State of Kansas Finances

[wu_shizzle]

He wants to be able to circumvent the Kansas courts.

He wants to select judges to the KS Supreme Court, just like other states and our own US Supreme Court. That's hardly an extreme position.

[shockmonster]

A synopsis of the Kansas Brownback years and his accomplishments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xliMwipXoiA

[shockmonster]

There are still more moderates than conservatives in Kansas government.

You don't have record spending levels and tax increases if there were all these radical conservatives in power.

Yes. The legislature is going after the spending inefficiencies in Kansas to balance the budget. That is what the conservative legislator John Whitmer, from Cheney said this past Sunday on "This Week in Kansas". Why they didn't do that this year, I don't know.

[shox1989]

Yes. The legislature is going after the spending inefficiencies in Kansas to balance the budget. That is what the conservative legislator John Whitmer, from Cheney said this past Sunday on "This Week in Kansas". Why they didn't do that this year, I don't know.

They have been saying that for years. When are we ever going to quit believing them. Anyone who voted for this horribly unbalanced budget or last year's huge tax increase should be voted out of office. I believe this Whitmer guy voted for both.

[Aargh]

The money behind ALEC, KPI and AFP activated people at the precinct level and got most of the moderate Repiubs out of office in the primaries. Primaries are the easiest to manipulate because of the low voter turnout. It doesn't take a lot of money to get "your guy" through the primaries. Then it's an automatic election if there's an (R) behind your guy's name on the ballot.

The conservative Repubs in Topeka are still saying "it's a spending proiblem, we can cut spending", but in 2 years they haven't had the balls to do that/ If they made the cuts they would have to make to balance the budget, they'd be tarred and feathered and run out of Topeka on a rail - and they know it.

Maybe I'm too cynical, but I think some people saw a Billion dollars sitting in KDOT (and the ability to borrow more) and decided they wanted it. Now that they've got it, it's up to the next group in Topeka to put it back or we won't be maintaining roads. Even the most conservative of the ultra-cons still believes that roads are one of the necessary things government has to do.

[rrshock]

Wow, I didn't know that brownback was like Chavez and could just circumvent Kansas elections.

He didn't circumvent anything. Aargh summed it up really well. That is what happened. Those closely associated with Brownback influenced elections.

[shox1989]

But you do have Brownback, a radical conservative, who has this all messed up. Plus i was under the impression that the Brownback bunch forced most of the moderates out.

I am not sure moderate and conservative are the right terms any more. Brownback and his allies spent a ton of money in the Republican primaries in 2012 to eliminate any and all Republicans who opposed any part of the Brownback agenda. Some of the people they defeated were pretty conservative. What we have now are a bunch of Brownback brown nosers in the legislature. People who will do anything he wants. They need to go in 2016. They have had complete and total control the last 4 years and all they have done is increased taxes and made the budget more out of balance than ever before.

Some of their tax increases have been down right cruel, like removing all medical deductions, eliminating the food sales tax refund for many widows and seniors, eliminating the homestead refund for poor seniors and the disabled and blind who are renters, and given Kansas one of the highest sales taxes on food in the country. These are not family values. These guys are giving conservatives a bad name. I refuse to call them that.

Maybe radical works.

[Aargh]

There are a lot of reasons why Trump beat Cruz. Here are two of them:

Jindal
Brownback

2 guys who have done more to damage the Republican Party than any other 2 people in history. Conservative Republicans would rather not be associated with those two, but voters recognize those two as the epitome of the conservative faction of the Republican party.

Brownback and the current Kansas legislature have a lower approval rating in Kansas than Obama. That's in Kansas. One of the most conservative Republican states of all states has a better opinion of Obama than they do of their current conservative Republican government.

The Republican party is in full self-destruct mode. Conservatives labeling moderate Repubs as RINO's isn't helping.

[shox1989]

There are a lot of reasons why Trump beat Cruz. Here are two of them:

Jindal
Brownback

2 guys who have done more to damage the Republican Party than any other 2 people in history. Conservative Republicans would rather not be associated with those two, but voters recognize those two as the epitome of the conservative faction of the Republican party.

Brownback and the current Kansas legislature have a lower approval rating in Kansas than Obama. That's in Kansas. One of the most conservative Republican states of all states has a better opinion of Obama than they do of their current conservative Republican government.

The Republican party is in full self-destruct mode. Conservatives labeling moderate Repubs as RINO's isn't helping.

People around the country are probably a lot more familiar with what Jindal is doing to LA because he ran for President this year. But to the extent that they know anything about what his happening to these 2 states, you are right, it can't be helping the GOP brand in general and Conservatives in particular.

[rrshock]

I am not sure moderate and conservative are the right terms any more. Brownback and his allies spent a ton of money in the Republican primaries in 2012 to eliminate any and all Republicans who opposed any part of the Brownback agenda. Some of the people they defeated were pretty conservative. What we have now are a bunch of Brownback brown nosers in the legislature. People who will do anything he wants. They need to go in 2016. They have had complete and total control the last 4 years and all they have done is increased taxes and made the budget more out of balance than ever before.

Some of their tax increases have been down right cruel, like removing all medical deductions, eliminating the food sales tax refund for many widows and seniors, eliminating the homestead refund for poor seniors and the disabled and blind who are renters, and given Kansas one of the highest sales taxes on food in the country. These are not family values. These guys are giving conservatives a bad name. I refuse to call them that.

Maybe radical works.

I agree that radical probably is better. I just used the other terms because that was how they were labeled in the past. Either way, Brownback and his cronies have got to go.

[rrshock]

I would like to see Trump call Brownback out in the national media. It probably won't happen, but I'd still like to see it. That could actually help our state out in the long run.

[shocker3]

I am not sure moderate and conservative are the right terms any more. Brownback and his allies spent a ton of money in the Republican primaries in 2012 to eliminate any and all Republicans who opposed any part of the Brownback agenda. Some of the people they defeated were pretty conservative. What we have now are a bunch of Brownback brown nosers in the legislature. People who will do anything he wants. They need to go in 2016. They have had complete and total control the last 4 years and all they have done is increased taxes and made the budget more out of balance than ever before.

Some of their tax increases have been down right cruel, like removing all medical deductions, eliminating the food sales tax refund for many widows and seniors, eliminating the homestead refund for poor seniors and the disabled and blind who are renters, and given Kansas one of the highest sales taxes on food in the country. These are not family values. These guys are giving conservatives a bad name. I refuse to call them that.

Maybe radical works.

Former State Senator Dick Kelsey comes to mind. He was about as conservative as they come both socially and economically yet they took him out in the primary. He raised questions about the fairness of him not paying any income tax while those who work for him paid taxes. He also raised questions about whether the state was moving too quickly on KanCare and how it was hurting the quality of care given to the disabled. Because he raised those questions they went after him big time in the Republican Primary.

I happened to run into him a couple of weeks ago (I think he said he was now living in Arkansas) and he talked about how his polling showed him comfortably ahead until they hit him with a barrage of negative mail and ads in the last week. He said he still can't believe how much money they spent to get rid of him for just raising a couple of questions.

[1972Shocker]

The tax increase was a sales tax on everyone. LLC owners continued not to pay. I really respect the city businesses who overwhelmingly (during a poll), said that they were willing to pay taxes to help the state. It was like 4 out of 5 business owners in Wichita who said they were willing to pay more because it wasn't fair that they didn't pay taxes but their workers did. I think that if jobs were being created from the lower taxes, people would feel differently but the data doesn't show that.

The exemption of business profits was poorly designed and poorly thought out. I have no problem trying to incentivize business to grow and expand but to just hand them a big wad of money with no performance requirements attached to it was truly just a corporate and upper income welfare payment. Many of the beneficiaries of this tax cut were not even aware of the gift they were given until after the first year they filed tax returns under the law. The response was usually. Really, that's cool. The hoped for economic growth has not occurred and with the tax revenues from the oil patch now in the toilet things are just getting worse. Counties that relied on oil and gas severance taxes as a major funding source have to be getting crushed.

If they want to give tax credits to businesses who actually can show they have grown their businesses resulting in job creation then fine, incentivize that in a targeted manner and in such a way that rewards good paying jobs more than minimum wage jobs. But to just give businesses a 100% tax cut regardless of whether they reinvest those funds in Kansas job growing activities is not the way to do it IMHO.

[shocker3]

The exemption of business profits was poorly designed and poorly thought out. I have no problem trying to incentivize business to grow and expand but to just hand them a big wad of money with no performance requirements attached to it was truly just a corporate and upper income welfare payment. Many of the beneficiaries of this tax cut were not even aware of the gift they were given until after the first year they filed tax returns under the law. The response was usually. Really, that's cool. The hoped for economic growth has not occurred and with the tax revenues from the oil patch now in the toilet things are just getting worse. Counties that relied on oil and gas severance taxes as a major funding source have to be getting crushed.

If they want to give tax credits to businesses who actually can show they have grown their businesses resulting in job creation then fine, incentivize that in a targeted manner and in such a way that rewards good paying jobs more than minimum wage jobs. But to just give businesses a 100% tax cut regardless of whether they reinvest those funds in Kansas job growing activities is not the way to do it IMHO.

The National Tax Foundation (a Conservative Think Tank in DC) testified to the House Tax Committee this year in favor of repealing the KS business income tax exemption. http://taxfoundation.org/article/kansas-pass-through-carve-out-national-perspective

A highlight of their testimony:

The pass-through exemption encourages tax avoidance without generating desired growth

My judgement, which is shared by my colleagues, is that the pass-through exemption is the reason for this revenue underperformance. When the exemption was passed in 2012, it was projected that 191,000 entities would take advantage of the provision. As more and more people have realized the very sizeable tax advantage of being a pass-through entity in Kansas, that number ended up being 330,000 claimants, over 70 percent more than was anticipated.


It’s important to note here that while decreasing taxes is generally associated with greater economic growth, the pass-through carve out is primarily incentivizing tax avoidance, not job creation.



If they passed a provision like this in Washington, D.C., where I live and work, I would go to my employer the next day and ask them to start paying me as an independent contractor. I would still be doing the same job and contributing the same value to the economy, I just wouldn’t be paying any income taxes.



The individual income tax is one of the largest instruments in the Kansas revenue toolkit. Exempting pass-through income substantially narrowed the tax base of that instrument, and in a haphazard and unpredictable way.



There may be some on this committee that are interested in getting rid of the individual income tax entirely, and see the pass-through exemption as a first step to getting there. It is not a good one, and broader, more predictable overall rate cuts are a much more straightforward way of getting there.

[shockmonster]

On This Week in Kansas this morning, it was brought up that Bill Self has opened up an LLC so that he can take advantage of the tax loopholes while the guy who sweeps the floor at AFH has to pay.