music. From Overland Park to Parkville. You're listening to Mundo in the morning on 95 7 f M. KC M O talk radio. Laura Kelly vetoed eight bills yesterday. So her hand was sore. Did she go to the auto pen? I don't know. But she vetoed eight bills yesterday. James Franco is here with the Kansas Policy Institute on KC We are always streaming on our KCMO Talk Radio app. So James, I know one that's close for you and important to you is the veto around the federal and state tax credit scholarship bills. What are those? Yeah, Pete, pleasure to be with you as always. So it was two provisions in the same bill. One expanded this program that we've had for just over a decade. This is a Kansas tax credit scholarship program. There's a cap of $10 million of credits. This bill would have increased it to $15 million. And this isn't a credit that I get for sending my kids to a school, right? It's not an individual credit. It's I give money to a nonprofit. That nonprofit turns around and gives low and working class family kids the opportunity to attend a private school. Then the second program that was in the same bill is a federal program that was part of the one big, beautiful bill thing from last summer, whereby we established a similar program at the federal level. Laura Kelly could sign in to that program as other Democratic and Republican governors have done around the country. Jared Polis in Colorado is one of them. To opt into this federal program allowing, again, that same kind of an idea to have Kansas kids benefit from scholarships that were given to other nonprofits, not for your own kids again. And she could do that today. She has not done so. So the legislature said, hey, we're going to let the state treasurer do this. And she vetoed that bill that would have given more educational freedom to the families who need it the most. So what do you think this was really about for the governor? Was it just a way to basically solidify her relationship with the public schools and the teachers' unions? Was that really the play here? I mean, that's what she said in her statement, that she was worried about fully funding schools and things of this nature. But neither of these programs would have taken a nickel out of public school coffers. That funding has continued over the number of years from predating the end of the previous administration to say nothing of Laura Kelly's administration. The Kansas Supreme Court has said schools are quote, unquote, fully funded. We can disagree with that or not. But it's a rhetorical point. But when she vetoed it, she was saying we need to fund public schools. But I wonder if she was thinking those same things when she was giving away billions of dollars to Panasonic or giving away lots of money to the chiefs to relocate. Maybe you like one of those programs or not. But it's hard to argue that a $5 million increase in a tax credit program is even on the same order of magnitude as giving away hundreds of millions, if not more, dollars to Panasonic or the chiefs or any number of other so-called economic development things that she's more than happy to give away when it suits her. That's a good point. All right, James Franco with the Kansas Policy Institute is here on KCMO. So is there an appetite in Topeka from the Republican supermajority to override these vetoes? And do you think they can do it? On this particular bill, this combination of the federal tax credit program and the expansion of the state program, I think there is an appetite in the Senate. This bill and a companion bill we can talk about in a second, passed the Senate with a veto-proof majority. That was not the case in the House. And there has only been one Democrat, to my knowledge, who has voted for a standalone educational choice bill in Kansas. And that is the late Marvin Robinson. Over time, this should not be a partisan issue, but it has proven itself to be one in the legislature. So this bill was vetoed. There was another bill that trailed it in anticipation of Laura Kelly's veto that would simply opt Kansas into the federal program, again, through the state treasurer's office. That bill obtained veto-proof majorities in both chambers. So unfortunately, I think kids are going to be turned away from this state-level program here in this current calendar year if we hit the cap of dollars. I know this was kind of in the weeds, but that program is essentially maxed out, this state program. So they're going to have to turn dollars away, which means they're going to have to turn kids away. But there is an opportunity when they come back later this week for them to override what is a presumed veto of the Matt case at Senate Bill 361, which would opt Kansas into this federal program, which starts in the next calendar year. All right. What else are you watching then into Pika here this week, James? I think there should veto to eight bills over the last day or so. And I think there's going to be more of those coming in the next couple of days. So it's going to be a question of whether or not how many of those ultimately get overridden. And in an interesting quirk for nerds who focus too much on the state legislature and not the royals or kids baseball practices or something like that is if they even take the chance to override some of these things. Or if they're just going to give up the ghost, it's election year, let's just get out of town and let's move on to campaign season. And then of course, for KPI, one of the biggest things in these next couple of days is where we're going to land on property taxes. And if we're actually going to be able to deliver relief from runaway valuation increases, people hiding behind valuation increases and saying, we're holding the mill rates flat, all of these kind of things. There's a couple of different bills percolating, one of which is presumably veto bait here in the next couple of days. And we'll see if they have the gumption to either they being the legislature to craft a compromise and get some relief for taxpayers or if Laura Kelly's objections to taxpayer relief is actually going to carry the day for the next week. This is her last session as it were. So we'll see where the battle lines are drawn in the next couple of days. Yeah, it's going to be very interesting to follow and see how it plays out. James Franco, Kansas Policy Institute. It is always good to have you on. I appreciate the time and keep up the great work. Thanks so much for being here. All right, take it easy, Pete. Have a good afternoon. All right, you as well. 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