A Republican Preview of things to Come....
by Phil Creek (Razorback3100)
The GOP has said for years " If we just cut taxes for the rich, it'll trickle down and create jobs and economic growth for the rest of the country..."
In Kansas, Gov. Sam Brownback did exactly that.... Brownback expounded on a "real live experiment" involving exactly this economic ideology in his state and here is how well that played out.
It's been a little over 3 years since Brownback and his allies in the uber-conservative Kansas state legislature drastically cut taxes for upper income brackets and installed a policy of ZERO taxes for business.
What has been the result?
Kansas recently slipped from 43rd to 46th in economic growth, the state is also 46th in wage growth as well as job growth.
The state's credit-worthiness has been downgraded 3 times in the past 26 months. Kansas has also been writing itself "Debt Certificates" against a state treasury that does not have the funds to cover them ( Basically writing itself "Hot Checks").
Kansas is seeing monthly revenue short-falls which over the last three years have forced the state to make drastic cuts to public education. This is having massive negative affects on school districts. For example - The city of Wichita with a population north of 300,000 is having to figure out how to cut $30 million from it's district budget or may not be able to open it's doors for the coming fall semester. The town of Caney, KS. has had to go to a 4-day week because their district simply does not have the funds to keep the buildings running the full 5 day school week. More than 16 school districts are in the same boat and some have closed their doors for good.
The state retirement program, K-PER's, has been raided for funds so often and is so bad off that Kansas has "delayed" the April pension checks to it's former state employees. Kansas could not make $93 million in pension payments in the face of a projected $1.7 billion dollar state deficit by the end of fiscal 2017.
The state's high-way department, KDOT, has had it's funds raided by the Governor so many times that several projects and some direly needed bridge and highway maintenance is no longer being carried out for lack of the money to do so. Brownback has raided over $460 million form KDOT over the past two years.
In 2015, Kansas passed the largest sales and "sin" taxes in state history. The towns of Independence, KS and Chanute, KS are tied for paying the highest sales taxes on groceries not just in Kansas, but NATIONALLY. It should also be noted, the counties these two towns are in are listed among the worst counties in the state when it comes to employment opportunities.
It doesn't end there for the town of Independence, which saw it's hospital, Mercy Hospital, close it's doors and partially torn down as a result of Gov. Brownback's refusal to accept expanded Medicaid. It's currently estimated that as much as 1/3 of hospitals in rural Kansas are in danger of doing the same.
Unless this fiscal fantasy of the uber-right is confronted with the hard facts of their economic ideology, this is a preview of what will happen to the rest of the country, It's as simple as that...