Kansas lawmakers fail to override veto of income tax increases

Reporting from Topeka, Kan. —  Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback on Wednesday vetoed a bill that would undo his signature income tax cut, and his allies prevented the Legislature from overriding him, setting up future confrontations over balancing the state budget.

Less than two hours after Brownback vetoed the bill, the state House voted 85 to 40 to override him, giving supporters one vote more than the two-thirds majority they needed. But the vote in the Senate hours later was 24 to 16, which was three shy of a two-thirds majority.

By not overriding the veto, lawmakers will have to draft another plan aimed at closing projected budget shortfalls totaling nearly $1.1 billion through June 2019.

Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican who opposed overriding the veto, said the elements of a new plan would remain similar: Increases in personal income tax rates and an end to an exemption for more than 330,000 farmers and business owners. The governor opposes both moves.

“I think we could see several vetoes,” she told fellow Republican senators during a pre-vote caucus.

Even though supporters of the bill didn’t have two-thirds majorities last week, they hoped that some GOP lawmakers would switch their votes to head off the prospects of a drawn-out fight over increasing taxes. Some Republican legislators who switched Wednesday said they didn’t see better proposals emerging.

“There’s a lot of things wrong with this, and I’ve been waiting until the last minute to find an alternative, a possibility I could latch onto, a fig leaf of some kind, but I have not yet seen it,” said state Rep. Clay Aurand, a Republican whose late switch from “no” to “yes” inspired loud cheers and applause.

The bill would have raised more than $1 billion over two years, starting in July.

Brownback vetoed the measure the morning after pledging to do so during a speech to an annual banquet of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce. It is the state’s largest business group, a powerful voice within the Republican Party and a strong backer of income tax cuts.

“I’ve been against income tax increases as long as I’ve been in public life,” Brownback said during a news conference after signing his veto message to lawmakers.

Kansas has struggled to balance its budget since Republican lawmakers slashed income taxes in 2012 and 2013 at Brownback’s urging.

The governor called the proposed tax increases “punitive.” He’s long touted the 2012 and 2013 tax cuts as pro-growth policies that are models for other states and the federal government.

Supporters of the bill see it as necessary for balancing the budget without deep cuts in aid to public schools and government programs. Brownback has proposed raising cigarette and liquor taxes and increasing annual filing fees paid by for-profit businesses, along with internal government borrowing and other accounting moves.