The Kansas Senate systematically worked through Gov. Brownback’s budget proposal yesterday. After a lengthy floor debate, Senators rejected the bill 37-1 on March 7.
Prior to discussion on the Senate floor, Sen. Ty Masterson questioned leadership’s decision to proceed with formal debate during a Senate Republican Caucus meeting. Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, R-Overland Park, assured Republican members the debate was not a game.
Several Republicans begged to differ after the debate and a final vote.
Sen. Gene Sullentrop, who introduced the legislation, disagrees. In a press release issued March 8, he called the debate, “political gamesmanship.”
“These purely political games are an utter waste of Senate’s time, when the body should be focusing on finding solutions,” the Wichita Republican said.
Senators spent two hours discussing and rejecting slices of the proposal piece-by-piece. They approved a portion that would allow an increase business filing fees, before spiking the bill’s enacting clause. That killed the legislation.
Masterson called it a waste of time.
“All these votes are meaningless, null and void,” the Andover Republican said as debate drew to a close.
Senate leadership issued a statement after the vote blaming the Governor for Kansas’ budget challenges.
“The Governor continues to use one-time money, adds new taxes on the middle class, and neglects to fix the LLC loophole,” it reads. “The math simply just doesn’t add up. The solution will require a combination of cuts and changes to tax policy.”
Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican, told the Associated Press the Governor is the one playing games.
“For most legislators, all it’s saying is that the Governor is refusing to acknowledge that we have a deep budget hole, and he is refusing to give us solutions,” Wagle said.
Brownback press secretary Melika Willoughby responded to Wagle, tweeting a press release.
“President Wagle has repeatedly requested the Governor cut K-12 education funding by approximately $100 million,” she tweeted.
Earlier in the session, Senate leadership scrapped an anticipated floor debate and vote its own tax policy plan. The Senate leadership plan that would have eliminated the LLC-tax incentive, increased taxes on lower income Kansans, while slashing education funding by $128 million.
Leadership sent the bill back to the Senate tax committee in mid-February.
Sullentrop said Wagle is more concerned with scoring “cheap political points by forcing a debate to push her pre-determined narrative and sending out a press release to deflect from her lack of leadership, than she is in finding solutions to the problems facing our state.”
In the time between Senate leadership’s decision to put off debate on its bill and debate Brownback’s budget proposal, revenues beat expectations. The injection of an additional $40 million narrowed the budget shortfall from to $280 million.
Sullentrop called on the governor and Wagle to work together to develop a Republican solution on both a budget bill and a tax plan.
“We came to Topeka to solve the critical problems facing our state,” he said. “Senator Wagle needs to show leadership and rise above the petty political fights. Let’s work together toward a commonsense solution that benefits all the citizens of Kansas.”