TOPEKA — Rep. Blake Carpenter pitched a novel idea to lawmakers that he says could eliminate state property tax collections within eight years without cutting any services the state provides.
In a nutshell, here’s how it works: The Legislature creates a board that is empowered to review and eliminate sales tax exemptions, boosting state revenues to the tune of $2 billion per year. That money flows into a Freedom From Taxes Fund, which grows until it reaches a point where annual interest is enough to fully offset the 21.5 mills the state assesses to fund public schools.
Eventually, the fund could be large enough to offset income tax collections, as well.
The way Carpenter sees it, this could reshape the future of Kansas.
“We are ensuring that our children and our grandchildren inherit a state where opportunity flourishes, businesses thrive and personal financial freedom is not just an ideal, but is a reality,” Carpenter said. “The decisions we will make on this will echo for decades. Let’s ensure they echo with prosperity, growth and lasting stability.”
CARPENTER, R-Derby, appeared Monday before the House Taxation Committee to promote House Concurrent Resolution 5014, the vehicle for his vision. The legislation would place a question on the November 2026 ballot to amend the state constitution and put the plan in motion.
There are plenty of details to work out. Carpenter said he would ask lawmakers to tackle such “a massive, fundamental shift” in tax policy on short notice. But he asked them to examine the idea before next year’s legislative session, and to gather research that would support his calculations.
Carpenter said the Legislature for years has talked about examining and removing sales tax exemptions, some of which exist “because of politically connected people.”
Under his proposal, the Legislature would set up a Kansas Citizens Freedom Review Board — qualifications and selection process to be determined — to review sales tax exemptions, such as the ones given to churches and nonprofits. Carpenter said they currently total $9 billion annually.
The board would have the power to eliminate any sales tax exemption, and the state treasurer would be required to transfer an equal amount of money generated by the elimination into the Freedom From Taxes Fund.
THE LEGISLATURE could transfer additional funding, if desired, into the Freedom From Taxes Fund — but thanks to constitutional protections against raiding the fund, the Legislature could not claw any money back.
With a 7.5% rate of return, Carpenter predicted the fund could reach $13-15 billion within seven or eight years, and that the interest would then replace the $900 million he said the state currently collects through mill levies, even when adjusted for inflation.
“So we can basically cut those taxes and still not cut any government services because of it,” Carpenter said. “So we’re basically living on an endowment fund type situation, where you’re generating enough to where you live on that moving forward.”
Lawmakers expressed interest in the idea, tempered by the potential that it could attract so many people to the state that there won’t be enough interest to fully pay for state services.
To Rep. Tom Kessler, R-Wichita, it sounded like “a neat idea.”
