Sales-tax vote was hard but necessary

Written by Bob Brookens Tuesday, 01 June 2010 20:09

Editor’s note: We inadvertently reprinted Rep. Bob Brookens’ column last week. This is the column he intended to appear in our May 26 issue. We regret our error.

 

The 2010 Kansas Legislative session is about to come to an end. Sine Die (official final day of the session) will be Friday, and we don’t expect fireworks.

I thought you might want to know that before January 2010, the legislature and governor had between them cut more than $1 billion—yes, billion—from state spending. Since then, we have trimmed about $200 million more from spending in the upcoming budget.

OK, it doesn’t trim, it whacks off another $200 million. That’s about $1.2 billion in cuts before we addressed the issue of a tax increase.

I appreciate...

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Join our Relay team if you want

Written by Bob Brookens Tuesday, 25 May 2010 19:18

The legislative session is over, having ended at about 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 11. It’s the first session in years, I’m told, to end in daylight.

As you might know by now, we passed a balanced but fragile budget—and increased the sales tax by one cent, which sunsets in three years, at which time 0.4 of that cent will stay for road funding.

You had said through the survey that if a tax had to go up, you would prefer it be the sale tax rather than property tax, so that’s what I advocated for. I also pushed hard for a cigarette and beer tax increase as a way to reduce the sales tax increase.

I even advocated with senators whom I know. The Senate first tried a cigarette-tax proposal, but couldn’t muster the votes to pass it.

The...

Read more: Join our Relay team if you want

State budget passes with 1 cent sales tax

Written by Bob Brookens Tuesday, 18 May 2010 18:32

The legislative session is over, having ended at about 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 11. It’s the first session in years, I’m told, to end in daylight.

As you might know by now, we passed a balanced but fragile budget—and increased the sales tax by 1 cent, which sunsets in three years, at which time 0.4 of that cent will stay for road funding.

You had said through the survey that if a tax had to go up, you would prefer it be the sales tax rather than property tax, so that’s what I advocated for. I also pushed hard for a cigarette and beer tax increase as a way to reduce the sales tax increase.

I even advocated with senators whom I know. The Senate first tried a cigarette-tax proposal, but couldn’t muster the votes to pass it.

The...

Read more: State budget passes with 1 cent sales tax

Alternative budget will restore Medicaid cuts to nursing homes

Written by Bob Brookens Tuesday, 11 May 2010 19:19

The veto session is a start-and-stop operation. We wait on conference negotiation reports between the House and Senate, trying to hammer out our differences, and then we consider them one by one in the House chamber.

We worked all week, and Friday’s efforts ended at 4 a.m. Saturday; then we took up our work again Saturday and adjourned at 10 p.m. We hoped we could wrap up the session Saturday night, but did not.

Early Saturday morning, the House passed an alternative budget that will fund schools at the same level as the 2009-10 school year. You might recall the House Appropriations budget had proposed to underfund schools to the tune of $86 million (initially by $172 million), and it would have let schools raise the rest of their...

Read more: Alternative budget will restore Medicaid cuts to nursing homes