Kansas Tax Cut Experiment Comes To An End As Lawmakers Vote To Raise Taxes
Source: NPR
June 7, 2017·10:37 AM ET
Kansas lawmakers have voted to roll back a series of major tax cuts that became an example for conservative lawmakers around the country but didn't deliver the growth and prosperity promised by Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican.
A coalition of conservative Republicans, some of whom voted for sweeping tax cuts in 2012 or defended them in the years since, sided with moderates and Democrats to override Brownback's veto of a $1.2 billion tax increase.
The law to increase taxes over the next two years comes as legislators seek to close a projected $900 million budget gap for that same period and bolster funding for K-12 schools under a Kansas Supreme Court order.
"From our side of the aisle, that tax plan didn't receive a single vote," Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley said of the 2012 cuts, adding that Democrats had foreseen repercussions for the state's financial health. State Sen. Tom Holland, a Democrat, said Kansas had been riding "the crazy train" and was long overdue for a solution.
Read more: http://www.npr.org/2017/06/07/531886684/the-kansas-tax-cut-experiment-comes-to-an-end-as-lawmakers-vote-to-raise-taxes
"bolster funding for K-12 schools under a Kansas Supreme Court order." more states have to be taken to the courts to force public school funding.
State Rep. Barbara Ballard, a Lawrence Democrat, described feeling tremendous relief, and said she believes many Kansans will share that sensation. "Now we have a source of money. Then we can work our way out of the hole that we're in," she said. "It's almost like you can breathe."
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