Kansas House soundly rejects plan to avert steep budget cuts

[Zorro]

Source: AP

Kansas faced the prospect of deep cuts to schools, prisons and other programs Thursday after the Republican-controlled House soundly rejected a proposal supported by Gov. Sam Brownback that would hike sales and cigarette taxes to close a budget deficit.

In past years, legislators backed the GOP governor by slashing personal income taxes in an effort to stimulate the economy, but those policies contributed to a deficit that ballooned this year.

With a constitutional mandate against operating in the red, Brownback's preferred solution got little support this time, even from his own party. The House voted 95-20 against a plan that would generate more than $400 million in revenue over the fiscal year beginning July 1, largely by increasing the state's sales tax from 6.15 percent to 6.55 percent and imposing a 50 cents-per-pack hike on cigarettes.

Brownback's budget director has warned lawmakers that, if the governor is forced to cut the deficit on his own, it will come with a steep price to programs. The cuts would include the loss of $197 million in state aid to schools that would likely lead to more crowded classrooms and higher fees for parents for textbooks and other items.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/kansas-house-rejects-bill-raising-taxes-close-budget-154409021.html

[rpannier]

1. Can't raise taxes no sireeee

Cuz tax cuts pay for themselves
Just ask Norquist

[winstars]

2. A tax on people of color would have passed easily!!! What a bunch of jerks... nt

[hatrack]

10. Yeah, if they could just tax Teh Gayz, Teh Blah People & Teh Muslins . . . .

Problem solved!

[sulphurdunn]

3. This is what the majority

of voters want. Everyone else needs to abandon the good ship Kansas or go down with the cheering passengers.

[LonePirate]

4. My understanding is that Nos were both anti-tax hikes and insufficient tax hikes.

Somehow many of the House members do not like the unfairness of the Brownback tax cuts and want to scale them back.

[paleotn]

5. So the experiment continues.....

...Sorry Kansans. It's a shame that you have to be the guinea pig, but the inevitable fiscal disaster might just save many of us from a similar fate Brownback and the rest do want to slash spending. It's at the heart of their theology. They're itching to do it, but just don't have the honesty to admit it publicly. Let them do it and see how it works out for them. It will be painful, no doubt, but it might just be the beginning of the end for these bullshit artists in Kansas and elsewhere.

[jmowreader]

6. Can't they just impeach the son-of-a-bitch?

[AngryDem001]

7. No that's only for Democrats.

[geek tragedy]

8. Brownback is a moderate by Kansas standards.

Awesome. There's a state with a bright future.

[tblue37]

11. Actually, no, he isn't. For many years we essentially had 3 political parties here in Kansas:

Democrats (mostly fairly conservative Democrats, though), moderate Republicans, and extreme right wing Republicans. Kansas has also had some well-liked Democratic governors (like Sebelius, for example).

Moderate Republicans often sided with the Democratic minority in the legislature to keep the more extreme Republicans from destroying everything in their path. But in 2010, with Koch assistance and money, of course, the RW Republicans successfully primaried the moderate ones, and in the general election several Democrats also got defeated by RW Republicans, so that now the extreme RW has a large majority in the legislature, and they are almost always willing to do Brownback's Koch-directed bidding. SOme of them are balking this time, though, because they want to see more spending cuts, not an increase in any tax.

Interestingly enough, many of the states moderate Republicans actively supported Paul Davis, the Democratic candidate for governor, and many even supported Democratic candidates for a lot of the seats in the legislature. (Of course, a lot of them were Republicans who had been stomped on by RW opponents in the primaries.)

Frankly, I suspect that the Kansas race for governor was rife with Republican shenanigans. Brownback was not polling at all well going into the election. We were really surprised when he was re-elected.

[madokie]

9. Who does sales taxes hurt most anyway

Hint; The poor and barely getting by is who

The rich got their tax cuts last year now the poor and not so rich get their tax increases, Right on cue

[Javaman]

12. aka Kanasas continues its circular firing squad. nt