photo by: John Hanna/AP File

In this Wednesday, July 28, 2021, file photo, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly speaks to reporters during a news conference at the Statehouse in Topeka.

Updated at 1:35 p.m. Monday

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly will be introducing a bill in the Legislature to eliminate the state sales tax on food, her office announced Monday.

“I’m pleased to introduce a plan that will ‘Axe the Food Tax’ and end the state sales tax on food,” Kelly said in a news release. “For too long, Kansans have been paying more for groceries than people in almost every other state.”

Kansas is one of seven states that fully tax groceries. Kansas’ food sales tax rate is 6.5%, the second-highest rate in the country; Mississippi’s is the highest at 7%, according to the Federation of Tax Administrators. Under Kelly’s proposed bill, a family of four would save an average of $500 or more on their grocery bill every year, according to the release.

Details of the pending bill weren’t included in Kelly’s announcement; however, a press release from the governor’s office touted that it would involve elimination of the state sales tax on food. In Douglas County — and most other counties — there’s also a local sales tax charged on food and groceries. In Lawrence, that’s a 2.8% tax, while it is 2.5% in Baldwin City and 3% in Eudora and Lecompton.

Kelly’s announcement did not estimate how much the state would lose in revenue by eliminating the sales tax on food. In Lawrence, the city collects about $3.5 million a year in sales taxes from grocery and food stores, according to city and state data.

The governor’s bill will be introduced during the 2022 legislative session. During Monday’s announcement, Kelly called on lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to get a clean bill through the Legislature and onto her desk as quickly as possible.

The Democratic governor outlined her plan for providing roughly $450 million a year in relief to consumers three days after Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt called on the GOP-controlled Legislature to reduce or eliminate the tax next year. Schmidt hopes to unseat Kelly in the 2022 governor’s race.

Their support will likely make reducing or ending the 6.5% state sales tax on groceries a top issue for lawmakers once they reconvene in January. But Republicans have in the past tied modest reductions in the tax to income tax cuts that Kelly has opposed, and she’s vetoed the bills.

Kansas is flush for now. Tax collections from July 1 through Oct. 31 were 18.9% greater than projected for a surplus of $440 million.

Kelly promised during her 2018 campaign for governor to push for cutting the tax.

— The Associated Press contributed to this story.