Wichitopekington

After negotiating budget details throughout the night Saturday, lawmakers will return to the Statehouse this morning to vote on a $14 billion state budget and try to work through a few more last-minute bills.

The state’s budget contains about $40 million in additional funding for schools, less than many lawmakers wanted but more than initial proposals by the House.

Meanwhile, some are trying to work through last minute legislation relating to esoteric segments of antitrust law.

Lawmakers expect today’s session, which begins at 10 a.m., to be the last of the year. It comes after a grueling 98 day session that highlighted the divide between moderate and conservative Republicans.

House and Senate leaders needed only to approve a state budget and new political boundaries during this year’s session. But their focus was trained on a wide-variety of issues, including income tax reductions, Medicaid reform and changes to the state’s pensions system.

Their failure to agree forced them to extend the usual 90-day session into a 99th day. House and Senate negotiators finally agreed on a budget at 11:30 Saturday evening, and leaders intend to leave their duty to draw new political boundaries once a decade up to the courts because of political infighting that has left the legislature unable to agree on a set of maps.

TOPEKA — A group of four moderate Republican senators proposed a new tax-cutting proposal that aims to give Gov. Sam Brownback an alternative to the deficit-producing tax bill awaiting his signature. But Senate leaders said Brownback was not interested.

Sens. Terrie Huntington, Jeff Longbine, Vicki Schmidt and Pete Brundgardt crafted the plan and brought it to Brownback, according to three senators.

Huntington confirmed the effort. But she said the Governor “was not interested.”

Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton, said the proposal was slightly more aggressive than an alternative he and other Senate leaders proposed earlier this week. That plan was quickly rejected by House tax negotiators.

Morris said the proposal would have cut rates to 3.1 percent on married couples’ first $30,000 of income and 5.65 percent for income beyond that. It would have eliminated nonwage income tax on the first $100,000 of profits made by limited liability companies, subchapter S corporations and sole proprietorships.

“That was turned down,” Morris said.

Morris said he doesn’t expect any more efforts to produce an alternative to the bill awaiting Brownback’s signature. And he urged Brownback to veto the bill.

Brownback has already said he will sign the massive income tax reduction bill, which reduces rates for individuals and eliminates taxes on nonwage income for about thousands of businesses large and small. But Brownback continues to signal that he would prefer a compromise that phases the cuts in to ease the impact on the state’s budget.

Earlier this week, House negotiators quickly rejected three tax cut bills proposed by Senate leaders.

The plan awaiting Brownback’s signature would create deficits within a year of its implementation, and those projected deficits would grow into the hundreds of millions, forcing the state to drastically cut services unless the tax cuts produce an economic boom.

Brownback’s administration projects the tax cuts could create 23,000 new jobs on top of natural growth by 2020. But Democrats and moderate Republicans doubt those projections will be realized, and they say Kansans want property tax reduction more than income tax cuts.

The Senate balked at two other negotiated plans that would not produce deficits as large as the bill on Brownback’s desk. They’ve said that’s because even those cuts are projected to produce deficits according to analysis that does not include projected savings from the Governor’s Medicaid overhaul.

Check back for updates.

TOPEKA — House Republicans this evening laid out three major budget deals that could dramatically alter the outcome of this year’s legislative session. And they’ve given Senate negotiators about two hours to decide if they want to make a deal.

“Our offers are good for only tonight,” said Arkansas City Republican Rep. Kasha Kelley.

“We’ll just let you know when we’re ready,” said Sedgwick Republican Sen. Carolyn McGinn.

The proposals represent a high-stakes climax as the session grinds near an end. Meanwhile, Gov. Sam Brownback has on his desk a massive tax-cutting bill that he has said he will sign if an agreement isn’t worked out. That bill would force the legislature to cut hundreds of millions in spending for years to come, a move moderate Republicans and Democrats say could devastate core state services.

Under one scenario, the House and Senate would agree to approve a negotiated tax-cutting proposal that the Senate today essentially rejected, sending it back to a committee for further debate as the clock runs out. In exchange, the milder tax plan would free up additional money for education, a top priority for moderate Republicans in the Senate. But it comes with a catch. The Senate would have to approve a set of education policy recommendations that Gov. Sam Brownback has advocated for.

Those education policy changes include reclassifying some school funding money so that courts, which are likely to rule whether the state provides adequate funding, would take into account more funding categories than it has in the past. Another move would change how school districts calculate at-risk students, which has an impact on funding districts receive based on how many low-income or English as a second language students they have.

A second scenario would give the Senate the $74 per student funding increase it has sought along with equalization money for property-poor districts in exchange for the policy changes.

And a final package would ditch the education policy and funding increases, leaving schools with a smaller increase while advancing a technical education initiative sought by Brownback.

Whatever they decide would have to be voted on by the House and Senate, most likely Saturday morning or early afternoon.

TOPEKA — Gov. Sam Brownback said this afternoon that he looks forward to signing a massive tax-cutting bill now that the Senate has sent a milder tax reduction bill back to a committee for more negotiation.

Brownback said he is disappointed that the Senate didn’t debate and vote on the alternative bill as the legislature nears the end of a grueling session that has run about a week longer than expected.

“I look forward to signing the bill on my desk and I call on legislators to finalize their work on the budget based on the enactment of Senate Sub. for HB 2117,” he said. “The legislative session needs to conclude.”

The Senate today voted 21-18 to the push back the alternative to the deficit-inducing tax reduction bill on Gov. Sam Brownback’s desk.

But it quickly became clear that conservative Republicans aren’t interested in more negotiation after months of pushing for tax reform.

St. Marys Republican Rep. Richard Carlson, who has represented the House in negotiations, said he doesn’t plan to negotiate more and he encouraged Brownback to sign the bill on his desk today. Brownback said he will announce a bill signing ceremony sometime next week.

The bill on Brownback’s desk cuts individual income tax rates and eliminates the tax on profits earned by about 191,000 companies in the state. The bill, which Brownback had said he will sign if an alternative doesn’t reach his desk, would force the state to make hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to services in coming years if it doesn’t generate enough economic growth to replace the lost income tax revenue with sales and property tax money generated by new jobs and new residents.

Democrats and moderate Republicans doubt that’s possible, and they’ve called the bill irresponsible.

Wichita Republican Sen. Les Donovan, who has been at the center of the tax debate for months, said he felt the altnerative plan was responsible and would benefit all Kansans. He also said he thinks Brownback should not sign the other bill because of the impact on the state budget.

“This is a sad day in the history of this chamber and this state,” he said.

Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton, was among 21 moderate Republicans and Democrats to vote in favor of reopening negotiations.

“We are asking for a responsible tax package that addresses the concerns of a large majority of Kansans while leaving room in the budget to restore cuts to classrooms and public safety, he said in a statement. “If we do not show good faith and restore cuts to education, the courts may certainly require us to add money to education this summer.”

Topeka Democrat Sen. Laura Kelly referenced projections that show even the alternative tax plan could cause deficits, despite initial projections that showed it would leave the state with a surplus through 2018. New projections produced for lawmakers exclude about $350 million in projected savings as a result of Medicaid reform and add money for increased education funding.

With those factors combined, the alternative plan would cause a budget shortfall of $42 million in 2015 that grows to $1.5 billion by 2018. (Read more about that here.)

The Senate approved that plan in a 29-11 vote in March after initially voting 20-20 to kill it. Several senators said they only changed their vote after Brownback’s administration pleaded with them to approve the bill so that the Senate would have a position to negotiate from in a committee wtih House members who had approved their own tax-cutting plan.

But when the House heard the Senate would kill a negotiated plan that emerged, it quickly voted the deficit-inducing proposal out and sent it to Brownback, who said he would sign it if a new proposal didn’t emerge.

Sen. Carolyn McGinn, R-Sedgwick and chairwoman of Senate Ways and Means, said that lawmakers will have to make significant budget cuts if Brownback signs the bill. McGinn said she initially voted for the bill to start negotiations with the House. She said she hopes the House will reopen negotiations on a more responsible plan.

A group of former Republican lawmakers, called Traditional Republicans for Common Sense, immediately urged Brownback to veto the bill.

“The governor has taken us to the financial cliff and only he has the ability to stop us from going over,” said former Assistant Majority Leader and former chairwoman of the Republican Party  Rochelle Chronister. “This is not a game. The magnitude of this bill cannot be overstated and the impact that it will have on our communities and schools will be real and unforgiving.”