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Tax plan – Kansas traditionally has had a progressive tax structure, with higher rates on wealthier individuals. An undue reliance on the sales tax would break that mold by forcing the poor to pay a higher percentage of their income on goods and services than middle-class and wealthy Kansans. With the poor getting proportionally smaller income-tax cuts than the rich, and the reality of a sales tax, the tradition of progressive rates will vanish. In fact, Gov. Sam Brownback’s proposed income-tax decrease could lead to an overall tax increase on the poor. Legislators must make this more equitable.
Kansas City Star
Gov. Sam Brownback wants to reduce the top individual income-tax rate from 6.45 to 4.9 percent, betting this will bring people to Kansas and stimulate the economy. In the meantime, he plans to put up an “off-ramp” for the poor and disabled who are on state assistance. By privatizing Medicaid and shifting more of the cost of education to local communities, he hopes to reduce state general fund spending below last year’s level. These are the policies of hard times. Winfield Daily Courier
Water plan – Gov. Sam Brownback has proposed four primary amendments to the Water Appropriation Act, including the elimination of the “use-it-or-lose-it” water rights doctrine, the creation of local enhancement management plans, the development of additional groundwater banking programs, and the expansion of the flex account program from two to five years. If enacted, the changes would prevent water rights holders from being punished for practicing conservation techniques and also would give local water districts greater control over the management of dwindling resources. We encourage lawmakers to adopt these good stewardship amendments.
Hays Daily News
Child poverty – The significant number of children living in poverty, coupled with recent state cuts to programs that improve youngsters’ well-being, promise to intensify problems that end up costing the state and its residents more in the long term. There’s plenty of work to do. The annual Kids Count report on children’s well-being is cause for a state government moving forward without a budget crunch to refocus on strategies to ensure access to adequate nutrition, health care and other programs needed to help youngsters build healthy foundations.
Garden City Telegram
Democratic plan – Estimates are the state will end its current fiscal year with a cash balance of $351 million. That’s a significant improvement over recent years, but it’s much too early to think enough money is rolling in to finance a spending spree. A plan outlined by the Legislature’s Democrats looks like it is exactly that, a proposal to commit cash on hand and future revenues to an ill-timed spending spree. That the money would be spent on K-12 education – to reverse a few years of spending cuts in that budget item – doesn’t make the Democrats’ plan any more attractive.
Topeka Capital-Journal
Moderates – There’s no doubt Kansas is a Republican state, but for much of our history, the Republicans who rose to our top elective offices were moderates who worked across party lines for the betterment of Kansas. They tolerated many viewpoints and were willing to compromise with those who disagreed with them. Now, the Kansas GOP has shifted significantly to the right, and rather than work with their moderate colleagues, conservative Kansas Republicans are more interested in simply getting rid of them. Would respected moderate Republicans like Nancy Kassebaum or Bob Dole even have a chance of being elected in the current political climate?
Lawrence Journal-World
