This week has already seen more action than any other 48 hours of this veto session.  There is now a new tax plan and an education finance plan for Kansas.

Tonight at 8:05 p.m. the Senate voted to override the Governor’s veto of Sub for SB 30 – the tax legislation that the Legislature came together to pass on Monday.  A veto override requires a 2/3 vote, and the Senate vote was 27-13.    The House voted to override the veto at 9:45 p.m. with a vote of 88-31.   Read a summary of the tax package here – CCR for Sub for SB 30.  It is not a full repeal of the 2012 tax cuts, but does repeal the LLC tax exemption, increase income tax rates, and add a third income tax bracket.  It is similar but not exactly the same as the tax plan the Governor vetoed in February.

Monday was a very busy day.  First, the House shot down SB 19 the joint tax/education bill that had tied up the Legislature on Sunday.  That proposal only got 32 votes.

The conference committee then pulled out the tax portion of SB 19 and re-ran it with only the school finance language.  The House adopted the school finance formula 67-55 at 7:00 p.m.

The Senate later approved the school finance package 23-17.   

The Tax Conference Committee also crafted an alternative tax plan in the afternoon for consideration Monday evening.  The House adopted that broader tax proposal in the form of Conference Committee Report for Sub for SB 30 and passed it 69-52.

The Senate adopted the tax package around midnight 26-14 and the Governor’s office wasted no time in putting out the word that he intended to veto it.  Senators immediately worked to find another vote in order to be able to override, and there were several moments on Tuesday when that seemed unlikely.

On Tuesday, the House and Senate waited until 2:00 p.m. to convene and approved a few conference committee reports approved while everyone waited for the veto message from the Governor – which came down late in the afternoon.

It was the third late night in a row in the Statehouse and many are encouraged to see the Legislature end their tax stalemate and move forward to develop the FY18-FY19 Budget.

Senate Omnibus Budget Bill

The Senate passed it’s omnibus budget bill around 10 p.m. Sunday night on a vote of 27-13. 

Senate Ways and Means Chairman Carolyn McGinn offered a series of unusual amendments in an effort to – as she described it – allow members of the Senate to have meaningful input into the budget.  She stated that pay-go rules have led to dissatisfaction by many legislators, as most of the budget amendments are created by only committee members.  So, she offered amendments to delete multiple funding provisions including dollars for crisis stabilization centers, mental health centers, wage increases for state employees and waiver direct services rates.  With each proposed amendment, she stated her support for these budget enhancements and said she would vote against the amendments.  As a result, the Senate has verified its support of these enhancements. (These amendments were also unusual because they were mostly amending items that had been approved in SB 189 – the mega budget bill, not HB 2002.)

There were a few amendments adopted, but the omnibus bill remained essentially the same.

House Appropriations Committee passed their omnibus bill / mega budget bill after midnight Tuesday night.  The House isn’t expected to run that budget bill until Thursday.  Typically, the conference committee can’t start meeting until that has occurred.