Kansas preparing to tax sugar in pop

[Maggie]

engrshock – there is a lot to your post; too much for me to answer right now. Besides, I agree with some of your positions.

To begin with Republican/Conservative and Democrat/Liberal are not necessarily interchangeable terms. “Sin taxes” fundamentally fall in the liberal/progressive camp of "bright ideas". That said it doesn’t mean Republican’s don’t recognize their uses. A “sin tax” is a way to institute a tax that may be more palatable to the general population – who can be against a healthier society, you can jump on the morality bandwagon, and so on. It is also “sneakier” because people tend not to notice it as much – unlike a hike in property or income taxes.

Pensions and retirement benefits are a serious problem. And those benefits are often abused by state workers – remember I live in NY and have relatives from NJ – so I have seen it first hand. I have seen state workers retire with a yearly pension payment of $100K plus, they get reimbursed for unused sick leave – to the tune of thousands of dollars – sometimes in excess of $100K, and they pay nothing for health-care. Nothing.

So it is little wonder that state pensions, overall, have an unfunded liability of about a trillion dollars and that number continues to grow. And the worst offenders CA, NJ, NY, etc. are essentially bankrupt. But you should ask yourself why that is and what policies brought about the problem.

[SB Shock]

Someone mentioned that liberals were the ones that were placing a tax on pop. However this is in Kansas where the Republicans hold sway and the Republicans are the ones favoring a tax on pop rather than some other type of tax.

I think your making a fundamental mistake here. Your thinking

Republican = Conservative

which is not necessarily true. I'm pretty convinced that regardless of the democrat/republican labels, politicians will take whichever party name they think will get them in power regardless of their philosophical beliefs.

That is why it is important to figure out a candidate actual stance and not his party affliation.

[capnkirk]

Snake Plissken: Got a smoke?
Malloy: The United States is a non-smoking nation! No smoking, no drugs, no alcohol, no women - unless you're married - no foul language, no red meat!
Snake Plissken: [sarcastic] Land of the free.

[ABC]

There is still more to cut.

The major problem with the Kansas legislature has been over spending.

I don't like using tax policy for social policy goals.

A tax system needs to be fair, simple to understand, simple to enforce and stable.

Back to the Kansas budget, based on current revenues, it is essentially the same as it was 2007.

Why in the world can't Kansas goverment live on 2007 revenues? We've actually had some deflation since then too.

The bottom line is that we are not talking about draconian cuts here.

Regarding tobacco taxes, the money is not used for tobocco related illnesses. The money is put into the big spending pot. And there is some research to indicate that smokers die earlier than others and thus will need less state-supported health care later in life.

[Ixiah]

Are there tax revenues going to school districts that are not from property taxes? Why?

State revenues going to education (which includes school districts) accounts for nearly 1/3 of the Kansas budget!

http://www.kansas.gov/KanView/state_expenditure

Why? Because they are not very efficient. IMHO they are also not very effective either.

[ABC]

K12 gets more than 50% of the general fund budget, which is what most of us think is state government. There are really three budgets.

The General Fund which pays for schools, higher ed, social services etc. State sales and income tax are the bulk of the revenues for that, but things like insurance taxes, mortage taxes etc. go at least partially to the general fund too.

There is the Federal portion, which is some highways, federal match for medicaid, Federal grants of various kinds.

Then there is the "middle fund" which is mostly fee-funded items which as highways, parks etc. (gas tax, fishing license etc.)

[engrshock]

K12 gets more than 50% of the general fund budget, which is what most of us think is state government. There are really three budgets.

The General Fund which pays for schools, higher ed, social services etc. State sales and income tax are the bulk of the revenues for that, but things like insurance taxes, mortage taxes etc. go at least partially to the general fund too.

There is the Federal portion, which is some highways, federal match for medicaid, Federal grants of various kinds.

Then there is the "middle fund" which is mostly fee-funded items which as highways, parks etc. (gas tax, fishing license etc.)

Is the state money that they distribute back to the K-12 schools the property taxes that are paid relative to schools or is the General Fund different money?

[Ixiah]

Is the state money that they distribute back to the K-12 schools the property taxes that are paid relative to schools or is the General Fund different money?

This probably answers that question:

http://www.kwch.com/global/story.asp?s=12079086

The $ from the general fund is in addition to the amounts collected on property taxes.

Duane Goossen
March 3, 2010 at 3:40 p.m.

Actually, Kansas spends more of its General Fund budget on education than most states do. That's because most states finance the majority of public education expenses through property taxes or other local sources. In Kansas, the majority of education spending comes from the General Fund so that property tax bills can be lower.

About half of the General Fund budget goes to K through 12 public education. However, because of dropping revenue, the education budget, along with all other budgets, has been cut back significantly.

[ABC]

K12 gets more than 50% of the general fund budget, which is what most of us think is state government. There are really three budgets.

The General Fund which pays for schools, higher ed, social services etc. State sales and income tax are the bulk of the revenues for that, but things like insurance taxes, mortage taxes etc. go at least partially to the general fund too.

There is the Federal portion, which is some highways, federal match for medicaid, Federal grants of various kinds.

Then there is the "middle fund" which is mostly fee-funded items which as highways, parks etc. (gas tax, fishing license etc.)

Is the state money that they distribute back to the K-12 schools the property taxes that are paid relative to schools or is the General Fund different money?

The money distributed back is the local property tax, plus sales, income tax etc. Basically it is all in the same pot.

There is also a "local option budget" which is property taxes that mostly go back to the same school district.

[shocker3]

K12 gets more than 50% of the general fund budget, which is what most of us think is state government. There are really three budgets.

The General Fund which pays for schools, higher ed, social services etc. State sales and income tax are the bulk of the revenues for that, but things like insurance taxes, mortage taxes etc. go at least partially to the general fund too.

There is the Federal portion, which is some highways, federal match for medicaid, Federal grants of various kinds.

Then there is the "middle fund" which is mostly fee-funded items which as highways, parks etc. (gas tax, fishing license etc.)

Is the state money that they distribute back to the K-12 schools the property taxes that are paid relative to schools or is the General Fund different money?

The money distributed back is the local property tax, plus sales, income tax etc. Basically it is all in the same pot.

There is also a "local option budget" which is property taxes that mostly go back to the same school district.

As ABC says it is all in the same pot. From the state standpoint it is all lumped together. But since the property tax is collected locally by county treasurers that portion of the pot doesn't actually go to Topeka.

The property tax money is collected by the County Treasurer's and distributed by them to the local school districts. The state deducts that money from the amount they send them in state aid.

For years there were seven school districts that actually collected so much from property taxes that they collected more than their total budget so they had to send money to the state.

I don't think we have any of them left, although there still might be one or two (Burlington comes to mind).

When we dropped the state wide mill levy for schools (technically the local minimum effort) from 35 to 20 mills that greatly reduced the property tax portion of the funding.

[shocker3]

Back on the original subject of this topic- the tax on sweet drinks.
I see that not only was the bill defeated in Senate Tax Committee, but Chairman Donovan couldn't even get a second on his motion to pass it favorably.

The bill died for a lack of a second.