It was a difficult but necessary vote.
That’s the sentiment of Senate Vice President Jeff Longbine, just two days after the historical override of the Governor’s veto to enact the largest income tax increase in Kansas history. The legislation not only increased income taxes to close a $889 million budget shortfall through 2019, it also provided a $293 million increase in public school funding over two years.
Longbine said that a vote to raise taxes, is not an easy vote for anyone.
“I don’t know of a single Legislator that wants to raise taxes; unfortunately we found ourselves in a budget deficit over ’18 and ’19 of almost $900 million, and on top of that the requirement to do a new school finance formula,” said Longbine. “So we really had very little options.”
State lawmakers worked throughout the Legislative Session to find a tax plan, school funding formula that Governor Brownback would agree with and ultimately sign.
“The Governor has been critical of the Legislature in passing [that], but we really had very few options.”
Longbine noted that going forward, he is optimistic for Kansas and that it’s citizens “will have options.”
“We can start restoring highway funds, we can make sure that we do fund K-12 education, we can hopefully keep tuition increases down at our higher ed institutions, and make sure that we’re taking care of our infrastructure,” said Longbine.
The tax increase, albeit monumental for the future of the State, was met with criticism from more than 330,000 farmers and small business owners who benefitted from Brownback’s tax exemptions he championed in 2012 and 2013.
Longbine noted that the re-establishment of the LLC is difficult, but it’s not necessarily negative. “In previous tax policy, the state of Kansas no longer allowed loss carryovers, so if a small business or a farmer had a bad year they couldn’t carry those losses forward and couldn’t write off those losses; with the new tax legislation that’s been passed, those losses will flow through…I don’t think the impact to allow those losses to flow through will be as big as people think it will.”
Nonetheless, adjournment for the Legislature is near.
“The Senate has passed our two year budget and we’ve also passed what is called the ominous bill – which is kind of the cleanup bill that comes after revenue estimates are finalized in April.”
Longbine noted that the House is debating their version of two year budget bill today; if the bill in the House passes today negotiators between the House and Senate will begin conferencing on the differences and similarities between the two bills to come to a compromise.
Once the House and Senate have come to a compromise on a budget, legislators should be able to adjourn. Longbine is hopeful this will occur on Friday (June 9th).