This Kansas City Democrat voted yes on the flat tax. He says his vote was misheard
As the Kansas Senate finished a seven-hour debate late Thursday night over a controversial flat income tax plan, Sen. David Haley still didn’t know how he would vote.
The Kansas City, Kansas, Democrat voted to pass on the Republican-supported measure at first. But just after 10 p.m., GOP senators used a procedural maneuver to force him to take a position.
He hemmed and hawed. He joked he should flip a coin.
Then he voted yes.
At least that’s what many in the Senate chamber – including a Star reporter – heard.
But Haley insists that isn’t what happened.
“I said ‘I don’t need coins, I reluctantly voted no on 539,’” Haley told reporters Thursday night. “Someone is saying that they heard I voted yes.”
“I’ve been here 30 years. I’ve never heard or seen anything like this before.”
Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, a Wichita Democrat who sits next to Haley on the Senate floor, said in a text message Friday that she heard Haley vote “no” on the bill.
Nevertheless, in a statement Friday morning Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, highlighted that the bill passed with a “bi-partisan supermajority.”
Video of the Senate proceedings for Thursday night is unclear. Audio in the Senate chamber is generally only picked up when lawmakers speak directly into their microphones which Kansas senators rarely do when voting.
Haley can be heard joking about flipping a coin, but his actual vote is inaudible in the recording. After the vote another person, though it’s unclear who, seems to say “he said no.”
Speaking to The Star Friday morning Haley said he mumbled through his response and believed he may have been misunderstood when he said “I reluctantly vote no” to have said “aye,” indicating support for the bill.
“I’ve learned a valuable lesson. Speak clearly into the microphone when you really want to, when you really need to be heard,” he said.
After the Senate adjourned Thursday night Haley tried to turn in a written explanation for public Senate records of his “no” vote and learned Senate staff had recorded him as a “yes.” After several minutes when staff and Masterson spoke to Haley and rewatched video of the vote, Haley’s vote was recorded as a “yes” and the senator submitted a new explanation.
The disputed vote comes weeks after Haley very publicly contemplated breaking with Democrats to help override Kelly’s veto of a previous flat tax proposal. He had argued he wasn’t convinced the proposal would be as devastating as Kelly warned. He expressed frustration with minimal attention paid to his district in eastern Wyandotte County over his decades in office.
That vote never made it to the Senate after the override attempt failed in the House last month. But Haley said Thursday evening he was still undecided.
The final tax package is certain to look different from the bill lawmakers voted on Thursday night. The Senate is likely to hold conference committees with the House and both chambers will vote on a new proposal before the end of the legislative session.
Rather than take a position now, Haley said, he had wanted to wait and see how the bill changed through the process and what the long term budget projections looked like.
But, he said, he had serious concerns with the current proposal despite wanting to provide some level of tax relief for his constituents.
“I don’t want to wait another half a year or more for it to come,” Haley said Friday. “The flip side is it’s just so inequitable, the matrix of this flat tax.”
