A plan to make local government budgets whole — at least on a short-term basis — if they lost sales tax revenue due to last year’s decision to eliminate taxes on food has been defeated.
The Kansas Senate voted 23-17 against Senate Bill 309, which would have added over $200 million in the state’s general fund to filll gaps in local funding after the Legislature and Kansas Governor Laura Kelly approved phasing out the sales tax on food on groceries by 2024. 17th District Senator Jeff Longbine of Emporia voted against the bill. He has declined comment for now — but many local government leaders across the state were cool to the idea because it doesn’t guarantee the funding support for more than a year.
Separately, Longbine has voted in favor of the Senate’s budget version, in part because of the funding and bonding authority for Emporia State University — including approval of ESU’s revised budget of almost $121 million for the current fiscal year and nearly $17 million in capital improvements for fiscal 2024 beginning July 1. The budget also authorizes bonding authority of $15 million to demolish or renovate certain facilities and build a new Department of Nursing and Student Wellness Center next fiscal year.
