Voice For Liberty

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  • Kansas legislative resources

    Kansas legislative resources

    Those who want to be informed of the happenings of the Kansas Legislature have these resources available.

    Legislative documents
    The Legislature’s site at kslegislature.org has rosters of members, lists of committees, lists of bills, journals (the daily record of proceedings in each chamber), and calendars (the plan for the day, along with topics for upcoming committee meetings).

    A useful feature is the “Current Happenings” link for both the House and Senate. This has a link to the bills that have seen movement in some way each day. The page for each bill is generally useful, too, with the steps in the bill’s history, along with links to the bill text, fiscal and supplemental notes, and other material. Fiscal notes — prepared by the Division of Budget — estimate the financial impact of a bill, while the supplemental notes — prepared by Kansas Legislative Research Department — contain background and explanatory information. When attempting to understand legislation, the fiscal and supplemental notes are very useful.

    New this year is the menu item “Committee Bill Hearings” on the “Committees” tab.

    Of note, the Legislature’s site has for several years held an icon promising an RSS feed. But nothing is behind the link. Also, there is still an icon representing a link, but it does nothing.

    Audio and video
    Both the House and Senate broadcast audio of their proceedings. But you must listen live, as the broadcasts are not made available to the public in any other way. It would be exceedingly simple to make these past broadcasts available to the public, as explained here. But the legislature does not retain audio recordings of sessions.

    As of this writing, the Kansas Legislature does not make available video of its proceedings.

    Documents
    Kansas Legislative Research Department (KLRD) has many documents that are useful in understanding state government and the legislature. This agency’s home page is www.kslegresearch.org. Of particular interest:

    Kansas Legislative Briefing Book. This book’s audience is legislators, but anyone can benefit. The book has a chapter for major areas of state policy and legislation, giving history, background, and explanations of law. In some years the entire collection of material has been made available as a single pdf file, but not so this year. Contact information for the legislative analysts is made available in each chapter. The most recent version can be found on the Publications page. The version for 2017 is available here.

    Of note, versions of the briefing book from years past are useful. KLRD doesn’t provide links to these old documents, but they are available. The search feature of the page (top right corner) will find these documents. It forms a Google site-specific search which looks like this: “site:www.kslegresearch.org summary of legislation.” The same works for old versions of other KLRD documents.

    Kansas Fiscal Facts. This book, in 124 pages, provides “basic budgetary facts” to those without budgetary experience. It provides an overview of the budget, and then more information for each of the six branches of Kansas state government. There is a glossary and contact information for the fiscal analysts responsible for different areas of the budget. This document is updated each year. The most recent version can be found on the Publications page.

    Legislative Procedure in Kansas. This book of 236 pages holds the rules and explanations of how the Kansas Legislature works. It was last revised in November 2006, but the subject that is the content of this book changes slowly over the years. The direct link is Legislative Procedure in Kansas, November 2006.

    How a Bill Becomes Law. This is a one-page diagram of the legislative steps involved in passing laws. The direct link is How a Bill Becomes Law.

    Summary of Legislation. This document is created each year, and is invaluable in remembering what laws were passed each year. From its introduction: “This publication includes summaries of the legislation enacted by the 2016 Legislature. Not summarized are bills of a limited, local, technical, clarifying, or repealing nature, and bills that were vetoed (sustained).” The most recent version can be found on the Publications page. For 2016, this document also summarizes the special session.

    Legislative Highlights. This is a more compact version of the Summary of Legislation, providing the essentials of the legislative session. The most recent version can be found on the Publications page.

    Kansas Tax Facts. This book provides information on state and local taxes in Kansas. The most recent version can be found on the Publications page.

    Kansas Statutes. The laws of our state. The current statutes can be found at the Revisor of Statutes page.

    Kansas Register. From the Kansas Secretary of State: “The Kansas Register is the official state newspaper. This publication provides a wide range of information such as proposed and adopted administrative regulations, new state laws, bond sales and redemptions, notice of open meetings, state contracts offered for bid, attorney general opinions, and many other public notices.” The Register is published each week, and may be found at Kansas Register.

  • Spending on roads in Kansas

    Spending on roads in Kansas

    A look at actual spending on Kansas highways, apart from transfers.

    Spending on major road programs in Kansas. Click for larger.
    When we look at actual spending on Kansas roads and highways, we see something different from what is commonly portrayed. Kansas Department of Transportation publishes a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report that details spending in four categories. These figures represent actual spending on roads and highways, independent of transfers to or from the highway fund.

    • Spending on “Preservation” has been rising, but fell last year.
    • Spending on “Expansion and Enhancement” has been rising.
    • Spending on “Maintenance” has been level, with a small decline.
    • Spending on “Modernization” has declined, then rose.

    Total spending on major road programs in Kansas. Click for larger.
    For these four categories — which represent the major share of KDOT spending on roads — spending in fiscal 2016 totaled $857.133 million. That’s down from $932.666 million the year before, and up from a low of $698.770 million in fiscal 2010.

    Again, these are dollars actually spent on highway programs. A common characterization of the way Kansas government is funded is called “robbing the bank of KDOT.” To the extent that characterization is accurate, there is a separate line item titled “Distributions to other state funds” that holds these values. It appears in the nearby table.

    Sales tax revenue to the highway fund

    Transfers from sales tax to Kansas highway fund. Click for larger.
    Kansas law specifies how much sales tax revenue is transferred to the highway fund. Here are recent rates of transfer and dates they became effective:1

    July 1, 2010: 11.427%
    July 1, 2011: 11.26%
    July 1, 2012: 11.233%
    July 1, 2013: 17.073%
    July 1, 2015: 16.226%
    July 1, 2016 and thereafter: 16.154%

    A nearby chart shows the dollar amounts transferred to the highway fund from sales tax revenue. In 2006 the transfer was $98.914 million, and by 2016 it had grown to $517.698 million.

    Kansas Department of Transportation Spending. Click for larger.

    —
    Notes

    1. Kansas Statutes Annotated 79-3620. ↩
  • Obama’s stimulus, in retrospect

    Obama’s stimulus, in retrospect

    A positive effect of the 2009 Obama stimulus appeared only long after its forecasted date.

    Many people remember that President Barack Obama warned that the unemployment rate would rise to a high level without a stimulus program. In January 2009 two Obama administration officials, including Christina Romer (who would become chair of the Council of Economic Advisers) wrote a paper estimating what the national unemployment rate would be with, and without, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, commonly known as the stimulus.1 That plan passed.

    Stimulus projections from the Obama Administration. Click for larger.
    That paper included a table projecting what employment levels the country would experience with, and without the stimulus. For the fourth quarter of 2010, the authors estimated payroll employment would be 133,876,000 without the stimulus, and 137,550,000 with the stimulus. That’s a gain of 3,673,000 jobs due to the stimulus, estimated the authors.

    What was the actual experience in jobs? First, for a look at the projections regarding the unemployment rate, see Holding politicians to their boasts and promises. The promoters of the stimulus also projected employment levels, that is, the number of jobs.

    To examine the effect on jobs, I gathered data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and compared the results to projections. I used seasonally adjusted data, which is only slightly different from the non-adjusted data.2

    Actual employment with lines showing forecasts of employment with and without stimulus. Click for larger.
    Employment exceeded the forecasted level with the stimulus in January 2014, when seasonally adjusted employment reached 137,574,000. (Employment exceeded the forecasted level for the economy without the stimulus in May 2012, when seasonally adjusted employment reached 133,951,000.)

    What was projected (or promised) for the fourth quarter of 2010 wasn’t achieved until January 2014. That’s three years late.

    The lesson, I believe, is that the power of government to affect the economy in a positive way is weak and limited, especially when using the Keynesian tools of attempting to manage aggregate demand.3 It’s even more true at a state level, as the tools state governments can use are weaker than the federal government’s.

    —
    Notes

    1. Romer, Christine, and Bernstein, Jared. The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment plan. https://www.economy.com/mark-zandi/documents/The_Job_Impact_of_the_American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Plan.pdf. ↩
    2. The BLS data series are:
      CES0000000001, series title All employees, thousands, total nonfarm, seasonally adjusted
      CEU0000000001, series title All employees, thousands, total nonfarm, not seasonally adjusted ↩
    3. For criticims of Keynesian economics from free market perspectives, see
      Mitchell, Daniel J. Keynes Was Wrong on Stimulus, but the Keynesians Are Wrong on Just about Everything. https://www.cato.org/blog/keynes-was-wrong-stimulus-keynesians-are-wrong-just-about-everything.
      Gerald P. O’Driscoll Jr. Keynes vs. Hayek: The Great Debate Continues. https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/keynes-vs-hayek-great-debate-continues.
      Richard B. McKenzie. John Maynard Keynes, R.I.P. https://fee.org/articles/john-maynard-keynes-rip/.
      Hans-Hermann Hoppe. The Misesian Case against Keynes. https://mises.org/library/misesian-case-against-keynes. ↩
  • WichitaLiberty.TV: A new season, with co-host Karl Peterjohn

    WichitaLiberty.TV: A new season, with co-host Karl Peterjohn

    In this episode of WichitaLiberty.TV: Co-host Karl Peterjohn joins Bob Weeks to discuss Karl’s service as county commissioner, the new session of the Kansas Legislature, and choosing a successor to Congressman Mike Pompeo. View below, or click here to view at YouTube. Episode 134, broadcast January 15, 2017.

  • Again, KPERS shows why public pension reform is essential

    Again, KPERS shows why public pension reform is essential

    Proposals in the Kansas budget for fiscal year 2018 are more evidence of why defined-benefit pension plans are incompatible with the public sector.

    Kansas Governor Sam Brownback has proposed delays in funding KPERS, the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System. The delays are in both directions. The state intends to break a past promise to pay, and also to skip some future payments.

    A memo from KPERS summarizes recent history and the proposed changes: “Last fiscal year, the State delayed its fourth quarter payment for School employer contributions with a promise to pay it in Fiscal Year 2018 with interest. The Governor is recommending the State not pay this contribution and skip one quarterly payment each year through FY19. In addition, the Governor recommends extending the time to pay down KPERS’ existing unfunded actuarial liability by 10 years.”1

    Many will criticize the proposed reduction in funding KPERS as stealing from KPERS. That really isn’t true. KPERS has plenty of money to pay current retirees their promised benefits. The above memo also says that those near retirement won’t be affected.

    But what about younger employees who may not retire for 20 or 30 years? Will they receive their promised benefits?

    The answer is yes, almost certainly. Their retirement benefits are in the form of a contract, and it is very unlikely that the state will break those contracts.

    So: Is KPERS being robbed? Stolen from?

    No. It’s future Kansas taxpayers who will be mugged. They will have to pay the unfunded liabilities accumulated by not only the current governor and legislature, but by past governors and legislatures too. I explain in more detail in my recent article No one is stealing* from KPERS. (The asterisk notes that there is stealing in a way, but from future taxpayers.)

    Further: It is entirely foreseeable that this is happening. In 2015 the state issued $1 billion in bonds to address a portion of the KPERS unfunded liability. This made the unfunded liability ratio look better, and the governor and Republicans continually boast of this. But debt has simply been shifted from one balance sheet to another. The same taxpayers will eventually pay.

    This is one of the reasons why government should not offer defined-benefit pension plans. Because of the long time horizons involved, it’s easy to delay and postpone dealing with problems. Or, legislators are prone to make risky investment decisions as Kansas did in 2015 by $1 billion in bonds and transferring the proceeds to KPERS. This was — is — a risky maneuver, and it has led to undesirable behavior that was entirely predictable.

    The plan was that the state would borrow $1 billion, and invest it. If the state earned more in investment returns than the interest cost on the bonds, the state wins. Barry Poulson, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor at the University of Colorado — Boulder has written on the danger of borrowing to shore up state pension funds, as Kansas has done. He explained there is the “lack of nexus between the investment of the bond proceeds and payments for unfunded liabilities in the plan.” This means that the borrowed funds may be used for current spending rather than for correcting the KPERS unfunded liability.2

    Paulson explains: “If legislators see that additional funds are available to pay off unfunded liabilities in the pension plan they may choose to allocate less general fund money to meet these pension obligations.” What Poulson warned of happened in Kansas in 2016. Now, the governor proposes even more: Pushing off KPERS contributions to the future so that more money is available for spending on other stuff now.

    In a way, it’s surprising that groups who advocate for public employees are upset with this. (See, for example, here from KNEA.) Instead, they should be grateful. KPERS benefits are unlikely to be cut for any retirees. But underfunding KPERS today means there is more money available for public employees and the agencies that employ them. In reality, these groups simply want higher taxes now.

    —
    Notes

    1. Kansas Public Employees Retirement System. Governor’s Budget Proposal & KPERS Shortfall. https://www.kpers.org/pdf/govbudgetproposalmember_statement.pdf. ↩
    2. Weeks, Bob. This is why we must eliminate defined-benefit public pensions. https://wichitaliberty.org/kansas-government/we-must-eliminate-defined-benefit-public-pensions/. ↩
  • Understanding job growth and the Kansas tax reforms

    Understanding job growth and the Kansas tax reforms

    Commissioned by Kansas Policy Institute and written by researchers from Arizona State University, a new report looks at the Kansas economy after the tax reforms passed in 2012.

    The full report is available to read at A thousand flowers blooming: Understanding job growth and the Kansas tax reforms. Following, material from its executive summary:

    Much of the discussion over economic growth following the 2012 Kansas tax reforms were enacted is misguided, hobbled by a misunderstanding of what the tax cuts were trying to accomplish and reliance on incomplete data. Additionally, it fails to take into account the fact that most job growth in Kansas has been — and will continue to be — from pass-through businesses (i.e., sole proprietorships, S-corporations, limited liability corporations, and joint partnerships). In fact, the 36,135 jobs created by pass-through entities in Kansas represent 82 percent of all private sector jobs created in 2013 and 2014, the latest data available from the U.S. Census Bureau, and the growth is more than three times as great after tax reform than before.

    Using this Census data and other appropriate private sector data our analysis indicates that the impact of the tax reforms has been positive. Kansas comes out on top or at least shows strong growth in almost every relevant state comparison of the most comprehensive private sector job growth metrics. Kansas also matches up with other states well even when the less-comprehensive data often used to make comparisons is adjusted for the size of the state.

    It is also important to consider the source of job creation data, the structure of a state’s economic make-up, and a state’s population when comparing job numbers. In short, just as it would not be appropriate to compare student achievement for the Kansas City and Blue Valley school districts for obvious demographic differences, it is not appropriate to compare certain states just because of geographic proximity. The monthly employment numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) use a different methodology to count employment than does a more comprehensive, but less frequent, analysis from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). For instance, the BLS data estimates that in 2015, Kansas had an employed private-sector workforce of nearly 1.4 million, while the BEA data puts it at 1.9 million. So while the BLS data warrants monthly media coverage this paper puts more emphasis on the BEA analysis as it better captures those employed by proprietorships and in farm employment.

    This study also uses new data from the Kansas Department of Revenue (KDOR) to clearly demonstrate that tax evasion or strategic corporate tax planning has not been widespread. KDOR records also make clear that the total value of the Kansas tax reforms from 2012 was primarily driven by lowering the income tax burden on individual wage earners. This is yet another overlooked aspect of the tax cut, as 71 percent of the overall tax relief went to individual taxpayers and 29 percent went to pass-through businesses through the income tax exemption. A final data point from KDOR also makes clear who is benefitting from the pass-through exemption. Median family income in Kansas is around $52,000 and 88 percent of the filers in 2014 with business income had Kansas adjusted gross income that year of less than $50,000.

    While there is still more analysis to be done and more data to be released over the coming years, we believe the preliminary signs indicate that the Kansas tax reforms have had and, more importantly, will continue to have a positive impact on state job growth.

    Image credit: Flazingo.com.

  • In Wichita: ‘The Future of News in Our Digital Age’

    In Wichita: ‘The Future of News in Our Digital Age’

    Soon in Wichita: A panel discussion with audience interaction on the topic “The Future of News in Our Digital Age.”

    New Symposium is a group of Wichitans who hold regular meetings of public interest. New Symposium describes its goal is to “engage in the kind of thoughtful and respectful dialogue that is so seldom experienced in our modern world of political propaganda and social media sound-bites … but which still characterizes men and women of good will when they take the time to step back and logically think things through together.” It also uses the motto “New Symposium: Rescuing Discourse from the Political Parties.”

    New Symposium’s next event is on January 31, and I will be a symposiast. This event is a public forum on the topic “The Future of News in Our Digital Age.” It is a panel discussion with audience interaction.

    This event will be held on Tuesday, January 31, 2017 from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm. The location is Social Networking Technologies, Inc., located in the High Touch Building at 110 S. Main in downtown Wichita, Kansas. (Link to Google map.)

    There is no cost to attend this event.

    Panelists are

    • W. Davis (Buzz) Merritt, Former Senior Vice President and Senior Editor of The Wichita Eagle; Adjunct professor of journalism at University of Kansas
    • Dave Trabert, President of Kansas Policy Institute and Board Member of The Sentinel, a new online news service
    • Mike Marlett, Former owner of local, weekly newspaper F-5; current manager of website content at Wichita State University
    • Mark McCormick, Former professional journalist and current Executive Director of The Kansas African American Museum
    • Bob Weeks, Publisher of the Voice for Liberty at wichitaliberty.org

    For updates and dialogue on the symposium, see
    newsymposium.blogspot.com. Much more information may be found there. In particular, questions for consideration at this event include:

    • What are the motives and incentives that shape the “news” produced by the different forms of media (some more centralized, traditional, or corporate than others)? What should they be?
    • Given the internet’s enormous potential for misinformation, how can one find “just the facts”? When everyman’s a journalist, what happens to accountability for telling the truth?
    • Has the centralized, legacy media been caught up in the hyper-polarization of American politics? If so, is there a remedy? Can we have tough, independent investigative journalism that does not start with presupposition and prejudice?
    • What is the future of explanatory journalism that emphasizes nuance and context in a digital age in which speed and headlines are prized? How could Twitter and Snapchat ever properly inform?
    • Are digital media/communications making us all attention-deficit? Are we too easily “informed”?
  • Holding politicians to their boasts and promises

    Holding politicians to their boasts and promises

    There are useful lessons we can learn from the criticism of Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, including how easy it is to ignore inconvenient lessons of history.

    Tax cuts in Kansas were promised by Governor Brownback to be a “shot in the arm” for the Kansas economy. Opponents of the governor and tax cuts take great delight in reporting the generally anemic growth of the Kansas economy since then. Month after month, the tax cuts are condemned by Kansas newspaper editorial writers and the governor’s detractors.

    I don’t think it’s a particularly strong form of argument to defend someone by showing how someone else is equally as bad — or worse. Similarly, criticizing someone for their fixation on A while they ignore the equally bad B: We need to know why they ignore B. Have they forgotten B? Do they not have time to write about B? Or do they ignore B because the fact of B is inconvenient to their ideology or their criticism of A? But I see that not everyone shares these ideals, and even so, perhaps we can learn something.

    Many people remember that President Barack Obama warned that the unemployment rate would rise to a high level without a stimulus program. I can’t find that he mentioned a specific number that the unemployment rate would rise above. But in January 2009 two Obama administration officials, including Christina Romer (who would become chair of the Council of Economic Advisers) wrote a paper estimating what the national unemployment rate would be with, and without, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, commonly known as the stimulus.1 That plan passed.

    The Romer paper included a graph of projected unemployment rates. The nearby chart from e21 took the Romer chart and added
    actual unemployment rates. (The accompanying article is Revisiting unemployment projections. That chart and article were created in 2011. I’ve updated the chart to show the actual unemployment rate since then, as black dots. The data shows that the actual unemployment rate was above the Obama administration projections — with or without the stimulus plan — for the entire period of projections.

    The purpose of this is not to defend Brownback by showing how Obama is even worse. (Disclosure: Although I am a Republican, I didn’t vote for Brownback for governor.) Instead, we ought to take away two lessons: First, let’s learn to place an appropriately low value on the promises and boasts made by politicians.

    Then, let’s recognize the weak power government has to manage the economy for positive effect. Indeed, the lesson of the Obama stimulus is that it made the unemployment rate worse than if there had been no stimulus — at least according to the administration projections.

    And, there is one more lesson to learn about our state’s newspaper reporters and editorial writers, but I think you’ve discovered that already.

    Unemployment with and without stimulus through 2014-01

    —
    Notes

    1. Romer, Christine, and Bernstein, Jared. The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment plan. https://www.economy.com/mark-zandi/documents/The_Job_Impact_of_the_American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Plan.pdf. ↩
  • From Pachyderm: Legislative Agendas for 2017

    From Pachyderm: Legislative Agendas for 2017

    From the Wichita Pachyderm Club this week: Representatives of local governments presented issues important to them in the upcoming session of the Kansas Legislature. Presenters were:

    • Sheril Logan, board member for Wichita Public Schools. The material she presented to the audience is here.
    • James Clendenin, Wichita City Council. His presentation is here.
    • Jim Howell, Sedgwick County Commission. A link to the county’s legislative agenda is here.

    This is an audio presentation recorded on January 6, 2017.