the add-on policies that the Senate put into its tax bill. Specifically, it would:

• Continue the food sales tax credit program in which low-income, elderly and disabled individuals can get an income tax credit equal to a portion of the sales tax they paid on food during the year. The Senate bill called for eliminating that program.

• Establish a commission to review various tax exemptions and credits and make recommendations to the Legislature next year about which ones to keep and which to repeal, a clarify which exemptions are eligible for repeal and which are not. In particular, the commission would not review imposing sales taxes on motor fuels, or items purchased by non-profit hospitals, blood banks or schools.

• Clarify language about a property tax lid on cities and counties, providing a number of exceptions under which those local governments could increase property tax revenue beyond the rate of inflation without having to seek a public vote. One area still hazy in the plan would be instances when property tax revenues grow due to new construction and population growth. Kleeb would only say the bill gives “flexibility” in that area, but did not define that further.

• And modify language in the Senate’s bill regarding private school scholarships that pay for low-income students in public schools to transfer to private or parochial schools.

Getting that bill through both chambers could be a difficult task, however. Kleeb outlined the following steps that would need to take place.

First, the House must vote on and pass the Senate’s tax plan. If it passes, the House will hang on to that bill – i.e., not send it to the governor – until all the other steps are completed.

Second, the House would vote on the trailer bill. If it fails, the House would vote to reconsider its action on the underlying “mega-bill” and go back to the drawing table to come up with a new plan. But if it passes, the House would send the trailer bill over to the Senate.

If the Senate fails to pass the trailer bill, then again, the House would reconsider its passage of the underlying bill. But if the Senate passes the trailer bill, both would go to Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, who has indicated he would sign them.

Another complicating factor is that many of the items in the trailer bill would repeal or scale back positions that were popular with conservatives in both chambers. So leaders may need to rely on Democrats and moderate Republicans to support the trailer bill.

Rep. Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita, the ranking minority member on the House tax panel, said it is possible that some Democrats could vote for the trailer bill because it improves the underlying bill. But he would give no guaranty until House members see the exact language of the bill.

Sawyer said it is a certainty that no Democrats will vote for the underlying Senate bill.