Tax Plan Restores Full Funding To T-Works

The Kansas House of Representatives passed their tax plan, which is Senate Bill 84 on Thursday on final action 82-39. Representative Reid Petty voted ‘yes’ and

released a statement about his vote.

"There was some good news today for my district when it comes to highway improvements in relations to T-Works, as the House Tax Plan was amended on Wednesday during floor debate to restore the full funding to T-Works that was originally going to be cut which would have delayed and possibly killed some highway projects including Liberal’s proposed 10 mile project on Highway 54 of four lanes that is set to start around 2017. I was glad to be able to get up in front of the whole House and and ask the body to vote for the amendment which ended up passing. With the passing of the amendment I was able to support the tax plan. The tax plan still sets the state up for trying to get income tax down to 0, and as of now will lower the sales tax from 6.3 to 5.7% on June 1, as there will be enough money in the ending balance to fund T-Works. The Senate tax plan though keeps the sales tax at 6.3% so I expect there is still a lot that could happen in terms of where the final state sales tax rate will be when we have a final product that the House, Senate, and Governor can agree on. However, the main thing is I am very pleased that Liberal’s highway project will go on as scheduled no matter what the final sales tax rate ends up being."