Tax & Spending

Gov. Kelly signs property tax transparency bill 0
- Tax & Spending
- March 31, 2021
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly on Friday signed SB 13 into law, providing property tax transparency that goes into effect this year. Kelly vetoed a similar bill last year but the overwhelming majority votes in the House and Senate may have been a factor in her decision to sign the bill and avoid a veto override.
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Federal taxpayer bailout eclipses local payroll changes 0
- Tax & Spending
- March 29, 2021
Governments in Kansas are slated to receive roughly $3.6 billion to cover for COVID-related losses under the latest federal bailout – AKA Biden’s American Rescue Plan. (That’s in addition to the $1.25 billion collected last year.) However, county, city, and school payroll changes are not only far smaller than the COVID bailout, they don’t the
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Legislature must protect small sellers from Governor’s unilateral action 0
- Tax & Spending
- March 19, 2021
Following the Supreme Court’s South Dakota v Wayfair decision, nearly all states have used their legislative authority to protect small sellers from expansive sales taxation. However, Kansas is the only state that not only has no small-seller exemption to sales tax rules. What’s worse, Gov. Laura Kelly’s Department of Revenue issued a constitutionally suspect order
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Lockdown effect means 57,000 fewer private jobs 0
- Tax & Spending
- March 15, 2021
In a single calendar year, roughly eight years of Kansas private job growth disappeared. Making matters worse, it occurred after the 2019 economy was already in a perilous position. With 2020 Private-sector job numbers released, Kansas lost roughly 10,000 more private jobs than initially estimated. As a recap, the monthly jobs reported from the Kansas
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Localities need belt-tightening, not a bailout 0
- Tax & Spending
- March 5, 2021
In weathering the COVID crisis, Congress seems determined to provide counties and cities with hundreds of billions of dollars in a taxpayer bailout. However, data from our 2020 Green Book highlights Kansans are massively over-governed well before the federal relief payments. If Kansas localities do not adjust their spending, the latest federal package will discourage
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COVID pandemic creates opportunities for tax relief 0
- Tax & Spending
- February 28, 2021
As state and local officials work through budget-related COVID pandemic challenges, they should pay heed to Benjamin Franklin’s counsel – “out of adversity comes opportunity.” In this case, the opportunity is finding more efficient uses for taxpayer dollars and then providing permanent state and local tax relief. The amount that states and local entities tax
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