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http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-kansas-hard-times-snap-20161121-story.html
And to the surprise of no one but republicans, might I add. The scary part about this is that republicans aren't capable of seeing these results and actually learning from them. Nope. Hey it failed horribly here, so let's implement it on the national level! Maybe it will be different this time?
And to the surprise of no one but republicans, might I add. The scary part about this is that republicans aren't capable of seeing these results and actually learning from them. Nope. Hey it failed horribly here, so let's implement it on the national level! Maybe it will be different this time?
February 2015, three years into the supply-side economics experiment that would upend a once steady Midwestern economy, a hole appeared in Kansas’ finances.
To fill it, Gov. Sam Brownback took $45 million in public education funding. By April of this year, with the hole at $290 million, Brownback took highway money to plug it. A month later, state money for Medicaid coverage went into the hole, but the gap continued to grow.
Today, the state’s budget hole is $345 million and threatens the foundation of this state, which was supposed to be the setting for a grand economic expansion but now more closely resembles a battleground, with accusations and lawsuits flying over how to get the state’s finances in order.
The yawning deficits were caused by huge tax cuts, championed by Brownback and the Republican-dominated Legislature, that were supposed set the economy roaring. They didn’t.
The budget shortfalls have been felt across the state, particularly by public schools, and have embroiled the Kansas Supreme Court along with state lawmakers and the governor.
Through it all, Brownback has repeatedly pledged his faith in the free market.
“We’re going to continue to grow the economy,” Brownback has said in response to questions about each new revenue shortfall.
His opponents in the Legislature say Brownback’s mantra has failed the state and carries a stern lesson in theory versus reality to other states contemplating the same free-market ideas.
“It’s estimate and pray on the income taxes,” said state Sen. Laura Kelly, ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee. “Even with significant changes, we won’t see personal income receipts [increase] until 2019.”
An ideological war over the way Kansas collects and spends money has erupted in the capital of Topeka and spilled into every corner of the state. After five years of an economic crusade that has left its originator, Brownback, as the least popular governor in the nation, Kansas has been forced to use the settlement from a national tobacco lawsuit to cover the hole in its general fund budget — money that was supposed to go to an early childhood education endowment.
It was a risk Brownback ran when he overhauled the state budget based on an interpretation of fiscal conservatism that dramatically cut personal income taxes.
The state would thrive, he pledged, because the tax cuts would help keep businesses and smart, young Kansans in the state, not fleeing “to Houston, or Dallas, or Chicago or somewhere else.”
“It will pave the way to the creation of tens of thousands of new jobs, bring tens of thousands of people to Kansas, and help make our state the best place in America to start and grow a small business,” Brownback wrote in 2012. “It will leave more than a billion dollars in the hands of Kansans. An expanding economy and growing population will directly benefit our schools and local governments.”
It hasn’t worked out that way.
Revenue from income tax collections plummeted 22%. A separate repeal of taxes on partnerships and limited liability companies meant the surrender of 30% of state revenue.