Kansas lawmakers successfully overrode a lot of Kansas Governor Laura Kelly’s vetoes over the past week, but local lawmakers say their main concern was passing the budget.
17th District Senator Jeff Longbine of Emporia says the overall budget is in good shape, notably when it comes to education.
60th District Representative Mark Schreiber of Emporia says the budget as a whole was a good document.
76th District Representative Eric Smith of Burlington says it was an agreeable budget for the most part.
On the vetoes, many of which centered on abortion or gender policies, Longbine says his biggest disappointment was lawmakers didn’t override the governor’s veto of the 5.15-precent flat income tax, saying that bill also included raising the Social Security “cliff” to $100,000 and ending the food sales tax faster than initially approved. Schreiber had concerns about the gender policy overrides, saying the approved policies weren’t needed. Smith says overrides on abortion policy were needed to give reasonable regulations on procedures.
13th District Representative Duane Droge of Eureka was unavailable for comment.
