Kansas Sen. Caryn Tyson is more optimistic about the upcoming legislative session — it opens Monday — than in previous years. “There’s a different attitude” among her contemporaries, Tyson told Allen County commissioners Tuesday morning.
Concerns facing legislators have been well-documented: How to deal with a $345 million budget shortfall; what to do about school funding, and resolution of ongoing budget problems that arose and have been compounded by income tax cuts in 2012 and 2013.
Tyson is in lockstep with Gov. Sam Brownback in blaming the budget fiasco on flagging farm and oil-and-gas prices, adding, “if we were to increase taxes (income, sales and property are the options) you wouldn’t see results right away,” she said. Laws passed in one session traditionally take effect on July 1.
Tyson said she had heard Brownback would recommend some measures (tax increases, perhaps) to deal with the deficit in his State of the State message next week. Earlier Brownback said he would give legislators responsibility for balancing the budget, required by the state’s cash-basis law.
Tyson prefers not to allude to the LLC tax break that affects about 330,000 business, including farmers, as a loophole. Rather, it is a part of the income tax law, she said, and trying to tweak it alone could adversely affect the whole law. “It’s better to fix the tax code,” not attack it in piecemeal fashion.
“Honestly, though, I can’t say what will happen with the LLC (portion of taxes), although the governor has been adamant about keeping it,” she said.
Some in the Legislature who “think farmers aren’t paying enough (taxes)” have designs on restoring sales tax to farm equipment, an advantage they have had for years, she said.
With mixed signals on what may or may not occur, Tyson reiterated she was optimistic economic matters, including public school funding, would find answers during the 2017 session.
Even so, Tyson fears some things done in recent sessions, including the state borrowing $1 billion to shore up the Kansas Public Employee Retirement System, soon may find a haunting roost. “The money isn’t there to make the payments” on the KPERS loan. “I didn’t vote for it.”
Her preference to ensure the retirement fund’s solvency well into the future is to give participants the option of putting their money into private retirement accounts, rather than funnel it through the state fund.
IN OTHER NEWS, commissioners:
— Approved renewal of the county’s website maintenance and email accounts through Advantage Computer at $1,271 for 2017.
— Accepted a bid of $196,861, with a trade-in, for a new four-wheel drive ambulance. Winning bidder was American Response Vehicles, Columbia. Two other companies made bids.
— Discussed briefly but took no action on how they might show tangible appreciation for about 30 volunteers who deliver Meals on Wheels.
