This isn’t good, no matter how it is spun.
The Kansas Department of Revenue announced Monday tax collections for March were nearly $12 million short of expectations, putting the shortfall for fiscal 2017, ending June 30, at about $293 million.
The spin: “Even with the shortfall in March, the state’s tax collections are still nearly $57 million ahead of expectations for the current fiscal year that began in July 2016.”
Be reminded, that came after estimates were lowered. However, this is the tip of the iceberg.
The test, which legislators must pass soon, is alleviating the $1.1 billion deficit heading into next two years, ending June 30, 2019, and whatever the new school funding formula demands.
Contact your legislators, Reps. Kent Thompson and Adam Lusker, and Sen. Caryn Tyson, and tell them to get with it.
At the same time you might want to put in a plug for how disappointing it is that the House failed to override Gov. Sam Brownback’s veto of Medicaid expansion, after it passed both chambers with healthy margins before Brownback put a black spot on the measure.
That means for the foreseeable future 130,000 good Kansans, who have the misfortune of living in poverty, will be without health insurance.
Also, it means that Allen County Regional Hospital, and every other public hospital in Kansas, will have to treat a goodly number of patients without being paid or, at best, receive a small portion of what’s due.
It’s easy to sit in an ivory tower and huff and puff about helping people whose livelihoods were harmed from a devastating wildfire, but what about the many others who desperately need assistance?
Burdett Loomis, a University of Kansas sage, was absolutely correct Saturday when he wrote a scathing column calling for Brownback to resign.
THE PURPOSE of government is to do collectively what can’t be done individually. Obvious things, such as provide public education, build and maintain roads, give the poor and powerless safety nets and have law enforcement and emergency crews at the ready, need to be fully funded.
— Bob Johnson
