By Mike Shields, KHI News Service, February 02, 2010
TOPEKA — Two members of the Kansas House are urging an increase in wholesale liquor, wine and beer taxes to fund services for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled.
Rep. Kay Wolf and Pat Colloton, both Johnson County Republicans, are chief sponsors of House Bill 2593, which would double the current wholesale taxes on various alcoholic beverages and raise an estimated $22 million a year to be divided among programs that serve the mentally ill and developmentally disabled.
Not surprisingly, the proposal is opposed by the alcoholic beverage industry but endorsed by advocates for the disabled.
We opposed earmarked taxes, said Tuck Duncan, a lobbyist for the Kansas Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association. The other irony is this is the one tax that is still in the positive column. Leave us alone and we’ll bring in more revenue.
Duncan said revenue from the current wholesale liquor tax increased 30 percent between fiscal years 2001 and 2009, but a doubling of alcohol taxes would push more sales to Missouri where the taxes are already lower.
"If they add the tax, Rep. Wolf’s constituents will be buying their liquor in Missouri," Duncan said.
Tom Laing, executive director of Interhab, the group that represents most of the state’s community-based programs for the developmentally disabled, applauded the legislators’ efforts, saying they might figure as part of a broader solution to the state’s revenue problems.
Laing’s group is part of a coalition that is backing the governor’s call for broader-based tax increases to help resolve the anticipated $400 million gap legislators face as they craft the fiscal 2011 budget.
Services for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled are among those hurt by a 10 percent reduction in Medicaid rates that became effective Jan 1 and other cuts that preceded that.
"What we like best is that Rep. Wolf is one of those who has looked at the issues and concluded that there are some things that need to be invested in and we’re very welcome for her attention in that regard. She and Rep. Pat Colloton have both taken a lot of time to look at our issues. It’s those who pretend those issues don’t exist that are killing us."
Laing said he thought their plan might be incorporated into a larger tax package, such as the one the governor has proposed. He also called for a deeper look at how the state funds services for the developmentally disabled and the rest of the safety net and the tax policies that sustain the services.
"As a practical matter money is money and it spends the same. But for the long-term needs of the system, they need to talk about some long-term structural policies."
Wolf said the goal of the legislation was to get some needed dollars to programs in a year when funding for them is otherwise uncertain.
"It would help fill that hole we’re in," she said.
She said the intent of the bill would be to divide the $22 million from the tax increase evenly between programs for the mentally ill and the developmentally disabled.