Terry L Calloway

In a recent Morning Sun Letter to the Editor the writer criticizes me for supporting the idea of making the 2010 sales tax permanent. This is woefully incorrect and the following explains the process that took place and my votes: 

The 18% sales tax increase that raised the tax rate from 5.3 percent is scheduled to drop to 5.4 percent in 2013 with the revenue from the 0.1 percent remaining to go to the Department of Transportation.  During the 2011 legislative session the proposed March to Economic Growth Act (SB 1) was originally written to eliminate personal income tax with revenue produced by keeping the sales tax at the 2010-2013 level.

Letting taxpayers keep more of their income will increase sales tax receipts causing more money to be spent on goods increasing both state revenues and economic growth. While I support elimination of the income tax, I am not willing to see the 2010 sales tax increase made permanent. For this reason, I voted against SB 1 on March 17th http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2011_12/year1/measures/sb1  when it was first proposed. However, the following day, the bill was reconsidered and amendments were approved to lower the sales tax as scheduled while eliminating the personal income tax and reducing the corporate income tax rate from 4 to 7 percent to 3.5 percent. The amended bill, which I supported, passed the House http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2011_12/year1/measures/sb1.