What? The governor wants to cut taxes but the Republicans aren’t so sure
by James Jordan, Sumner Newscow — Kansas has a $2.5 billion surplus and as expected there is a lot of debate as to what to do with this money.
Ironically enough, Democratic Governor Laura Kelley wants to cut taxes, and Republicans want to be cautious about cutting taxes.
Sen. Larry Alley, R-Winfield, and State Rep. Kyle Hoffman R-Coldwater are not completely against cutting taxes but want to cut them less than the governor does and want to do other things with the money.
Alley said that is a lot of money, and he wants to do things that will have a long-lasting result and will not cause deficits in the future.
Alley wants to put about half a billion into KPERS, the state retirement fund, which would get that program out of the red and make it healthier.
“That would save the state $50 million a year on interest. I think it would be smarter to pay that debt down and have money in the future,” he said.
The governor wants to reduce or eliminate sales tax on food. Alley said that is a good thought, but when the surplus is gone, the state will have to make up that money.
“If you cut sales tax on food by a penny, that is $50 million a year in revenue, and if you cut all of the sales tax on food, that would be $400 million in lost revenue. We could do that this year, but what would we do in future years?”
Both Alley and Hoffman want to reduce the sales tax some, but not to the level the governor is proposing.
Alley said it could be lowered some this year, and if revenue keeps coming in, lower it more in future years.
Hoffman said he thinks the sales tax on food will be lowered, and he is in favor of cutting it back some maybe on everything.
Both are also against the governor’s proposal to send every Kansan $250. Alley said he wants to do things with the money that will have a lasting benefit.
Redistricting
Redistricting is also a major issue at the Statehouse this year, with all the district maps being drawn every 10 years.
There has been some controversy with Democrats saying the plan for Congressional districts is unfair, and they have accused Republicans of gerrymandering.
Alley said the problem is addressing the concentration of population around the Kansas City area.
Kansas has almost 3 million people. Johnson and Wyandotte counties have 760,000 between them, nearly a fourth of the state’s population. There are four congressional districts in Kansas.
Alley said the request was to not divide Johnson County, so the plan did not, but it did divide Wyandotte County. He said it was just a matter of figuring out how to divide the state’s population.
These maps will go to the governor soon. Next week state officials will start reconfiguring state senate and state representative districts.
Alley said hid district, which includes parts of Sumner County, lots 7,000 people in the last 10 years. He will have to have more people in his district, so will have to take in a larger area.
Each house and senate member at the state level can send in a proposal for their district.
Elections
The state is also considering some minor changes to election laws. While there has been controversy in some states, Kansas has not had many protests of its elections. Both Alley and Hoffman said Kansas has had most of those rules on its books for years.
“We want our elections to continue to be safe, and we want them to be transparent so people will know they are safe,” Alley said.
Alley said Kansas did an audit of its election as it always does, and he said there were very few problems found.
One thing being considered is to change the deadline for receiving mail-in ballots to the night of the election. They want the deadline to be at midnight on election day. Currently, the deadline is three days after the election.
