Kansas Republican leader says 0% corporate tax rate is next ‘big thing’ in private Zoom call

House Majority Leader Chris Croft, an Overland Park Republican, appears during the special session on June 18, 2024. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

TOPEKA — House Majority Leader Chris Croft told Johnson County Republicans in private Zoom calls in May that he wants to drive the corporate income tax rate to zero next year, and he tempered his enthusiasm for trying to lure the Kansas City Chiefs across state lines with concern about Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly taking credit.

Croft, an Overland Park Republican, touted his success in getting out-of-state financial support to help preserve the GOP supermajority in the Legislature. But he attributed state spending increases to his own party being “drunk” on money.

In a separate call in June, Rep. Adam Smith, a Weskan Republican who chairs the House tax committee, also pointed a finger at Republicans for inserting costly earmarks into the state budget.

Kansas Reflector obtained audio files from Zoom calls on May 10, May 31 and June 21. Screenshots show participants on the calls include GOP candidates for legislative races in Johnson County. Other participants include Karen Crnkovich, a congressional candidate who lost her primary election; Clay Barker, general counsel to Secretary of State Scott Schwab; and Debbie Detmer, a GOP precinct committeewoman in Shawnee who has protested the “indoctrination” of public school children.

The conversations, led by Croft, focus on legislative priorities, fundraising and campaigning.

“You know, in the last six years that the governor’s been there, and by the way, the six years I’ve been there, we’ve increased spending 56%,” Croft said. “It’s awful. We got to stop this. I mean, we’re just as drunk on that money as anybody else is. We got to stop doing that.”

The conversations foreshadow the GOP effort now underway to wrestle control of the budget process away from the governor and place it solely in the hands of lawmakers.

House Minority Leader Vic Miller, a Topeka Democrat, responded to the audio in a statement and offered a suggestion to Republicans.

“Perhaps instead of seizing power from the executive branch — effectively undermining our democratic system of checks and balances — my colleagues across the aisle should look at removing representatives who pervert the process for personal gain,” Miller said.

The next big thing

In the May 10 call, Croft said Republicans intentionally excluded corporate tax breaks from their efforts to provide individual tax relief.

But, he said, changing the corporate tax formula would be the “big thing” for next year.

The objective would be “reducing the corporate tax rate overall with the intent to drive it to zero,” Croft said.

Croft didn’t respond to an email seeking comment for this story.

Pam Shernuk, a former opinion contributor to Kansas Reflector and Democrat who is running against Croft, said she wasn’t surprised by Croft’s behind-the-scenes comments. The plan to drive the corporate tax rate to zero is reminiscent of former Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax experiment, she said, which created budget shortfalls, led to drastic cuts in education and infrastructure, created no return in business investments or jobs, and shifted the tax burden to individuals.

“What my opponent says to voters at the doors and in his mailers is much different than what he says behind closed doors,” Shernuk said. “Voters deserve honesty, accountability and integrity. I support tax relief for working families, seniors and veterans in Kansas — not giant, multinational corporations. Our district has received a number of negative mailers about me in the past few weeks, all paid for by the same dark money groups that are behind the 0% corporate tax rate. Of course, they want Chris to win — he will give them what they want.”

Make it painful

Back in May, Croft voiced frustration with the governor’s repeated vetoes of tax plans during the regular session.

Earlier proposals had tried to establish a single rate, or flat tax, for individual income, which would have overwhelmingly benefited the state’s highest wage earners. By the end of the session, some Democrats had jumped on board with a compromise that provided more balanced income tax relief. Kelly vetoed it in favor of lowering the overall cost and called legislators back for a special session.

“Honestly, one of the things she wants is the Chiefs. She wants that tax bill on the Chiefs,” Croft said. “I cannot see us doing anything without doing something on taxes for the people. I almost want to go back to our original single factor rate.”

During the special session in June, the plan to lure the Chiefs and Kansas City Royals to Kansas took center stage. Lawmakers adopted legislation to let teams use sales tax and revenue (STAR) bonds to cover up to 75% of the cost of building a new stadium if they decide to cross state lines.

Croft said he was concerned the governor would take credit for both the tax cuts and luring the Chiefs to Kansas. He vowed to make it “painful” for the governor to do so.

Still, he said, “Who wouldn’t want the Chiefs?”

“Honestly, this is what STAR Bonds was created for,” Croft said. “It was created for these kind of engagements, these kind of opportunities. That one where they’re talking about up at the Speedway was the only successful one we’ve really had. So I think it would work. I don’t see it for the Chiefs and the Royals, but I may think it’s for the Chiefs and somebody else. I think the Royals end up in downtown Kansas City. That’s my personal belief.”

Will Lawrence, in his role as senior adviser to the governor’s Middle of the Road PAC, said Croft’s comments were “a prime example of what’s at stake this November.”

He said voters could elect “leaders that will reach across the aisle — regardless of political party — to deliver for Kansas families. Or, we can continue to elect the same partisan extremists, like the current Republican leadership, who admitted out loud they delayed tax cuts for Kansans because it would be a political win for the governor. That’s not leadership.”

Who’s to blame

Smith, the House tax chairman, highlighted tax cuts that were adopted during the special session and expressed an interest in making more cuts early next year — “before the budget can spend all of our money.”

House Republicans were frustrated with the budget process, Smith said, and a perceived disconnect between spending and taxes.

Currently, the governor reveals her spending blueprint on the fourth day of the session, and lawmakers revise the plan in committee hearings throughout the session. Republicans are now working to alter the process so that lawmakers begin working on a budget in the fall and have their own proposal in hand when the session starts in January.

But Smith pointed to a bigger problem — the tendency by Republicans to insert self-serving and costly earmarks into the budget at the end of the session.

“I’ve got to say this, and it pains me to say this, but Republicans are just as much to blame as anybody,” Smith said.

In the final days of the session, he said, Republicans added $210 million more to the budget.

“We’ve got people on the budget committee that just try to do as much as they can for their area, and nobody ever tells them no, and that stuff gets put into the budget,” Smith said.

The right people

During the calls in May, Croft said he was “fired up” by support from the Republican State Leadership Committee, an unnamed “big company” in Raleigh, North Carolina, and GOPAC, which provides training and support for Republicans.

Croft said Kansas Republican legislative candidates would benefit from fundraisers in Washington, D.C., North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas.

He said he had successfully pitched outsiders on the need to preserve the GOP supermajority in the Kansas Legislature as a way of ensuring the state could support Donald Trump if he were elected again as president.

“Trump has talked about the fact states rights matter, that it’s time to make sure we understand that states rights matter, and we got to have the right people in the state,” Croft said. “And that’s a fact. If we have the wrong people, we don’t have the majority, we don’t have the supermajority. The governor wins, and we become a nonfactor for the president.”