TOPEKA — Gov. Laura Kelly pledged to sign a bill approved Thursday by the Legislature gradually eliminating the state’s 6.5% sales tax on groceries by January 2025.
Kelly and Democratic legislators pressed for an immediate end to the state’s sales tax to food purchases, but Republican leadership in the House and Senate held fast to a stair-stepped plan that gave lawmakers the ability to modify the strategy in response to economic downturns.
The measure unanimously passed by the Senate and by an overwhelming majority in the House would make no change in the state’s sales tax on food in 2022. It would initiate adjustment of the state food sales tax rate on Jan. 1, 2023, with a cut to 4%. It would drop to 2% on Jan. 1, 2024, and to zero on Jan. 1, 2025. Local sales tax rates on grocery purchases wouldn’t be altered by House Bill 2106.
