photo by: AP Photo/John Hanna

Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, speaks to fellow senators before the Senate's session, Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024, at the Statehouse in Topeka.

A plan to create a new flat rate income tax system in Kansas has won a key vote in the state Senate.

Sen. President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, said the new flat tax plan was approved in the Senate Thursday night with a “bipartisan supermajority.”

The bill — Senate Bill 539 — would replace Kansas’ current income tax system that charges different rates to individual taxpayers based on their incomes. The new system would charge a flat rate of 5.7% to all individual taxpayers for tax year 2024 and that rate would automatically decrease by increments of 0.05 of a percentage point, falling to 5.45% by tax year 2029.

Masterson and other GOP leaders have praised flat tax as a way to generally reduce taxes. In a press release early Friday, Masterson said passage of the bill was a “significant step towards reducing taxes for every Kansan,” and would put the state on a “glidepath to real economic growth.”

Opponents of the flat tax plans have said they disproportionately help the state’s highest income earners, and Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the last flat tax plan to come out the Legislature, which was earlier this session. A veto override attempt by legislators failed. When vetoing the proposal in January, Kelly said the bill was “reckless” and would “put our public schools, roads, and stable economy at risk just to give a break to those at the very top.”

The previous proposal would have created a flat tax rate of 5.25%. The latest bill raises that amount in what Masterson said was a “compromise plan.” The latest plan still has a couple of steps before it can become law. The bill still must be debated by Kansas House, and if approved there, it would either need Kelly’s signature, or legislators would need supermajorities in both houses to override a veto by the governor.

This latest plan cleared the Senate with a supermajority vote of 29-11. It passed largely along party lines. One Democrat — David Haley of Kansas City — voted for the bill. One Republican — Robert Olson of Olathe — voted against the bill.

In addition to the flat rate income tax, the bill also includes provisions that would end the sales tax on groceries on July 1, create a larger property tax exemption for homeowners as it relates to the statewide property tax mill levy for schools, reduce the tax rate that banks and savings and loans pay, among several other provisions.