Not to sound suspicious, but the governor’s tax plan seems a tad self-serving — as in the 2016 election. IF THE MORAL obligation to citizens falls flat, Kansas lawmakers have a fiscal responsibility to keep citizens in good stead.
Gov. Brownback maintains a reduction in income tax rates will benefit the state by freeing up money otherwise bound by taxes. All that extra cash Kansans are enjoying is being invested in new business models, he says.
Trouble is, the plan is on track to bankrupt the state.
Let’s do the math.
If the increase in the state sales tax remains, along with the elimination of many standard deductions on state income tax forms, the state stands to gain $857 million over a five-year period.
Sounds good — for today.
Then reality takes hold.
Truth is, the income tax reductions do not take full effect until 2018, at which point the funding is not adequate to fulfill current commitments much less those of the future.
Even without further cuts the state can expect to see a reduction in revenues by $4.5 billion — 13 percent of our budget up through 2018.
Since time immemorial, costs have gone up, not down.
It’s downright criminal to plan a path of unsustainability.
The philosophy that eliminating the income tax, as Brownback wants, will grow the economy has never born fruit. Not here, not anywhere, because two things happen:
a) Programs such as education, transportation, social services, prisons and state pension programs are so starved for funds that they cannot support their programs or payrolls; and,
b) the rolls of the unemployed and medically underserved balloon to unmanageable numbers.
The result is a lower standard of living for a larger percentage of Kansans, which will give our state, deservedly, a bad reputation.
To some, we’re already there. Last year, Kansas legislators slashed the tax rate for the better off in addition to giving huge tax breaks to big business.
And the poor? Legislators eliminated a rebate they once received for purchases on food, and kept the sales tax on groceries. Kansas is in company with Alabama and Mississippi as the only states that levy a tax on food and don’t in some way compensate lower-income residents for the strain on their budgets.
Proportionately, the poor bear a greater burden of the state income tax by a three-to-one margin. It’s estimated the lowest 20 percent of wage earners pay 10.3 percent of their income on taxes. Meanwhile the top 1 percent of wage earners see 3.9 percent of their incomes go toward state taxes.
If the numbers don’t add up, neither does the logic.
— Susan Lynn
Hope that budget impasse includes second thoughts
