After the Kansas House overwhelmingly voted to override Governor Laura Kelly’s veto of a tax relief package, the Kansas Senate came up one vote short of overriding and making a Republican plan the new rule of the land.
Senators voted 26-14 in favor, but they needed 27 votes. 17th District Senator Jeff Longbine was in the majority.
The Senate vote followed a 104-15 vote in favor of overriding in the House. All House members representing Lyon County — 60th District Representative Mark Schreiber of Emporia, 13th District Representative Duane Droge of Eureka and 76th District Representative Eric Smith of Burlington — were in favor of the override.
Shortly before the veto session began last week, Governor Kelly vetoed several bills that would have led to a roughly $1.5 billion tax relief package over three years, instead submitting an alternate plan leading to about $1.3 billion in relief for residents. The governor’s plan takes certain similar approaches to the Republican plan while diverging in notable areas.
The Legislature has overridden Governor Kelly in several areas this veto session, voting to override the governor’s veto of a nearly $16 million line item to deploy Kansas National Guard troops supporting Texas’ plan to halt undocumented immigrants at the US-Mexico border. Lawmakers also overrode Kelly’s veto of a bill requiring medical care facilities and providers to report abortion reasons to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, as well as a separate but related bill to create the felony crime of abortion coercion.
The Senate overrode the governor’s veto of a bill to halt gender-affirming care for people under age 18. The House fell two votes short.
