Just hours before members of the Kansas House took a vote Friday night on whether to cut taxes yes, again a financial rating agency bumped the states rating from negative to stable.
The states tax collections are working, experts with Standard & Poors Global Ratings said. That improved status means investors will view Kansas as a good place to do business.
So you wonder why the vote was 59-59, four votes shy of the necessary majority, to take Kansas back on a path of financial irresponsibility.
Locally, Republican Kent Thompson, LaHarpe, voted for the tax breaks while Democrat Adam Lusker, Frontenac, voted no.
The bulk of the tax cuts would have gone primarily to those already swimming in dough large multi-national corporations, due to a change in the federal tax code.
And, yes, these are the ones with the means to lobby state legislators through the powerful Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Americans for Prosperity; the ones stuffing their pockets by way of the federal tax reform passed last December.
For those who stood strong by voting no, they saw passage of the bill as a return to the disastrous tax cuts of 2012 that allowed certain categories of business income a free pass.
How was that a good idea? They asked.
But of course, voting yes was the easy path.
Everyone wants to be a Daddy Warbucks, especially when youre running for re-election.
But, Kansas is in no position to be generous.
And by the way, while the well-to-do enjoyed those tax breaks, the ensuing budget cuts hurt like hell, eliminating valuable jobs and services.
Its only now that a trickle of funding is making its way back into the coffers of the severely depleted Department of Transportation, as well as those for mental health services, state hospitals, prisons and schools, and the state pension program.
We had become a shell of our former selves, until, thankfully, the 2016 elections brought in enough moderate Republicans and a smattering of Democrats to get us on a path of financial stability.
JUST ONE YEAR ago we were on the brink of insolvency. To have legislators who think we are in a position to give tax breaks again is frightening.
