Do Kansas Democrats talk to each other?
The question has to be asked after Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a giant tax-cut bill on Wednesday. The veto isn’t a huge surprise — the bill is a clear move toward the terrible flat tax concept that legislative Republicans have tried and failed repeatedly to get past the governor — except for one thing: Kelly’s fellow Democrats in the legislature had also thrown their support behind the bill.
This wasn’t one of those bills they call “bipartisan” just because one or two representatives from the opposing party signed on.
The tax cut passed in the Kansas House unanimously, with a “yes” from every Democrat present.
You don’t see a governor and her party so completely at odds very often.
It’s odd, let’s say. So that’s one sign that something is amiss.
Another: Listen to what House Minority Leader Vic Miller, a Topeka Democrat, said Wednesday after Kelly’s veto announcement.
“I want to back the governor,” Miller told The Star’s Jonathan Shorman. “The governor deserves all the credit for us being in this situation in terms of having money available to refund the people. So I respect her position. I just don’t know I want to gamble the way she is — and maybe it’s not gambling, maybe she’s got some arrangement with Republican leadership. But I’m not aware of any of those kinds of details.”
“Maybe she’s got some arrangement with Republican leadership.”
That seems unlikely.
House Speaker Dan Hawkins spent Wednesday afternoon making clear his displeasure with the governor’s veto, saying she wasn’t “serious” about tax relief.
Still, Miller’s speculation suggests something important. He’s the top Democrat in his chamber and — if we’re to take him at his word — he’s not entirely sure what Kelly, his fellow Democrat, is up to.
It’s odd, let’s say.
Kelly’s team, for what it’s worth, rejects the premise of this column.
“Governor Kelly is, and always has been, willing to work with both Democrats and Republicans to ensure Kansans have fiscally responsible, sustainable tax cuts,” Will Lawrence, the governor’s chief of staff, said in an emailed statement. He added that there had been “ample communication between the governor and members of both parties” about her concerns that the bill cuts too deeply and risks the state’s financial stability.
