The Kansas Supreme Court’s recent Gannon school funding ruling, if endorsed by legislators, would cause devastating tax hikes on top of record-setting tax increases just passed. The Court cited vast differences between the new money appropriated by the Legislature ($293 million more in FY 2019) and the amount demanded by school districts (at least $1.7 billion) and the State Board … Read More
Kansas Job Growth Rank Improves Post-Tax-Relief
Kansas job growth rank is still better since the 2012 tax relief effort despite ongoing challenges in oil, agriculture and aerospace according to 2016 data just released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Kansas was ranked #40 among the states for Private Nonfarm job growth between 1998 and 2012 but has moved up to #37 in the four years since … Read More
Tax Cuts and the Kansas Economy
Challenges in the Kansas economy over the last few years have often been blamed on tax cuts, but such simplistic arguments are based on a logical fallacy – ‘A’ happened and ‘B’ happened, so ‘A’ caused ‘B’. Attempting to ‘connect the dots’ in this manner may seem sensible (or even convenient for those who prefer higher taxes) but most often … Read More
Are you ready for another tax increase?
Unless legislators change their tax-and-spending-spree ways, Kansans have another big tax increase coming in the near future. The nearly $500 million spending increase just approved for fiscal years 2017 through 2019 pushes General Fund spending to $6.609 billion; that’s $1.3 billion more than if spending had just been increased for inflation since FY 1995. Kansas Legislative Research Department says the … Read More
Taxpayer Choice: Grow Government or Help Kids
One good piece of news from the 2017 legislative session, amidst much bad news, is that, in the current tax year, individual taxpayers can now participate in the tax credit scholarship program to help low income kids escape some of the worst performing schools in the state. There is a $500,000 annual cap on contributions from a single taxpayer to … Read More
Schools Defend Massive Income Tax Hike
As Kansans collect smaller paychecks this month because of the massive income tax hike passed by the Legislature, school districts’ lobbying arm is defending it as an ‘investment.’ The Kansas Association of School Boards recently said the tax increase “…has been defended by many as necessary to stabilize the budget and comply with a Supreme Court decision on school funding.” … Read More
Kansas Schools Petulantly Demand $972 Million More
Like students attempting to explain away a bad grade, school districts’ taxpayer-funded lawyers bombarded the State Supreme Court with a litany of excuses and rationalizations to justify their demand for another $972 million over the next two years. Their June 30 brief to the Court says the Legislature’s increase of $195 million in the coming school year should be pushed … Read More
Kansas Legislature Broke a Lot of Promises
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