Procedural motions main focus of House Thursday morning

The Kansas House got procedural on Thursday. The first procedural vote was one on the potential to override Governor Laura Kelly’s veto of the abortion reversal notification bill. Republican Representative Blake Carpenter brought the motion to reconsider.

“Ultimately, I’m a yes on Senate Bill 67,” said Carpenter. “I’ve always been a yes, but, I figured that buying 24 hours more time for this bill would allow constituents to speak to their representatives and let them know where they’re at on this bill.”

Twenty-four hours didn’t change the final result, as the motion to reconsider, which needed a two-thirds majority, fell short of that by one vote 83-41. The Governor’s veto was sustained.

Also on Thursday, Democrat Representative Brandon Woodard made a motion to bring the sports betting bill out of committee.

“I would like us to have the opportunity to debate this,” said Woodard. “I believe that we would, given the bill that I would request that we pull out of committee, would have to work with the various stakeholders to come up with a final agreement to amend that language into the bill.”

That particular procedural motion will be taken up on Friday. It would require 70 votes. In previous sessions, such a motion made by a member of the minority party would not have had much chance of passing, simply because of not being the idea of the majority party. Given that Republicans are trying to find money in the budget to pay for a tax cut bill at the same time, however, anything that might result in positive revenue that could be construed as a sin tax on individuals as opposed to a greater tax on businesses might have more legs than it did in previous sessions.

The tax cut bill, for its part, may still see the light of day before the weekend. If it does, that could change the final budget picture enough to delay things a little longer.