Welcome to the Hardcore Husky Forums. Folks who are well-known in Cyberland and not that dumb.
More good news from Kansas. It seems the best way to make up for the deficit was to increase taxes on the poor and rob the pensions of the middle class. It appears the lackluster revenues from sluggish growth putting Kansas at 43rd in the nation is caused by the global recession, which didn't effect other states. Then we learned that "job creators" are really just "tax avoiders".
I totally see how the country should follow the conservative economic model.
The predicted job growth from business expansions hasn't happened, leaving the state persistently short of money. Since November, tax collections have fallen about $81 million, or 1.9 percent below the current forecast's predictions.
"We're growing weary," said Senate President Susan Wagle, a conservative Republican from Wichita. While GOP legislators still support low income taxes, "we'd prefer to see some real solutions coming from the governor's office," she said.
Last month, Brownback ordered $17 million in immediate reductions to universities and earlier this month delayed $93 million in contributions to pensions for school teachers and community college employees. The state has also siphoned off more than $750 million from highway projects to other parts of the budget over the past two years.Brownback blames the economic sluggishness — the state ranked 43rd in total personal income growth in 2015 — on slumps in agriculture, energy production and aircraft manufacturing.
"You've got some global issues that are going on that we have absolutely no control over," Brownback told reporters at a recent news conference.
But Scott Drenkard, an economist for the conservative Tax Foundation, told legislators last month that farmers and business owners appeared to pocket the extra money from the state's recent tax cuts rather than use it for expansion — "tax avoidance, not job creation."
The state's personal income tax collections dropped 24 percent during its 2014 budget year, down $713 million. They've increased since, but the official projection for the 2017 fiscal year is less than $2.5 billion — still 15 percent off the 2013 peak.
Meanwhile, Kansas reported gaining only 800 private-sector jobs between March 2015 and March 2016, a mere 0.1 percent increase.
Last year, legislators plugged part of the budget gap by increasing sales and cigarette taxes as part of a $400 million revenue-raising package.https://www.yahoo.com/news/kansas-lawmakers-lose-patience-governors-tax-cuts-055057812.html
-2 ·
Comments