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
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
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 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
Pass-Through Exemption Helped Add 18,000 jobs in 2015
The pass-through exemption for LLCs, Sub-S corps, partnerships and proprietors helped add over 18,000 new jobs in 2015 while all other private employers had small declines. New U.S. Census data shows employment at pass-through entities increased by almost 4 percent while the other major category – C-corps – declined by a half percent. Kansas was far behind the national average … Read More
PEAK subsidy costs Kansas $48.5 million annually
Many Democrats and Republicans in the Kansas Legislature are pushing for a very large personal income tax increase as the primary method of balancing the budget over the next two years, but they’ve shown little interest in stopping most of the special tax breaks they give to select businesses and government retirees. The PEAK subsidy (Promoting Employment Across Kansas) is … Read More
States that Spend Less, Tax Less…and Grow More
The correlation is as strong today as when published in the Wall Street Journal back in 2012: states that spend less, tax less…and grow more. Data collected from various government agencies and compiled in KPI’s 2017 Green Book show the states that tax income spent 42 percent more per-resident in 2015 than the states without an income tax. Alternatively, the ten … Read More
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