Gov. Sam Brownback grew cautious as legislators began debating tax cuts and putting together a state budget last week.
“Tax cuts,” he said, “must be balanced with pay-fors to keep the budget responsible. That’s where you get the tough piece of it. It’s easier to say, ‘I’m just for cutting all of this,’ and then, well, what about the hole that’s here in the budget?”
Yes, governor. What about that hole?
When state income fell due to the national recession, legislators and the Democratic governors who served then, cut spending on the public schools by nearly 6 percent. Appropriations for the state universities, community and technical colleges were slashed, too. In addition, they imposed a one-cent increase in the sales tax to keep the budget balanced. Then the recession eased and state revenues began a slow, but steady, recovery.
The combination of draconian spending cuts and rising revenues reversed the fiscal picture at the statehouse. The $500 million shortfall that Gov. Brownback faced as he took office became a $460 million surplus.
So, what are the legislators doing? Restoring the eliminated funds they had to make to K-12 and higher ed? Not on your life. The surplus means to them that they can cut taxes — and make absolutely certain the next downturn will produce a truly calamitous budget shortfall.
The Legislature had already decided to take millions from the Department of Transportation and transfer it to the general fund. Those dollars were paid as taxes on highway fuels by motorists who believed, innocently, that they were helping keep the Kansas highway system up to snuff. But, no, the gallonage taxes are being spent elsewhere — it’s fraud, really — to relieve the lawmakers from the responsibility of being honest with highway users while they cut taxes on the wealthy and on hundreds of businesses.
WHY IS THIS happening? Because those who run Kansas government have their goals and priorities screwed up.
Government doesn’t exist to whittle itself down, a tax at a time, month by month, year by year, until, like the smile on the Cheshire cat, it disappears altogether. Self-destruction is not its goal, no matter what the Know-Nothings say.
The government of Kansas exists to serve the people of Kansas.
When the Legislature meets to create a budget, it should do so with the goal of meeting the needs of Kansans as completely and efficiently as it can without burdening the people with excessive taxes.
This Legislature should increase spending on the public schools to make up for the cuts previous lawmakers felt they had to make. It should also restore funding to the universities for two primary reasons: (1) Our very good universities can only stay very good and get still better with adequate funding. Kansas will not prosper in the long run unless state government remains dedicated to their excellence; (2) When the lawmakers cut university funding, the universities raise tuition rates and student fees to keep from reducing their ability to educate students. The result is to shift the burden from all of the Kansas population and strap it on the back of Kansas students and their parents.
Kansas must also take care of its developmentally disabled, its disadvantaged youth, its impoverished elderly and poor.
Last on the priority list is reducing taxes on businesses and the wealthy among us. They have demonstrated over the years a splendid ability to take care of themselves.
Our Legislature should push its reset button, shake up its Etch-a-Sketch, and join Gov. Brownback in filling that hole in the budget which it has been so diligently digging these past three months.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
