Category: Gov. Laura Kelly

Property, sales and income tax mega-bundle approved by Kansas governor

Plan to cost state $91 million in 2023 tax revenue

by Noah Taborda, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — A Kansas bill signed into law Thursday spans the gamut of tax policy, packaging more than two dozen measures amending property, sales and income tax laws.

The massive House Bill 2239, backed by the Legislature and Gov. Laura Kelly, included provisions from 29 different bills cutting taxes and will hack nearly $91 million from state tax revenue in the first year. The largest cost is the taxpayer-assessed 20 mill levy toward supporting K-12 public education.

In approving the changes to state tax laws, Gov. Kelly said she felt the opportunity to provide relief for Kansans was now, while the state experiences its first budget surplus in decades.

“Our fiscal responsibility has put Kansas back on track,” Gov. Kelly said. “We’ve been able to fully fund our schools, fix our roads and bridges, balance the budget and cut property taxes, providing relief for Kansans.”

The House voted 103-10 to adopt the bill, while no senator opposed the measure. Before negotiations between the two chambers, House tax committee leaders said the bill drained close to $500 million.

In 2024, the package will sap $99.8 million in state tax revenue and an additional $119.6 million in 2025.

The changes increase the residential property tax exemption, provide homestead property tax refunds to eligible taxpayers and will broaden the property tax reduction authority of county commissioners for property destroyed by a disaster.

Rep. Adam Smith, R-Weskan, said the measure contains many noncontroversial measures so he was excited to see the governor approve it. In particular, he applauded the property tax relief provided and the homestead exemption for qualifying elderly Kansans.

“A lot of senior citizens on fixed lower incomes, are faced with increasing property values and property tax statements every year,” Rep. Smith said. “This essentially, once they hit the qualifying terms for the program, freezes their property tax bill, and that’s something they can count on for for the rest of their years is that the property taxes that are due will never be going up.”

Although some legislators expressed concern about passing so-called mega bill legislation, both parties found common ground in the bill.

The law provides tax credits for school and classroom supplies purchased by teachers and graduates of aerospace and aviation-related educational programs and employers of graduates. It also provides additional personal income tax exemptions for disabled veterans.

“I am very pleased Kansas taxpayers will benefit from the governor’s election year conversion,” said Senate President Ty Masterson.

Additional provisions create a sales tax exemption for the purchase of supplies to reconstruct or repair fencing for agricultural land damaged or destroyed by a natural disaster, a highly sought-after bill for farmers and ranchers impacted by recent wildfires.

While Gov. Kelly said these tax cuts would provide needed relief for Kansans, she reiterated the need for an elimination of the food sales tax. House Bill 2106, which wasn’t acted upon before the Legislature adjourned for a three-week break, would phase out the state sales tax by 2025.

“We have the opportunity to help Kansans who are feeling the impact of pandemic-induced inflation,” Gov. Kelly said. With the largest budget surplus in decades, we can do both – provide property tax relief and finally eliminate the state sales tax on food.”

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/04/14/property-sales-and-income-tax-mega-bundle-approved-by-kansas-governor/

Kansas education commissioner publicly apologizes for racist story on Native Americans

Watson offered to resign, but state board imposed one-month, unpaid suspension

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — The Kansas commissioner of public education apologized Tuesday for telling attendees of an online education conference that when growing up he attempted to convince people visiting the state they should be more afraid of dangerous American Indians than violent tornadoes.

Randy Watson, who was suspended without pay for one month after disclosure of his racist remark, said during the Kansas State Board of Education meeting that the recollection of a story from his youth betrayed his personal 40-year career in education devoted to valuing every student. It was his first public comment about the offensive statement uttered in mid-February to people participating in a professional education conference.

“I really let some people down and hurt people with things I said. The very people and groups of kids I tried to uplift every day, I failed to do so on that occasion,” he said.

Gov. Laura Kelly joined Native American legislators and tribal leaders who called on Watson to step down from the administrative job overseeing coordination of K-12 public education in Kansas. He submitted a letter resignation, but the state Board of Education voted to reject the offer following a closed-door meeting with Watson. Instead, the 10-member board ordered the commissioner to serve a one-month suspension.

“There are a lot of kids, every teacher knows this, that go unnoticed. They are not the 4.0. They’re not in sports,” Watson said. “I dedicated my life to really trying to make sure that every child felt valued, every family was uplifted, especially kids that maybe didn’t have a family life.”

Video of Watson’s remarks obtained through a Kansas Open Records Request showed Watson speaking to the Kansas Virtual Learning Conference. He made a reference to a tornado in the 1990s before sharing with listeners that during his youth he attempted to convince relatives they ought to be more frightened of American Indians than of violent storms that might erupt in Kansas.

“I had some cousins from California. They were petrified of tornadoes,” Watson said on the video. “They’d come visit us, you know, in the summer. They were like, ‘Are we going to get killed by a tornado?’ And I’d say, ‘Don’t worry about that, but you got to worry about the Indians raiding the town at any time.’ And they really thought that. Grow up in California, I guess you don’t know much of the history of Kansas.”

Watson, a former school administrator in McPherson, was hired by the state Board of Education as the commissioner in 2014. He began his teacher career at Tescott High School.

Board of Education chairman Jim Porter said the board decided remarks by Watson weren’t career ending and the board was committed to engaging in restorative justice. Porter bristled after others in state leadership publicly pressured Watson to step down, despite the state Board of Education’s responsibility for personnel decisions of executive leadership in the state education department.

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/04/12/kansas-education-commissioner-publicly-apologizes-for-racist-story-on-native-americans/

Litigants file appeal of Kansas judge’s dismissal of lawsuit challenging election restrictions

Kelly fought disenfranchising legislation; Schmidt hailed election integrity victory

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — A Shawnee County District Court judge issued a decision dismissing a lawsuit filed by four organizations and several individuals challenging constitutionality of 2021 election mandates vetoed by Gov. Laura Kelly but sustained by the Kansas Legislature.

Judge Teresa Watson, appointed by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback in 2014, dismissed the suit Monday contesting signature verification requirements on advanced ballots and restrictions on political operatives collecting absentee ballots from voters and transporting them to polling places or election offices.

League of Women Voters of Kansas, Loud Light, Kansas Appleseed Center for Law and Justice and the Topeka Independent Living Resource Center filed an appeal asserting dismissal of the case was a mistake. The plaintiffs claimed House Bill 2183 and House Bill 2332, passed in the 2021 legislative session, violated the Kansas Constitution by interfering with Kansans’ voting, due process and free speech and association rights.

“With primary elections just around the corner, voters need swift action to protect them against these anti-voter laws,” said Jacqueline Lightcap, co-president of the League of Women Voters of Kansas. “The longer justice for voters is delayed, the less time we have to educate them on how to make their voices heard in the election.”

Teresa Woody, Kansas Appleseed’s litigation director, said the district court judge’s dismissal meant Kansans’ right to vote and exercise political free speech remained under attack.

“The state’s enactment of these cynical statutes, where evidence of election fraud is non-existent, unconstitutionally stifles Kansans’ votes and access to the polls,” Woody said.

Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who is seeking the GOP nomination for governor, said the state “successfully defended these important election-integrity provisions.”

“We will continue to provide them a vigorous defense as long as necessary to help ensure that Kansas elections are safe and secure,” he said.

Gov. Kelly, a candidate for re-election in November, said when vetoing the two bills that restrictive legislation wasn’t based on evidence of consequential voter misconduct in Kansas. She said the bills offered a solution to a “problem that doesn’t exist” and was intended to “disenfranchise Kansans” by making it more difficult to participate in the democratic process. She said the legislation didn’t have anything to do with voter fraud.

“Although Kansans have cast millions of ballots over the last decade, there remains no evidence of significant voter fraud in Kansas,” she said. “We also know what happens when states enact restrictive voting legislation. Hundreds of major companies across the nation have made it abundantly clear that this kind of legislation is wrong. Antagonizing the very businesses Kansas is trying to recruit is not how we continue to grow our economy.”

Legal challenges to portions of the two bills were filed in state and federal courts.

A U.S. District Court struck down in November a provision banning any person from mailing an advance voting application or causing an application to be mailed, unless the sender was a resident of Kansas or domiciled in Kansas. The state of Kansas agreed not to enforce that provision in a binding consent decree.

The challenge of a prohibition on mailing of advance mail ballot applications personalized with a voter’s information remains in litigation at the federal level.

A state district court upheld in September a portion of the legislation related to false representation of an election official is on appeal to the Kansas Court of Appeals.

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/04/12/litigants-file-appeal-of-kansas-judges-dismissal-of-lawsuit-challenging-election-restrictions/