The Kansas Senate finished their day, adjourning near 6PM with no budget in sight. In a late night move by Democrat Anthony Hensley (Topeka), Republicans had agreed the night before to lower sales taxes to 5.95% (Down from 6.15), but failed to pick up the other portion of the newly severed amendment, which would close loopholes by asking for sales tax from non-for-profit and government agencies and pay for the tax cut they had just approved.
By the time the night ended on May 31, the Kansas Senate was farther away from a solution than before, adding a few million dollars to the expected budget deficit in the next year.
Breaking for a late night caucus at near 1AM, the body decided to call it a night and return this morning. Les Donovan, (R) a Wichita Republican seen as trying to broker the solution offered several changes for the body to consider.
Donovan (Pictured above, microphone by his cowboy hat) offered the body a series of proposals, including the removal of income tax on the lowest income earners in the state as well as increases in state sales taxes, sin taxes.
Democrat leader Anthony Hensley once again severed the bill, forcing Republicans to vote on all three measures of the amendment separately, and at this point - chaos broke loose.
Sen. Donovan began by addressing the body in regards to concerns about severing the bill, and voting for it individually, noting that many might not accept it as a whole, thus creating potentially more problems than they would solve.
What Les Donovan knew was that this would be an uphill fight and the opposition from within his own party was much stronger than that from Democrats - who represented a super minority.
Talking to the body, Sen. Donovan explained that he had been up and pacing the night before- and that the concerns of the budget weighed heavily on his shoulders. Citing the fact that the new amendment mirrored the Brownback proposal and that Governor Brownback would veto anything else that hit his desk, Donovan pitched his plan, urging fellow members: "We have to vote for it all; if the other portions stagger and fail, as I fear they may, we will be worse off than when we started."
Sen. Wagle, (R-Wichita), Senate President gave an open address to her fellow members, an impassioned plea to 'take this deal'. Wagle argued that the deal presented was what the Governor wanted and that "it's fun to be part of the minority party, they don't have to govern... we have to govern. We have to do the right thing'. Wagle's plea wrapped around the story of her battle with cancer, and how she needed the right cocktail, a drug cocktail of sorts, to battle the illness and survive - she culminated by noting that it was time for Kansas to take it's medicine.
While Democrats commented on the severance, in the end, it may be the fact that they yielded to Sen. Melcher, R-Johnson County, that led to the most brutal minutes of the Senate debate. Melcher began by challenging Republicans as to whether or not they were the party of "special interests" and people who "just raised taxes" rather than fight. Sen. Melcher tossed live amunition at his fellow Republicans, pointing out that the drug cocktail that Sen. Wagle used to beat cancer would kill them as it wasn't the medicine needed, and arguing that the pitch of "take this deal now, it's the best deal" struck him as a shady sales practice he sees on late night TV car pitches and the like. (Note: Sen. Donovan is a car dealer).
Senator Melcher, who has formed what can best be called a cult of personality in opposition of senate leadership has managed to use Johnson County Republicans - Sen. Julia Lynn, Sen. Mary Pilcher Cook, Sen. Greg Smith - as well as hardened anti-taxers like Sen. Pyle to form a caustic block to Republican leadership that has used a take no prisoners attitude toward tax policy.
Senator Pyle, who argued that he was looking for a budget with "mostly cuts and no tax increases" seemed to echo this sentiment of those in resistance.
Despite the invocation of the governor and pleas from the Senate Leadership, it was Sen. Jeff Melcher's excoriation of the state senate that won the day. The severed bill resulted in one portion being accepted - the reduction of income tax on lower income earners - and the abandonment of the portions meant to pay for it and other outstanding debt.
As a result, on a Monday night the Senate has so far managed to lower sales tax and income tax revenue for the state of Kansas while not finding any new source of revenue to fill in the hole that quickly grows in Topeka.
With June 7 marking the first day of potential furloughs without a budget, the Kansas Senate finds that leadership on budget issues are simply out of reach and the divide may be too wide.
The Kansas House, who has so far sat content letting the Senate take the lead may find the two budgets that exist within their chamber that are above the line (could be debated) are too tempting to let sit while the Kansas Senate continues to dig to China.
The Senate & House are being Live Tweeted this week
I'll be in the state house live on most days, you can follow along for more pictures and live commentary, follow @tmservo433 for my feed, and #ksleg for the Kansas Legislature General feed.
Mon Jun 01, 2015 at 10:00 PM PT: Clarification
I should note they are creating "virtual" debt against a budget, as it hasn't been signed into law at this point; just monitoring the progress as it occurs and current status. At this point, they've added this as debt to the future budget with no current revenue offsets included beyond amnesty issues, which are already calculated.