If a Kansas Senate plan to exempt food from state and local sales taxes becomes law, local governments could be facing a collective $180 million shortfall, leaving little option but to raise property taxes if the state doesn’t compensate them. Senators passed the bill last month knowing that local governments would lose what was then an unknown amount of revenue, but promised to follow up with a plan to make them whole. Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, did so on Thursday, rolling out a plan that would put a one-time payment of $220 million into a fund that local governments could apply for, with some strings attached. … While sales tax revenue statistics are readily available, the data does not show how much of the money comes from food. In its own fiscal calculations, the Kansas Department of Revenue has assumed that 15% of the tax collections come from food sales, which officials said is based on KDOR and industry data as well as experiences in other states. Based on last year’s sales tax revenue of $1.2 billion to cities and counties, 15% would mean local governments would collectively lose about $180 million.
Source: CJonline
