Hundreds of state employees and soda vendors from across Kansas are out in force at the Statehouse.
About 400 vendors wearing blue Pepsi shirts and jackets gathered outside a committee room Wednesday where a Senate panel took testimony on a plan to tax soda and other sugary drinks.
The idea from Sen. John Vratil, a Leawood Republican, would increase the cost of a 12-ounce can of soda by a dime. Such an increase would raise an estimated $90 million for the state beginning July 1.
An alternative plan floated earlier raises that tax by four-tenths of a cent per teaspoon of sugar.
Meanwhile, members of the Kansas Organization of State Employees lobbied legislators on budget issues, hoping to protect their wages, pensions and other benefits.
