Last September I made a very safe prediction for the 2017 session of the Kansas Legislature – “Regardless of who is elected to the 2017 Legislature, January will bring turmoil and major disappointment for many Kansans.” Like I said, a pretty safe bet…but the rationale ruffled a few feathers. “Many candidates and special interests say Kansas needs to spend a … Read More
Media, Left Attempt to Re-write History of Kansas Tax Reform
Now that legislators and media have imposed the largest tax increase in Kansas history and put citizens in worse shape than prior to 2012, the effort is shifting to rewrite the history of Kansas tax reform. The first salvo was released by Kansas City Star columnist Steve Kraske, who writes that then-Senator Steve Morris says Governor Brownback lied to him … Read More
Legislature Disregards Citizens with $3 Billion Kansas Income Tax Hike
So far, the most pro-government/anti-freedom Legislature in recent history hasn’t been successful in efforts to eliminate right-to-work, strip citizens of their right to vote on property tax increases, reinstate prevailing wage or allow local government to set minimum fringe benefit standards for private employers, but this week they stuck citizens with an unnecessary $3 billion Kansas income tax increase over … Read More
Dedicating Income Tax to Schools is Just Pandering; There’s Also a Downside
Dedicating income tax collections to school funding is the latest “Here, hold my beer” notion to come out of the Kansas Legislature this session, proving once again Thomas Sowell’s take on politics. He said, “No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems … Read More
Kansas Legislature to Citizens – let them eat cake
With the 2017 Kansas Legislature careening toward a close, the majority of legislators in both chambers are doubling down on efforts to gouge citizens and leave generations of students behind so that those who profit from excessive and inefficient government can prosper. For those who might think that statement hyperbolical, consider the evidence: As shown separately by the Kansas Truth … Read More
IRS data refutes Kansas tax evasion theories
Ever since Kansas exempted pass-through income from state income tax beginning in 2013, media and policy analysts declared that doing so created a massive wave of Kansas tax evasion by businesses converting to an LLC or a sub-S corporation. Even the Tax Foundation jumped on the bandwagon, saying “When the exemption was passed in 2012, it was projected that 191,000 … Read More
Kansas Budget can be balanced without a tax increase
Ronald Reagan could have been speaking of the 2017 Kansas Legislative Session when he said, “Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.” Despite knowing that state spending is morbidly inefficient (27 percent more per-resident than states without an income tax) and is $1.1 billion … Read More
A tax on your income tax?
A legislative session that has seen a wide range of anti-freedom proposals – e.g., allowing government to set fringe benefit standards for private employers, requiring employees to make donations to unions, stripping citizens of their right to vote on property tax increases – just produced another jaw-dropping suggestion. The House Taxation Committee wants to impose an income tax on your … Read More
Kansas Budget Deficit overstated by $200 million
The reported $900 million, two-year Kansas budget deficit includes $192.6 million of revenue reductions that won’t occur and another $13 million that’s purely optional and needn’t occur. Collectively, these spending items overstate the budget shortfall by $205.6 million. Each item listed in the adjacent table is considered a ‘transfer’ of revenue rather than appropriated amounts of spending because they were … Read More
Fake news in Kansas promotes political agenda
An editorial in the Wichita Eagle reminded me that it’s been awhile since I wrote about fake news in Kansas, and there’s a lot. The Eagle editorial bemoaned a loss of 400 jobs in February but failed to disclose that private sector employment set a new record! The Bureau of Labor Statistics data comparing February 2016 to February 2017 shows Kansas … Read More