Wagle must show she is leader state needs

Many informed Kansans were upset by events in the Kansas Capitol recently.

Deliberating at nearly the speed of prairie lightning, the House and Senate considered and passed, by nearly veto-proof margins, tax legislation that made progress toward resolving the structural deficit that has disordered the state’s finances for the past four years.

They accomplished this in a little over four weeks – laying it on the governor’s desk just in time for him to pan the effort before a friendly Kansas Chamber of Commerce audience. There he gave progressives the raspberry for even thinking he would deny his signature program.

Should Brownback opponents despair?

Partisan leaders in both the House and Senate have shown themselves able “to give peace a chance.” House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr., R-Olathe, and, less enthusiastically, Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, appear intent upon resolving the tax problem with bipartisan support.

Indeed, they must try again, and perhaps embrace a better product. House Bill 2178, good as it was, still came up short of a complete solution.

Without the return of the tax on LLC pass-through profits and reinstatement of a third income tax bracket, Kansas has no humane and effective means of covering the ongoing, and rising, disparity between revenue and expected state spending.

The governor’s proposals for increased consumption taxes, more one-time cash round-ups, deferring pension obligations and another daylight robbery of the highway fund have been scorned by progressives and conservatives alike.

The House mustered a veto override majority in response to the governor’s veto. As the Senate override failed, Wagle remained above the fray, expressing hope for significant spending reductions in the state budget to reduce the need for increased revenue.

Slashing spending alone is fantasy, given rising needs of an aging population, little expansion in the earning workforce, low but economically unstoppable inflation, the necessity to repay what has been “borrowed” to cover the financial shortfalls of the last four years, and a new Kansas Supreme Court order to adequately fund K-12 public schools.

If Kansans really wanted to get on the Brownback “glidepath to zero” program, they would not have dumped all those conservatives and backed all those moderates and Democrats in the last election cycle.

If Wagle wants a higher office in 2018, she’ll need to put daylight between herself and the governor, make the bargain of a lifetime with 27 members of the Kansas Senate, and show Kansans she is the leader they need.

This story was originally published March 4, 2017 at 5:05 AM with the headline "Wagle must show she is leader state needs."