Wednesday we made some progress. The speaker held listening meetings throughout the day. Everyone had an opportunity to speak their piece and let it be known what they would vote for when it comes to the tax bill. If my group was a sample of the house, we are split into three groups. One group is willing to keep the full sales tax. One group wants to repeal or let sunset the sales tax and cut another three hundred million from the budget. The last group is somewhere in between the first two groups. So, the house is split. The Hutton/Sullentrop tax plan is starting to get some legs. This is the plan I am supporting. I think we will see more people moving toward this plan as a compromise. We have several Reps. lobbying others to come on board with this tax bill. It keeps the full sales tax but taxes food at the lower rate of 4.9%. It also lowers the itemized deduction at the same rate as the individual tax rates go down. In the out years it requires growth to be over two percent before individual tax rates would be lowered. This is a good plan. Maybe by Friday we can vote on this plan again. Happy Thursday from Topeka.
http://chumly.com/n/1cc6e24