Derek Schmidt is giving Kansas leadership it needs to reduce or eliminate grocery tax in coming year

Here we are nearly a year before Election Day, and Laura Kelly and the Kansas Democrats are trotting out Anthony Hensley in his familiar role as the governor's attack dog. Their desperation is showing early.

Hensley, who was fired by his hometown voters last November, last week penned a guest column attacking Derek Schmidt because Derek is a Republican who dared call to cut the sales tax on groceries.

So much for the bipartisanship Laura Kelly promised.

But Hensley seems to have a case of selective amnesia. While complaining about decades-old votes in the Legislature, he conveniently omitted a more-recent one: The biggest-ever hike in Kansas sales tax — including the tax on food — happened in 2010 when Hensley, Kelly and Schmidt all served together in the state Senate. Hensley and Laura Kelly both voted for it while Derek Schmidt voted no.

That's right — Laura Kelly and Anthony Hensley imposed on Kansans a record-setting tax increase on food over Derek Schmidt's objection.

That 2010 tax hike was a full-cent increase in the sales tax rate, amounting to a more than $1 billion overall tax increase on Kansas families over three years from 2011 to 2013 with more than $150 million more continuing each year right up until today.

Then along came 2018. Laura Kelly decided to run for governor and lo and behold cutting that grocery tax she had raised just a few years earlier suddenly seemed like a good idea.

Talk about an election-year conversion.

That election came and went, and in the three years since then Laura Kelly failed to deliver on her campaign promise — in fact, she vetoed a bill in 2019 that would have cut the grocery tax.

So Derek Schmidt has stepped up with the leadership we need to get the job done. On Nov. 5, he asked Senate and House leaders to reduce or eliminate the grocery tax this coming year.

Three days later, Laura Kelly came out of hibernation and followed Derek's lead.

Kansas has the second-highest grocery sales tax in the United States despite the fact that 12.1% of Kansans are food insecure, a figure higher than the national average. Relief from the grocery tax is needed now more than ever to help hard-working families cope with rising food prices caused by the Biden administration's inflationary policies.

So enough with the political games. Just sign the bill this time, governor, and call off your partisan attack dog. Derek Schmidt is working effectively with other state leaders to finally get your big tax increase repealed instead of just talking about it.

That's called leadership. It's what Kansans need in a governor.

Jim Denning is the former Kansas Senate majority leader.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Derek Schmidt steps up, calls for easing or elimination of grocery tax