Kansas a model of what not to do

While the Republican National Convention was avoiding any mention of Kansas’ “real live experiment,” Gov. Sam Brownback posed this question to the state’s convention delegation last week: “What hasn’t worked here?”

Seriously? Does he not receive job and revenue reports?

Brownback spoke to a gathering of the state’s delegates in Cleveland. He bragged about his work cutting taxes, creating jobs and boosting the state pension system, saying his team has done “extraordinary things,” the Kansas City Star reported.

“What we’ve done is right. It’s working,” Brownback said.

Not surprisingly, Brownback – who had a 15 percent job satisfaction rating in the latest statewide survey – blamed the media for why most people don’t share his rosy assessment. He complained that the media don’t report on the positive developments in Kansas, such as the state’s low jobless rate.

Actually, The Eagle and other newspapers regularly report the state’s unemployment rate. The Eagle also reported that the state had a modest increase in jobs last month and had strong growth in its gross domestic product in the first quarter. The problem for Brownback is that the media also report other news, including:

▪  The state’s job growth rate for the past 12 months (0.2 percent) is the seventh worst in the nation.

▪  A national report in March ranked the Kansas economy 46th in the nation.

▪  The state misses its tax revenue projections nearly every month.

▪  Kansas collected nearly $600 million less in tax revenue this past fiscal year than it did in 2013.

▪  Brownback and the Legislature have swept more than $1 billion from the highway fund in order to cover budget shortfalls.

▪  S&P Global Ratings downgraded the state’s credit rating this week (its second downgrade in two years).

In addition to promising that his tax policies would act like “a shot of adrenaline into the heart of the Kansas economy,” Brownback said in 2013 that he wanted Kansas to be “Exhibit A” in the 2016 presidential election.

“My focus is to create a red-state model that allows the Republican ticket to say, ‘See, we’ve got a different way, and it works,’” he said.

Last week Brownback told the state delegates: “The country has watched. And they’ve seen.”

Yes, the country has seen. That’s why no one mentioned Kansas during the convention speeches.

For example, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker listed more than half a dozen states in which “Republicans are offering a better way forward.” Kansas wasn’t one of them.

Even Brownback didn’t mention Kansas or his policies in a convention video by the Republican Governors Association on how GOP governors are “driving the American comeback.” Instead, he spoke about American exceptionalism.

Still, Brownback got his wish about Kansas becoming a model. It’s a model of what not to do.

This story was originally published July 28, 2016 at 12:05 AM with the headline "Kansas a model of what not to do."