TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Republican legislators in Kansas blocked a move Wednesday to make a plan for increasing spending on public schools even more generous as some acknowledged that they don’t think they can raise taxes enough to pay for a greater amount of education funding.
The House gave first-round approval to a plan to phase in a $280 million increase in aid to the state’s 286 local school districts over two years. The vote was 81-40 and advances the measure to another, final vote Thursday, with members expected to pass the bill and send it to the Senate.
The plan is a response to a Kansas Supreme Court ruling in March that the state’s education funding is inadequate. The court didn’t set a figure for how much the state’s $4 billion in annual aid must rise, but attorneys representing school districts that sued the state have said a much larger increase is necessary. Democrats have taken the assessment to heart; GOP lawmakers disagree.
The Supreme Court gave lawmakers until June 30 to pass a new school finance law. The House’s bill also establishes a new per-student formula for distributing the state’s education dollars to ensure that enough of the money goes to programs to help students at risk of dropping out.
Rep. Melissa Rooker, a moderate Fairway Republican, said she would like the bill to boost education funding more than it does, but she and other lawmakers who feel the same way are stymied by lawmakers’ inability to agree on increasing taxes to pay for it while also closing projected budget shortfalls totaling $887 million through June 2019.
“We’re really in a bind in terms of the process and how you pass a tax plan big enough,” Rooker said.
A Senate committee endorsed its own plan Wednesday, to phase in a $240 million increase over two years.
During the House’s debate, Democratic Rep. Ed Trimmer, of Winfield, offered an amendment to phase in a $600 million increase in education funding over three years, so that after two years, it would be $400 million higher. The vote was 75-47 against his proposal, with most Republicans voting no.
Trimmer argued that by not going for a larger increase in school funding, lawmakers would be risking a rejection of their plan by the Supreme Court - and the possibility it might not allow schools to reopen after June.
“If we send this to the court, I want to do it right the first time,” Trimmer said.
Meanwhile, House and Senate negotiators also drafted a new tax plan Wednesday, the latest following multiple failed plans.
It would raise $953 million over two years. It would boost income taxes, raise liquor taxes and impose the state’s sales tax on a few services that are not taxed now, such as towing, security and customized computer software. Negotiators dropped in a promise to slightly reduce the state’s sales tax on food in 2020 to make the new service taxes an easier sell.
The plan represents a step away from rolling back past income tax cuts championed by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback. The measure would end an income tax exemption for more than 330,000 farmers and business owners touted by him as a pro-growth policy, but it would not be as aggressive as other plans in raising rates. It also would not impose a new third rate for the state’s wealthiest filers.
GOP leaders were treating a vote on the tax plan as a test to tell them whether it might be more productive to pursue a mix of tax increases that Brownback might sign into law rather than a more aggressive attempt at undoing his favored income tax cuts that would need two-thirds majorities in both chambers to override a veto.
Wednesday was the 100th day of the Legislature’s annual session. Legislative leaders months ago set it as the last day, but lawmakers expect to also work next week, making this year’s session among the longest in state history.
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