• Small businesses pay for ineffective megasubsidies

    Small businesses pay for ineffective megasubsidies0

    Kansas has $2 billion in reserves and continues to exceed monthly revenue estimates, yet Governor Laura Kelly is quick to elicit the issues with the Brownback tax cuts whenever tax reform that isn’t her own arises. At the same time, she continues to distribute hundred-million dollar megasubsidies to corporations while small businesses and families miss

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  • Kansas ends 2022 without fully recovering to pre-pandemic jobs numbers

    Kansas ends 2022 without fully recovering to pre-pandemic jobs numbers0

    In December 2022, Kansas was still 2,700 private-sector jobs below its pre-pandemic numbers while 30 states have already fully recovered. Failing to achieve this benchmark while a majority of the country has is a sign that Kansas needs more than ineffective economic subsidies and lackluster tax policy to grow. The Bureau of Labor Statistics adjusts

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  • Lights, camera, please no action on film subsidies

    Lights, camera, please no action on film subsidies0

    Last week, Kansas’s Senate Commerce Committee heard arguments for $12 million in film incentives and credits to attract movie producers to Kansas. However, film subsidies would be another weak and wasteful component of Kansas’s somewhat performative reliance on corporate handouts. Across the 40 states which offer film incentives, none of them have seen more than

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  • Kansas keeps getting duped by economic development schemes

    Kansas keeps getting duped by economic development schemes0

    Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Kansas elected officials keep getting duped by economic development schemes, with politicians of both parties willing to give out hundreds of millions of dollars with poor oversight. Wichita and Coffey County are currently competing for a megaproject by Integra Technologies, with details about

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  • Big revenues don’t excuse big government spending

    Big revenues don’t excuse big government spending0

    It seems fitting that the spookiest month of the year is brought in with something scary: the allure of big government spending! However, last month, Kansas exceeded its tax revenue expectations by $234.9 million. As this year’s election grows closer, big promises about what to do with the ever-growing stack of state cash keep coming

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  • Megaproject and Government Spending Can’t Hide Anemic Job Growth

    Megaproject and Government Spending Can’t Hide Anemic Job Growth0

    Last month, Kansas gained 3,900 government jobs – almost as many as the 4,000 private-sector jobs advertised through the Panasonic megaproject and its taxpayer subsidies. Big government spending like a future megaproject can’t hide Kansas’s weak private sector jobs numbers. The June Labor Report from the Kansas Department of Labor shows Kansas gain 700 private

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