Kansas governor vetoes a third plan for cutting taxes. One GOP leader calls it ‘spiteful’

TOPEKA, Kan. — Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly on Thursday vetoed a proposal for broad tax cuts, setting up a high-stakes election-year tussle with the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature that one GOP leader called “spiteful.” It was the third time this year Kelly has vetoed a plan for cutting income, sales and property taxes by a total of $1.45 billion or more over the next three years. GOP leaders have grown increasingly frustrated as they’ve made what they see as major concessions, including giving up on moving Kansas from three personal income tax rates to just one. And so Republicans have trimmed back both the total cost of their tax cuts and given up on enacting a “flat,” single-rate personal income tax that they view as fair but Kelly argued would benefit the “super wealthy.” Kelly and Republican leaders have agreed on eliminating state income taxes on retirees’ Social Security benefits, which kick in when they earn $75,000 a year. Before lawmakers adjourned their annual session, Senate Democratic Leader Dinah Sykes, of Lenexa, circulated projections showing that those surplus funds would dwindle to nothing by July 2028 under the bill Kelly vetoed, as spending outpaced the state’s reduced tax collections.