As Kansas legislators turn Gov. Sam Brownback’s program outline into specific legislation they should also make it fair to all Kansans.
Gov. Brownback proposed changes to the state income tax that reduce income to the state by about $90 million annually, according to his own budget office. It increases the tax burden on those earning from 0 to $25,000 a year — the lowest level of earners in the state — by about the same amount and gives those with higher incomes large reductions.
It is, as Sen. Tony Hensley remarked, “Robin Hood in reverse: robbing the poor to give to the rich.”
That, of course, should be changed by the tax committees. If it is a good idea to reduce the state income tax, which is already low with a top rate of 6.45 percent, it should be restructured with fairness in mind. Those at the bottom of the ladder should keep their tax credit benefits and those at the top should continue to bear a larger share of the cost of state government because they can afford to do so.
The truth is, however, that because federal aid to the states is likely to remain flat, the states should raise their spending on essentials such as health care, transportation and welfare to compensate.
The Brownback budget goes in the opposite direction. Just as fewer dollars come from Washington, the governor proposes to compound the problem by reducing state spending.
The Legislature is under no obligation to follow this self-defeating path. It is a formula for making Kansas worse in all of the ways state government affects our quality of life. Spending less on the public schools will lower the quality of education, cheating Kansas children. Spending less on Kansas higher education will mean higher tuition for college and university students or lower the quality of those colleges and universities — or both. Smaller Department of Transportation budgets will mean poorer highways, airports and end any hope of passenger rail.
The old warning that you get what you pay for applies to government, too.
And only people who believe in the tooth fairy, really, truly believe that shrinking state government will make Kansas grow. Hasn’t happened anywhere else. Why would it happen here?
—Emerson Lynn, jr.
