A tax plan that would sharply reduce state income and hit the poor hardest was put together by Republican leaders in the Kansas House and is up for consideration.
It should be buried six feet under.
Like the tax reforms proposed by Gov. Sam Brownback, changes in the income tax would cut amounts paid by middle and upper income folks and increase the amount paid by those earning under $25,000 a year.
It is truly hard to believe that any Kansas lawmaker could support such an elitist — and brutal — approach to financing state government.
The increase on the poor comes from reducing the tax credit earned by low-income workers. The House is a bit more compassionate than the governor. Rather than eliminate the earned income tax credit entirely, as Brownback would, it merely cuts it in half.
The EITC is paid to low income workers in recognition of the fact that many can’t get by on what they earn. It is a combination of welfare to the workers and state subsidy to the businesses that pay low wages. The negative income tax —as it is also known — was the brain child of the late Milton Friedman, a conservative icon, has wide and broad support.
If it is to be repealed, it should be replaced by a state minimum wage high enough to compensate workers for the loss. Nothing of the sort is about to happen in the Kansas Legislature. What the governnor and the Republican legislators have in mind is taking money from the poor and giving it to the well-to-do.
The legislation on the floor also reduces the state sales tax to 5.7 cents on the dollar from the present 6.3 percent. This reduction, combined with lowering the income tax brackets at the upper levels, would reduce state income by more than $850 million over the next five years, budget experts estimate.
That’s $850 million not available for education, highways, law enforcement, health care and the other things government does for the governed.
THE JUSTIFICATION for this destruction is that tax cuts will stimulate the Kansas economy, create jobs and produce more income for families than they had before. Coincidentally, lowering taxes pleases those who pay the most taxes and, in turn, give the most to politicians.
The first justification is highly questionable. There simply is no proof that beggaring government strengthens the economy or has ever done so in the past.
The second reason for slashing tax rates at the upper levels is a clear winner. Please guess which motive is the most compelling.
—Emerson Lynn, jr.
