Rep. Jim Ward: It is time to change direction

When the 2015 legislative session began in January, many commonsense legislators arrived in Topeka knowing Kansas faced a major budget crisis. We acknowledged, along with a majority of Kansans, the undeniable fact that our financial problems were a direct result of a massive tax loophole passed in 2012 that allowed more than 330,000 Kansas businesses to avoid paying any state income taxes.

Each of these businesses earns income and uses essential state services and infrastructure, but pays zero state income taxes for those services. As a result of this 2012 tax plan, the state of Kansas has lost more than $1.8 billion in state revenue.

In 2015, this meant an immediate need to find at least $400 million to fund basic government services. During what became the longest session in state history (114 days counting sine die), Republican leadership continued to run a series of bills raising the sales and cigarette taxes, adding a tax on utilities, and slashing income tax deductions for home mortgage and property taxes. All these regressive taxes asked the middle class and working families to pay more, so the tax loophole could be preserved and businesses could continue to pay nothing.

Only one time was there any talk of addressing the tax loophole problem. Though this amendment was a step in the right direction, it still protected more than $100 million of the tax loophole, and it raised sales taxes by more than 10 percent – the largest amount of any bill offered this year.

The most shocking events of the first 113 days of the 2015 legislative session were the work of Gov. Sam Brownback.

At day 101, the governor stated he would veto any bill that reduced or eliminated the tax loophole. Then on day 112 he stood before a joint caucus of House and Senate Republicans and brazenly stated that if the Legislature did not pass his irresponsible and unsustainable plan to raise taxes, he would make severe cuts to higher education and other parts of the budget – a scorched-earth plan to remake Kansas into a place none of us would want to live.

Republicans heard his message and the next day passed the largest tax increase in the history of Kansas.

Early in the legislative session, I developed a series of questions to evaluate various ideas being proposed to deal with the budget crisis: Is the plan fair and balanced? Does the plan cover the state’s bills and expenses? Does the plan provide a long-term solution?

None of the ideas presented in 2015 met these tests.

Unfortunately, when the 2016 legislative session convenes, Kansas will again face a budget crisis. It is time to change direction, end the tax loophole and put Kansas back on strong financial ground.

This story was originally published June 25, 2015 at 7:05 PM with the headline "Rep. Jim Ward: It is time to change direction."