Kansans should already have tax relief.
The Legislature has repeatedly sent bipartisan tax bills to the Governor. Each time more watered down (less money back to, you, the taxpayer). I have not loved every part of every bill, yet I have voted each time to reduce the tax burden on Kansans, and in turn the Governor has systematically vetoed them all; constantly moving the goalposts she has set and ignoring her campaign promise to meet the Legislature in the middle of the road.
As I prepare for the upcoming Special Session I would be remiss if I didn’t address the fact that Special Session or Emergency Session is outlined by the Kansas Constitution in Article 1, Section 5, “the governor may, on extraordinary occasions, call the legislature into special session by proclamation; and shall call the legislature into special session, upon petition by at least two-thirds of the members elected to each house.”
However, the Governor vetoing 7 tax bills does not really seem to the average Kansan as an “extraordinary occasion.” In fact, Kansans, regardless of party, seem to view the Governor vetoing bills as anything but extraordinary. It is really what we’ve come to terms with being standard operating procedure from a person who has vetoed a total of 74 tax bills over her tenure as Governor.
If tax relief is to be treated as an emergency equaling that of an extraordinary occasion, the full blame of this wildfire which desperately needs to be put out, at the additional cost to taxpayers of $84,000 per day, was set by the very person who is calling it an emergency.
I will go back into special session prepared to give Kansans as much of their hard earned money back as I possibly can. However, I do not appreciate the Governor wasting taxpayer dollars to quell a manufactured crisis of her own creation.