Andy Koenig: Real Tax Day is next week

Kansas’ real Tax Day isn’t April 15. It’s April 21.

On that day, the state’s taxpayers will have finally made enough money to pay their total tax burden for the year, according to the Tax Foundation. Starting the next day, you actually get to keep the money you make. This holiday has been dubbed Tax Freedom Day.

But there’s nothing worth celebrating. It takes you more than 100 days this year before the money you earn is truly yours. That’s roughly a third of your income that never makes it into your pocket. You’re likely spending more on taxes than you will on food, clothing and housing – combined.

Worse, Tax Freedom Day is three days later this year than last year, and that was three days later than the year before. This trend shows no signs of stopping.

It’s hurting your local economy. When Tax Freedom Day gets later, it means that hardworking Kansans have less money to spend, save and invest in their communities. Instead, most of the money goes to politicians in Washington, D.C.

Their spending addiction is also getting worse. Washington gets more than $3.3 trillion in taxes this year – the most ever collected by the IRS. Yet it’s still not enough to pay for Washington’s spending bonanza. This year the federal government is expected to run a nearly $500 billion deficit.

Which leads us to the most depressing fact of all. Many politicians want to add even more to the nation’s mounting pile of debt.

Kansas’ representatives in Congress are currently debating next year’s budget. At stake are the modest budget levels that bipartisan majorities passed in 2011 as part of the Budget Control Act. It raised the debt limit in exchange for modest spending levels.

But that bipartisan agreement may soon disappear. Representatives on both sides of the aisle are already claiming that the Budget Control Act will lead to “drastic cuts,” even though Washington will already spend more in 2015 than it did last year.

It’s up to you to stop them from breaking their promises. Washington is already spending – and wasting – too much of your hard-earned money. Kansans can’t afford for Tax Freedom Day to get any later than it already is.

This story was originally published April 14, 2015 at 7:02 PM with the headline "Andy Koenig: Real Tax Day is next week."