Kansas residents are on their way to not having a sales tax on groceries.
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly, a Democrat, officially signed House Bill 2016 on Wednesday, thanking lawmakers for their bipartisan support — even though they chose an approach to phase out the tax by 2025 instead of the governor’s plan to end the tax immediately. Kelly says the end result is a win for Kansas families.
HB 2016 is set to take effect on New Year’s Day, reducing the tax to 4 percent. The rate will then be cut to 2 percent on Jan. 1, 2024 and then be eliminated on New Year’s Day 2025. With prices rising due to increased inflation, Governor Kelly is still asking lawmakers to start reducing the tax this upcoming July instead of next year.
Kelly’s main challenger this election cycle, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican, credited the Legislature for its work to eliminate the tax and faulted Kelly for vetoing larger legislation in 2019 that would have reduced the tax to zero by ths upcoming January. He also says Kelly voted for the largest sales tax increase in state history when she was a state senator in 2010.
