It’s not exactly balancing the budget if receipts but not debits are accounted for. RESPONSIBLE accounting is the number one priority for a legislature. Honesty is inherent.
That’s what Gov. Sam Brownback has done in predicting a rosey picture for the state budget that includes his tax cut proposals.
Brownback’s budget includes extending the 6.3 percent sales tax rate and eliminating the income tax deduction for mortgage interest — neither of which are a given.
What he’s also left out of the picture is the toll taken by proposed income tax deductions in the current tax bill. The tax bill drops the income tax rate from 4.9 percent to 3.5 percent for upper incomes and from 2.5 percent to 1.9 percent for those who make less than $15,000.
If both the increases and decreases are taken into account — which they must — Kansas is on course to be deeply in debt. Duane Goossen, former state budget director and now an economist for the Kansas Health Institute, projects that in five years’ time, the state will see a decrease in receipts of $1.5 billion and need to cut $800 million in expenses just to reach a zero ending balance, much less maintain a cushion to carry forward.
BROWNBACK continues to look for other sources of funding through cuts.
Next up is public broadcasting. Stations such as KTWU — the only station to air his State of the State message in our region — would experience more cuts piled onto last year’s.
When he took office Brownback proposed doing away with all public funding of TV and radio public broadcast stations. Instead, legislators slashed one third of their budgets, from $1.5 million to $1 million.
Those cuts have forced stations to go off the air for a number of hours each day, replay programs, and reduce staff. More budget cuts will undoubtedly force stations to close altogether, especially those in the rural reaches of the state.
The cuts are doubly punitive to those in the hinterlands where cable TV is not accessible and go against Brownback’s efforts to get people to locate in the sparsely populated regions of the state.
Sure, Kansans would like to pay less in taxes. But not if it’s going to break the bank.
— Susan Lynn
