This lemonade stand at the Kansas Statehouse is activists' way of advocating for tax cuts

Kansas activist group Americans for Prosperity set up a lemonade stand on the south lawn of the Statehouse on Wednesday to advocate for a tax cut after the Legislature failed to override Gov. Laura Kelly's vetoes of three major tax bills this session.

The people manning the station said more than 60 people have visited the stand by noon, and that nearly all of the responses have been positive. AFP representatives said tax relief is the No. 1 issue they encounter when canvassing around the state.

"We've had a ton of people come so far. It's an everyday Kansan. It is the taxpayer that is frustrated, that they're not getting their money back, and that it has been spent in a very frivolous way," said Harrison Dollar, an engagement director with Kansas AFP.

Kansas governor plans special session for tax bill

Kelly promised a special session with the hopes that legislators would send a tax bill to her that she finds acceptable. She vetoed several tax cut bills this session, citing an opposition to a flat tax on income and the overall cost of the bill.

Kelly says total tax cuts shouldn't exceed $425 million a year by fiscal year 2029, and the Legislature already approved about $50 million of tax cuts this session for anti-abortion counseling centers and sales tax breaks over Kelly's vetoes.

"The Legislature cannot overpromise tax cuts without considering the overall cost to the state for future years. We cannot start with our expenses and then look at our income," Kelly said in her veto message of Senate Bill 37, the latest tax cut package that passed overwhelmingly in both chambers.

The lemonade stand is appearing before Kelly has announced a date for the promised special session, which the governor's office promised would happen by the end of the week. It also alludes to another one of AFP's policy goals of deregulation of businesses to allow

"We are for regulation reform. Thankfully, we were able to without any issue," Dollar said. "That's not our main focus today, but that is definitely something we very much care about and fight for at the Capitol every day."

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: AFP-Kansas uses lemonade stand to speak out on Kansas tax cuts