Kansas Legislature Goes Into Overtime

The Kansas Legislature’s annual session will go into overtime because of disagreements on tax issues among Republicans.

Lawmakers were unable to wrap up business Thursday, the 90th day of their session. House Majority Leader Jene (jeen) Vickrey suggested that legislators might be meeting next week.

Majority Republicans have been unable to agree on how much new sales tax revenue to raise to prevent budget shortfalls while enacting income tax cuts.

GOP leaders had promised that this year’s session would last only 80 days. The Kansas Constitution specifies 90-day sessions, but it also grants lawmakers the power to meet longer.

Legislators have been in session more than 90 days for 32 of the past 40 years. The longest session was 107 days, in 2002. Last year’s session was 99 days.