By Gene Meyer

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback wants to cut personal income tax rates as much as 24 percent next year, but one of the nation’s leading taxpayer-advocacy groups isn’t sold on the plan.

“It doesn’t go far enough,” said Brent Mead, state government affairs director of the National Taxpayers Union, the nation’s oldest grassroots taxpayer advocacy group, in Alexandria, Va. 

“Kansas would be best served by moving rates to zero” to remain economically competitive with neighbors Missouri and Oklahoma, which are working on tax-reduction plans of their own, Mead said.

Many Kansas lawmakers, led by House Republicans and the governor, said Kansas must cut business and income taxes sharply to spur business and job creation, and keep people from leaving Kansas for states with lower taxes. 

Lawmakers don’t agree on the best way to do that; the tax debate will shift into a higher gear when committee hearings start this week.

Brownback’s plan, outlined in his State of the State message to the Legislature, is the first of at least three major tax reduction-proposals for lawmakers to consider. The Kansas House Taxation Committee has scheduled hearings Wednesday and Thursday for Brownback’s plan, spelled out in House Bill 2560  and formally introduced by the committee Jan. 26.

House Republicans, including House Taxation Committee Chairman Richard Carlson (R-St. Mary’s), are drafting another plan. State Sen. Dick Kelsey (R-Goddard), who serves on the Senate Assessment and Taxation Committee, is developing a third plan. 

Neither Carlson’s nor Kelsey’s plan has yet been scheduled for a committee hearing.