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Fuses lit for veto session
By Martin Hawver
Gov. Laura Kelly, 18 hours before the Kansas House and Senate open their veto session at 10 a.m. Thursday, vetoed the property tax cut bill that lawmakers sent her just over a week ago, and suggested that they spend their two-, possibly three-day session adopting her plan to cut property taxes – including a quick one-time $250 tax credit for all vehicle owners in the state when they register their vehicles.
Ninety minutes later, Kelly signed the massive $10.7 billion budget bill, while deriding it and peppering it with multiple line-item vetoes.
“Despite this being a really bad budget, l will sign it because the alternative is worse,” she said. She blamed much of the budget on President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” which she said reduced federal funding for many agencies, and “as a result, our state agencies’ budgets are having to shoulder costs previously absorbed at the federal level.”
Action on the two bills is nearly certain to lengthen the scheduled two- or three-day veto session.
Her tax bill veto is an attempt to force-feed her own tax cut proposal to lawmakers, to use state idle funds for the vehicle tax credit and to separately establish a $60 million fund to help local units of government to economize their operations to presumably no more than 3% property tax increases each year. Third leg of the governor’s tax cut stool is for the state to provide tax relief for the 20 mills that are levied to assist the state in paying its share of public school costs.
That school levy proposal would increase from the current $75,000 to $150,000 the assessed value of homes that is currently exempted from the 20-mill levy for schools which is collected through property taxes.
Kelly said the move would provide relief for more than 700,000 Kansas homeowners each year, while safeguarding school aid.
The move provides quick relief to those registering their vehicles – much before election day.
The tax bill Kelly vetoed today was opposed by scores of local government officials who said that it essentially tied their hands in providing local services. The bill was passed by narrow margins in each chamber, 63-59 in the House and 22-18 in the Senate before it was presented to her on March 30. Nobody’s betting her veto can be overridden.
Kelly said the limits on spending by local units of government in the vetoed bill have already sparked those units to reopen their budgets, threatening police, fire fighters, road repairs, school funding, approval of bonds issued by local units and even some construction projects already under way.
The veto and her new tax plan also appear to power local units of government which receive about 80% of property tax receipts time to work with state assistance on methods to reduce the cost of local government services, with bonuses for some local government agencies that find ways to be more efficient.
Kelly’s veto/tax cut proposal drew immediate objection from legislative leaders, with House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, and Majority Leader Chris Croft, R-Overland Park, labeling it political and ineffective.
The vetoed bill was returned to the House today because the measure is House Bill 2745, where the governor’s actions will be first considered before the veto override effort heads to the Senate.
“Kansas families are being crushed by rising property taxes. Across the state, they are being forced into tightening their budgets and making smarter, more fiscally responsible choices. Local government should be doing the same. This conversation is not over and we will continue to fight to put Kansans who are suffering under out-of-control property taxes back in the driver’s seat,” Hawkins said this afternoon.
Croft said the Legislature “worked hard to deliver on its promise of relief and passed a bill to give the voters the ability to stop excessive property tax hikes. This veto ignores their need and the will of the people.”
Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover—and GOP gubernatorial nomination candidate—said, “At the 11th hour, Laura Kelly has thrown out a completely disingenuous property tax relief plan to the Legislature. Earlier today I said she’s not serious about reining in skyrocketing property taxes. Her veto of real property tax relief that we spent all session working on and this last-minute plan continue to prove my point.”
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Budget bill signed, with line-item vetoes
The relatively late start on receipt of the heavily line-itemed appropriations bill may lead lawmakers into the weekend after legislators had been told that two days would end the session—hopefully in daylight on Friday.
That bill’s treatment--including which of the governor’s line-item vetoes will be accepted and which are politically worth keeping the Legislature in session into the weekend--is not known. Could be quick, could be the place where legislative leaders seeking higher office might want to show their opposition to policies of a governor who is serving her final year in office and will be replaced by voters in November.
The budget bill passed the House 67-53, the Senate 23-16. It’s not known how each chamber will deal with attempts to override the line- item vetoes.
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15 other vetoes today
Oh, while legislators were packing their cars for the veto session, Kelly also found another 15 bills that she vetoed this afternoon. They range from voter and mail voting restriction measures to protests at schools and on campuses.
Gotta wonder how many shirts legislators should pack for the veto session…
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No marijuana this year
While Boomers and other Grown-Ups who are more likely to wake up with aching hips and knees have sought legislative approval for medical marijuana – just ease the pain, not necessarily rock’n’roll like we did in college – nothing is going to happen this year. And if it does, well, someone needs to check the water in the Statehouse.
Surprisingly, polling has showed that a strong majority – some polls show it as high as 70% – favor at least doctor-prescribed medical marijuana, if not recreational pot.
And not surprisingly, the GOP-run Legislature has not seriously considered the issue, even with strict medical guidelines and restrictions on medical marijuana use.
The Silver Haired Legislature, a senior citizen advocacy group, has seen one of its leading issues – along with voting rights and property taxes – stalled. Someone probably has done the statistics, but it seems like a strong issue that has some scientific/political objection and never made it beyond committee consideration, with no formal votes.
Practically, many believed that seniors who tend to vote at high percentages just haven’t pushed the issue hard enough, or cleverly enough.
And maybe that’s why there’s no strong legislative action to provide transportation to voting places for the elderly and disabled who might show their frustration on the medical marijuana issue with their votes…
Anyone else think the campaign signs for candidates who support medical marijuana will be interesting, or at least more colorful.
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