Monday’s front page reported Gov. Sam Brownback was working toward eliminating the Kansas income tax.
The premise is that it frees up money that supposedly will be spent on new business ventures, luring people to our fair state.
In actuality, it will mean a far smaller pie from which to divvy up the state’s responsibilities to its schools, human services, transportation projects, public safety, ag and natural resources, and the like.
Tightening one’s belt always means a loss. In Kansas’ case, we’ve gone past the fat and are tearing away at muscle, if not bone.
The first to feel the pain will be those who depend on public-sector jobs such as teachers, city, county and state employees including firefighters and police and those that contract with the state such as Se-Kan Asphalt for road construction, and the Southeast Kansas Area Agency on Aging that provides home-based health services, just to name a few. Also to be affected will be those who receive their services: Students, the elderly, those who drive on Kansas roads.
Individual income taxes today make up 49.8 percent of the Kansas budget; by far the largest source of revenue. Sales and use taxes make up 38.9 percent of the budget. Way down the list are taxes assessed to Kansas corporations, bringing in 4.8 percent.
Educating Kansas youths takes up two-thirds of the budget. Providing safety net services for our indigent and medically underserved consumes 21.5 percent of the budget, followed by public safety, ag and natural resources, general government and transportation.
Besides our schools, programs that are already feeling the pain under the Brownback administration include, along with their cuts:
* the Kansas Health Policy Authority — $67 million;
* the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services — $39.4 million;
* the Department on Aging — $24.2 million.
Earlier this month, nine Social and Rehabilitation Services offices were closed across the state.
Underfunding these programs makes us a poorer state. Poorer in the sense that we’re not willing to take care of our own — our tired, our poor, our aging.
BESIDES THE SOCIAL aspect of not being a good neighbor, eliminating the state income tax is poor business sense. The wealthy simply will not spend more in-state to make up the difference of the lost income from a broad-based income tax.
The income tax is the fairest way to bring in revenue to state coffers because it’s proportional to a person’s ability to pay.
If we jack up the sales tax on food, clothing and medicine, the poor and the elderly will suffer unduly.
Proponents argue a higher sales tax is more equitable because those who have, will buy more. Those that don’t, won’t.
Tell me, when it comes to necessities, how do you cut back?
The elderly, especially, will be hurt the most because they typically live on fixed incomes and have a higher need for expensive medications.
Sales taxes and the hidden taxes we call “fees” all weigh heavier on the low-income earner. For instance, in Texas, which has no state income tax, college students dependent on food stamps are charged the same tuition rates as the children of billionaires. That $9,000 tuition weighs far heavier on a low-income person compared to a person in comfortable circumstances.
Texas K-12 students are also charged a fee to ride the bus to school. Discrimination anyone?
Gov. Brownback frequently uses Texas as an example of a “progressive” state.
With a $27-billion shortfall this past legislative session, Texas slashed education funding by $4 billion, helping it keep its ranking as one of the poorest education systems in the nation. Texas was ranked 49 in its verbal SAT scores; 46 in its math scores.
LET’S KEEP our priorities straight. Our state motto, Ad Astra per Aspera, is Latin for “to the stars with difficulty.”
It was penned by John Ingalls, a native of Massachusetts, who came to Kansas in 1859 because he believed the state had a bright and promising future.
That should continue to be our goal. For everyone.
— Susan Lynn
