Kansans need to keep pressure on Topeka

It’s going to take continued effort and attention from Kansans to complete the changes in school finance, taxation and state budgeting they demanded last November.

On school finance, reality is dawning. The “suitable provision for finance of the educational interests of the state” is going to cost more than has been appropriated for the past several years. All sides of the debate anticipate the Kansas Supreme Court finding that a funding deficiency continues.

Kansans need to see the Legislature demonstrate objectivity and willingness to consider the requirements created by the varied economic and demographic differences that exist among the state’s school districts. That can happen if voters continue to stay informed, and then remind legislators that they care about the outcome.

The overall budget of the state and its revenue requirements are the other enormous elephants in the room. The 2016 election results showed voters realized that cutting out the top income tax bracket and giving many Kansas enterprises a tax holiday provided little economic expansion and insignificant growth in new jobs and payroll. Voters also clearly accept that there is a gaping hole in the available resources to support the myriad services that the state provides.

This new Legislature appears ready to repair the tax system and end the governor’s “experiment.” A clear majority of the state’s populace and many of the 330,000 exemption beneficiaries express the opinion that the income and business tax cuts are bad policy. But the pressure has to be maintained.

The current fiscal year’s budget has to be fixed. This is the one spot in the process that can derail the effort to do the big job of re-establishing long-term solvency. If the search for cash, cuts or curtailments to address the immediate shortages becomes the central and loudest issue, opponents of the much needed “structural” repair can prevail through delay and distraction. This must not happen.

So Kansans need to stay focused on the real objectives and keep doing what so many did this electoral season. Keep reminding the politicians that we voted for them to do a set of important and specific tasks.

Tell them to find the necessary fixes, make the necessary compromises, cut the ideological rhetoric and get about the business of putting our state back on the road to solvency and far away from the Laffer Curve.

This story was originally published January 28, 2017 at 5:04 AM with the headline "Kansans need to keep pressure on Topeka."