Is Gov. Sam Brownback passing the buck or is he being coy with legislators?
The Associated Press reported the governor intended to wait until January, when the 2017 session begins, to fix a budget deficit, which today is $349 million.
Iolan Kent Thompson, among legislators who will deal with budget questions foisted their way, thinks the announcement may be another of Brownback’s strategies to deflect blame from his ill-advised income tax cuts in 2012 and 2013.
“Let’s see what happens Thursday,” Thompson, Ninth District representative, said.
That’s when tax revenue for November will be announced. Thompson thinks Brownback’s hope is that it will reverse the trend of less than anticipated monthly income, and give him opportunity to tout his tax cuts as having had a positive effect.
Brownback also said, through spokeswoman Melika Willoughby, he would hand legislators a proposed budget that “makes significant cuts unnecessary.”
On the surface that sounds like good news for school districts that have had to engineer all sorts of unsavory things to make do. They’ve reduced staff, cut classes, rearranged bus schedules, even shortened weekly attendance from five to four days, to make do.
But is it good news?
Thompson, starting his fourth year in the House, and many other legislators fear Brownback’s Machiavellian approach to balancing the state’s budget on the back of schools, a wide variety of safety net and health programs and even law enforcement, will be excessively harsh.
What has them on edge is the nagging thought that Brownback will adopt a one-time tactic of selling off future proceeds from the tobacco settlement or squeezing more money from the state pension plan.
Annie McKay, president and CEO of Kansas Action for Children, has said cashing in the tobacco settlement would be a “desperate, panicked move” that would permanently decimate “a system that supports Kansas’ youngsters and most vulnerable citizens.” Selling out the settlement would require legislative action — and with the shift to moderation that seems less unlikely.
The Kansas Public Employees Retirement System already is on the rocks and soon will be operating on borrowed money under a scheme that depends on rising interest rates on idle funds to pay out.
WHAT BROWNBACK should do is face up to reality, and be willing to accept a tax increase, not only from removing special privilege for 330,000 businesses, including farmers, who literally pay no income tax, but also reversing cuts that favor the wealthy.
At the same time he should accept a change in sales tax application that either removes or reduces the obligation on purchase of food, with income tax increases compensatory.
The sales tax in any shape or form is regressive, and is an enormous burden on young families and those whose incomes, because of age or circumstances, are barely enough for them to get by.
The next two years Brownback should swallow his pride — trickle-down economics just doesn’t work — and spend the time ensuring that Kansans have economic conditions that are conducive to educating our children — the leaders of tomorrow — and taking care of all, not a favored handful.
— Bob Johnson
