Republicans in the Kansas House have fought off an attempt to rescue Democratic Governor Laura Kelly’s proposal to eliminate the state sales tax on groceries. Democrats in the House tried to force a vote on the Governor’s Bill to take the State’s 6.5% sale tax off groceries by July 1st. Republicans blocked the effort, but some say they could support a compromise plan to phase the tax out by 2025. It’s not clear that even that idea will get a vote. Kelly says the political risk to Republicans of doing nothing keeps her hopeful and says she can’t imagine the Legislature going home and facing their constituents without eliminating the sales tax on food.
The State expects to have more than $3 billion dollars in cash reserves at the end of the coming budget year. Kelly says that means it can afford to do without the roughly $450 million generated annually buy the grocery tax.
