Voice For Liberty

Category: Kansas state government

  • Kansas House leadership plans to balance budget without tax increases

    A legislative panel at yesterday’s AFP Kansas Defending the American Dream Summit 2010 featured members of the Kansas House of Representatives Leadership presenting the case that the budget can be balanced without increasing taxes on Kansans.

    Speaking first, Representative Kevin Yoder, an Overland Park Republican who is chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said the legislature is trying to balance the Kansas state budget without a tax increase.

    Yoder spoke of the momentum behind increasing government spending, noting that it used to be that if you didn’t get a five percent increase, it was called a budget cut. Arguments were over whether an agency would receive a seven, eight, or nine percent increase in funding. “There are some who always want to spend more, and there are some for who it’s never enough.”

    Yoder said that despite what Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson wants for his legacy, we must pass a budget without raising taxes.

    Yoder said that when times get tough, government has to cut back spending just like businesses and families have had to do. Despite the talk of “bone-cutting,” he said that spending continues.

    He said that in the last year, Kansas lost about 50,000 private sector jobs. But at the same time, public sector jobs grew. “That doesn’t sound like cutting to the bone to me,” he told the audience. There is more waste to be eliminated and greater efficiencies to be found.

    Yoder said that SB 572 is the budget bill that passed out of the House Appropriations committee last week. He said it adds funding for public safety and the physically and mentally disabled. It does not devastate services, he added.

    Speaking next, Olathe Republican Arlen Siegfreid, who is Speaker Pro Tem of the House, told the audience that Kansas has a “fundamentally flawed” budget system. He noted that it has been said from the beginning that the budget can’t be balance without raising taxes can’t be done. But Yoder and House Majority Leader Ray Merrick have shown that this can be done.

    Siegfreid said that it is apparent that the administration’s position is to raise taxes, and it is their only position. Sales taxes, cigarette and tobacco taxes, alcohol taxes, elimination of sales tax exemptions, raising taxes on utilities, and now an income tax increase have been in the mix.

    He reminded the audience that these taxes would be on top of a large increase in unemployment insurance taxes caused by a mistake made by the Kansas Department of Labor.

    The Kansas House Leadership has attempted to help the people of Kansas, Siegfreid said. He listed a number of proposed measures that have not passed, including health care savings accounts, a simplified tax structure, requiring the Department of Revenue to pay a penalty if they delay tax refunds, a property tax bill that did not allow for automatic increases, and the PEAK bill, an economic development bill for very small companies, which was vetoed by the governor.

    The House has led the way over the last several years in creating a good environment for capital in the state of Kansas, Siegfreid told the audience, adding that “We have to have capital investment if we are to create jobs, and what Kansas needs is jobs. … In any real sense, government increases revenue only when business and individuals prosper. We should not depend on tax increases. We should depend on prosperity to increase revenue.”

    Representative Ray Merrick, who is House Majority Leader, explained the political reality in the House. There are 76 Republican members of the House, but Merrick said that on the “very best day” there are 55 who will vote with him, meaning they are conservative Republicans. 63 votes are required to pass legislation in the House.

    He recited the large annual increases in the budget in recent years as evidence that our problem in Kansas is spending, not lack of revenue. Noting that no members of the Senate Leadership are present at the AFP event, he said they are not “of like mind.” (Americans for Prosperity advocates for limited government and free markets.) Their game plan from the beginning, he said, was to not look for savings in the budget, but to increase taxes. Their interest is in growing government.

    While the governor has said he will veto a budget that doesn’t include tax increases, Merrick said we should let him do just that. He added that perhaps the session could be finished by Friday May 7.

    In answering a question, Merrick said that Missouri has a billion dollar budget deficit. Its Democratic governor said that Missouri will balance its budget without raising taxes. Missouri is also considering eliminating the corporate income tax, followed by elimination of the personal income tax.

    Warning of the danger of temporary tax increase such as the Kansas Governor is proposing, Merrick reminded the audience that in 2002 Kansas passed what was to be a temporary increase in the sales tax, but that increase has not gone away.

  • Kansas Senator outlines plan for revenue without tax increases

    Yesterday in Topeka Kansas Senator Ty Masterson, a Republican from Andover, laid out a plan for generating revenue for the state that doesn’t involve raising taxes: The state could sell some of its assets.

    Masterson spoke to about 400 citizens as part of the Kansas Defending the American Dream Summit 2010. This event was produced by Americans for Prosperity-Kansas.

    Starting in January, Masterson said he asked researchers to compile a list of state-owned assets. Three months later he received a rough draft, with the lead researcher saying he was dumbfounded by the project, as the state doesn’t know what it owns.

    State agencies have become kingdom builders, Masterson said, and we began to lose track of the state’s assets. The draft report indicates the state may own between $12 billion and $16 billion in assets.

    “Every responsible business evaluates what it has in hard assets, and decides whether or not to continue maintaining it,” he said.

    Referring to these assets’ ability to generate revenue for the state, Masterson told the audience that selling just one percent of these assets could generate $120 million to $160 million for the state. (The commonly-cited budget “gap” Kansas is facing is around $500 million, although that number is based on funding the governor’s desires for increased spending. The actual gap is much less.)

    Selling assets also reduces operational costs, he added.

    There is also a huge unfunded liability in KPERS, the Kansas state employee retirement plan. The state has income-producing assets that could be sold to KPERS. This would produce immediate revenue for the state’s general fund, and provide KPERS with an investment that produces revenue over the long term.

    In other remarks Masterson reminded the audience that the leadership of the Kansas senate is not conservative, and it may not be possible to gain a majority of votes for a budget plan that does not raise taxes.

    Masterson told the audience its help is needed. “We need you to counter the propaganda machine telling people they will be harmed if taxes are not increased.” People tell him “I want you to raise my taxes,” believing their children will be harmed unless taxes are raised, but these are not the correct facts.

    “It is a spending problem that we have,” echoing other speakers at the event. Kansas state general fund spending in 2006 was $5.139 billion. Three years later in 2009 it was $6.4 billion. The budgets being talked about now are still several hundred million dollars higher than 2006 spending. The propaganda being spread, however, tells Kansans that spending and services are being cut.

  • SEIU calls for higher Kansas taxes

    At last night’s meeting of USD 259, the Wichita public school district, a local union leader described his union’s efforts in its attempt to drum up support for tax increases in Kansas.

    Harold Schlechtweg, business representative of Service Employees International Union Local 513, told school board members how the union worked to get people to attend a meeting of the South-central Kansas Legislative Delegation last Saturday. He was specific to the point of reading to board members the slogans on the protest signs.

    He said the union used letters to all classified staff and telephone calls to recruit attendees to the meeting. He used students from the Education Department at Wichita State University to make telephone calls, he added.

    Schlechtweg has asked governments to boost taxes in favor of his union workers before. Last summer he told the Wichita City Council that it should not outsource the mowing and maintenance of city parks. Instead, he wanted the council to keep union employees on the payroll.

    At the time Schlechtweg testified, it was thought that the switch to outsourcing would save the city $1 million annually. Recent reporting by KWCH’s Kim Hynes revealed that the savings are now projected at $1.8 million annually, according to Wichita Parks Director Doug Kupper. So Wichita taxpayers are saving quite a bit by ignoring Schlechtweg’s advice. Kansas legislators should do the same.

    At the national level, SEIU has criticized its opponents for conducting Astroturf campaigns. Astroturfing — meaning organized efforts to create an appearance of fake grassroots interest in an issue — is a common charge of those like Schlechtweg who are in favor of more government taxation and spending.

    Here we see, right in our hometown of Wichita, union-produced Astroturf as SEIU works against the interest of Kansas taxpayers.

  • Kansas bills, legislature tracked by ‘Kansas Votes’

    The website Kansas Votes provides information about legislation in Kansas as it works its way through the law-making process. This process, which can be complicated, is explained in plain language on this website.

    There is some information about bills available on the Kansas Legislature website. The information there, however, is limited to the actual text of the bill and a terse description of its legislative history. The Kansas Votes site contains additional information and explanation that helps citizens understand bills and the legislative process.

    Here are some features of Kansas Votes:

    • Concise, plain-language, objective and accurate descriptions of every bill, amendment, roll call vote and voice vote.
    • Ability to track all the votes of a particular legislator, or search by bill number, category or keyword.
    • Ability to view all the bills and amendments introduced by a particular legislator.
    • Ability to post a public comment, view others’ comments, and participate in citizen surveys on each bill.
    • Automatically e-mail legislators or others about a bill.
    • Ability to follow action in any one or more of 50 different categories of legislation (such as Education or Land Use or Taxes).
    • Ability to sign up for e-mail notifications of action on any bill or subject area of interest, including new bill introductions.

    Citizens now have a valuable tool to help them follow the action in the statehouse. This is especially important as traditional media such as newspapers devote less coverage to news like this.

    And did I mention it’s free?

    To use Kansas Votes, click on Kansas Votes.

  • Wichita-area legislative meeting report, commentary

    Wendy Aylworth provides reporting and analysis from Saturday’s meeting of the South-central Kansas Legislative Delegation with citizens.

    Protesters adamantly in favor of a one cent per dollar sales tax increase crowded the sidewalk outside the South-Central Kansas Legislative Forum Saturday morning. Some wore purple shirts and some held signs reading “A Penny for Education” and “Support Our Schools.” There was no one with a sign opposing a tax increase.

    Inside the meeting room the crowd appeared overwhelmingly in favor of the tax increase. Sen. Jean Schodorf, who arrived late, pointed out this is what she wanted to hear, “what we should be doing.”

    The audience was not polled regarding their wishes, but if there were any opposed to the tax increase they went unseen. People carrying signs promoting the tax continued to do so inside the building, during the forum, and the voices from the audience during the meeting were clearly in favor of the sales tax increase.

    (more…)

  • Wichita-area legislative meeting reveals differences in approach to government

    Yesterday’s meeting of the South-central Kansas legislative delegation with citizens featured, in the words of one senator, a level of intensity not seen in previous meetings of this body. Senator Dick Kelsey made this observation, remarking that this is the first such meeting where the two parties have been mentioned. Following are a few notes and observations from this meeting.

    Conservative groups and advocates often display a chart showing that Kansas spending increased very rapidly during much of the last decade. Representative Melody McCray-Miller reminded the audience that it is Republicans who have been in the majority of both the House of Representatives and the Senate during this time.

    A suggestion by Representative Kasha Kelley that the state could sell some assets to help with the budget was met with disapproval from some members of the audience.

    The audience, which was composed largely of advocates for school spending, union leaders and members representing Kansas state government employees, and people needing social services, cheered several times at mentions of raising the state’s sales tax. Suggestions involving cutting spending or other solutions were not met with approval.

    Representative Marc Rhoades of Newton, a member of the House Appropriations Committee and vice chair of the Social Services Budget Committee, gave several examples of how some funding for social services has been restored. He said that the committee takes “a lot of pride in working together across party lines.” He added that there is an effort to increase the state’s investigation of fraud. He said that the former Inspector General of the Kansas Health Policy Authority quit. At the time the Wichita Eagle reported that Robin Kempf “said she resigned from the post because agency managers pressured her and interfered with her ability to do her job.”

    Representative Jim Ward, however, disagreed with Rhoades’ characterization of bipartisanship, noting that not one Democrat voted for the budget passed out of the committee, and mentioning large across-the-board cuts.

    Ward said there is “Fundamental disagreement on values on the state budget.” Some groups — he pointed to material provided by the Kansas Policy Institute — want to cut taxes and let the economy grow. But Ward said that at some point spending cuts will prevent state agencies from fulfilling their mission, mentioning Meals on Wheels and schools specifically.

    Ward mentioned another type of spending the state does: “We spent over $12 billion in tax cuts the in the last ten years.”

    Senator Les Donovan, who is chair of the Kansas Senate Assessment and Taxation Committee spoke about the tax increase proposals that were heard in that committee. His committee heard several days of testimony on raising various taxes such as the sales tax, alcohol tax, tobacco tax, and creating a new tax on sugar in soft drinks. Donovan “moderated” each of these taxes, proposing to implement them at a lower rate than what was introduced in the bill. But each tax bill failed to make it out of that committee. (See Kansas sugar tax testimony heard, bill doesn’t advance, Tax on beer, liquor subject of Kansas Senate committee hearing, and Kansas tax increases promoted, even by Republicans.)

    In his remarks yesterday Donovan listed — from memory — tax cuts that have been made: A cut in income tax rates for single individuals, an increase in the personal tax exemption, elimination of the marriage penalty, removal of the sales tax on residential remodeling, a cut of 15 mills from property tax (both commercial and residential, with close to 80% of the property being residential), removal of income tax on military retirement pay, a reduction in the taxes on automobile registration, creation of an exemption of $20,000 of valuation on residential property taxes, an increase in the earned income tax credit (a program at both the federal and state levels that issues grants to low income families), an increase in the food sales tax rebate program, exemption of social security payments from Kansas taxation for many families, exemption of residential utilities from sales tax, and elimination of the Kansas inheritance tax.

    Donovan said that these tax cuts are larger, by far, than the business tax cuts that spending advocates, including Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson, blame in part for the current budget deficit.

  • Kansas legislative ratings posted

    I’ve come into possession of some of the Kansas legislature vote ratings that Karl Peterjohn of the Kansas Taxpayers Network produced. I’ve made available the annual ratings of both the Kansas House of Representatives and the Kansas Senate back to 1996. Only the ratings for 2002 are missing from this collection.

    These ratings are valuable because they record what legislators actually do, which is in some cases very different from what legislators say they do.

    The ratings can be found at Kansas legislative scorecards and rankings.

    A related project is my Kansas Economic Freedom Index.

  • Kansas sales tax study criticized

    Wichita State University economist John Wong has produced a study showing that while an increase in the Kansas sales tax would kill jobs, it would result in less net job loss than a reduction in state spending. This differs from an earlier study which finds much greater job loss.

    The difference between the two studies, as explained in a Kansas Watchdog story (Studies Agree: A Sales Tax Increase Kills Jobs) is that one study is a static snapshot covering just one year, 2011. The other looked at the long-range consequences of the tax increase. It should not be surprising that the long-term study found greater harm to the Kansas economy.

    A Kansas Liberty story (Opposition blasts Wong report stating increase in taxes better than budget cuts, a premium article available only to subscribers) interviewed the author of the study that looked at long-term consequences of the sales tax increase. The author, Dr. Art Hall, who is Director of the Center for Applied Economics at the University of Kansas told Kansas Liberty that “the [Wong] study fails to take into consideration how Kansas residents would react to a tax increase.” He told Kansas Liberty: “This assumes that consumers will not respond at all to an increase in prices as a result of an increase in sales tax, even though there is a mountain of evidence to suggest that consumers will respond and it won’t be positively.”

    The Kansas Liberty study continued to explain the difference between the two approaches:

    Hall said that because of the core differences in how the studies were conducted comparing the two different reports was like “comparing apples to oranges.”

    The main factor setting the two reports apart was that Wong did not take into account behavioral response, Hall said. ”

    This is the real world and no one believes that people are robots and Professor Wong does not either but his model does, Hall said.

    A second Kansas Watchdog story looks at the story behind the Wong sales tax study. Not surprisingly, it centers around many of the usual school spending boosters.

    There are two points that neither news organization touched: One is whether we value government jobs or private sector jobs most highly. Certainly for government employees and those who thrive on government spending, the answer is easy. We ought to realize, however, that government jobs are paid for by extracting payment from the productive private sector. If government was more productive than the private sector, one might be able to make a case for expansion of government jobs. But such a case cannot be made. We should be looking to shrink the government sector and expand the private sector.

    Second, the dual roles of Professor Wong ought to be considered. Wong is a member of the Kansas Consensus Revenue Estimating Group, a six-member team that estimates the revenue the state will receive in the future. Its estimates are the numbers that the legislature and governor must use when forming budgets. Wong’s membership in the revenue estimating group and authorship of a study promoting sales taxes, while not necessarily a conflict of interest, is nonetheless a little too cozy for my comfort.

  • AFP ads spotlight Kansas budget

    One of the things that government spending advocates don’t like to talk about is the fact that spending in Kansas has risen rapidly in recent years. This is particularly the case for schools, partly due to the Kansas Supreme Court ordering more spending in the Montoy decision of 2005. But other Kansas government spending has risen sharply too.

    As long as revenue flowing to the state kept pace, Kansas was able to afford this spending — whether the spending was wise or not. But starting two years ago revenues failed to keep pace with spending, resulting in great stress on the Kansas budget. This year the governor and many legislators are calling for one or more taxes to be increased, or a new tax to be formed, so that spending can continue to rise.

    Americans for Prosperity-Kansas has prepared two advertisements that highlight how spending in Kansas has increased rapidly.

    The first ad spotlights the rapid rise in spending on schools, both by the state and by all sources of funding. School spending is important to the state, as slightly more than half of the state’s general fund is consumed by K through 12 schools.

    The second ad makes the case that Kansas has a spending problem, not a taxing problem. Tax receipts have risen, but spending rose, too.