It must have been a challenge for Gov. Sam Brownback to keep a straight face Tuesday when he said the July 1 increase in sales and cigarette taxes are not really tax increases. DID KANSAS need to raise taxes? Absolutely.
“You’ve got to look at the totality of the picture,” he said, meaning when put up against the massive income tax cuts of 2012 and 2013, the sales tax and cigarette tax increases still result in less money for state coffers.
So, in essence, the tax increases designed to raise $384 million can still be regarded as tax cuts, he said.
Which, they aren’t. Nor are they as equitable as taxing income.
In Kansas, the wealthy are favored, the poor are punished.
According to the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, the top 1 percent of income-earners in Kansas on average pay $24,600 less in income taxes because of the tax breaks.
Meanwhile, the lower 20 percent of Kansans are paying on average almost $200 more in income taxes, under Brownback’s plan.
What does that say about us as a state?
Certainly not the words inscribed at the foot of the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free …”
In Kansas, the more apt words would read, “Give me your wealthy and healthy, and the rest of you, stay away.”
Was this the right way and are we out of the woods? No and no.
Brownback predicts he needs to cut an additional $50 million in programs and services. The income tax cuts of 2012 and 2013 set us behind $1 billion.
This year’s session resulted in a lot of one-time band-aid measures, including robbing the highway department and other departments, and cutting funding for education, prisons, state hospitals, the judicial system, and myriad other programs.
It didn’t take care of business. It’s not something to be proud of. And the increased sales taxes will be a burden on consumers and businesses alike.
Tax cuts, phooey.
— Susan Lynn
Governor’s fuzzy math an insult to Kansans
