H. Edward Flentje: State leaders out of touch with public

The far-right Republicans who have commandeered the Kansas Republican Party and taken control of the executive and legislative branches of state government are strikingly out of touch with the vast majority of Kansans, including members of their own party, according to the recent annual survey conducted by the Docking Institute of Public Affairs at Fort Hays State University.

The survey indicates that this partisan faction has advanced policies over the past five years that are out of sync with the preferences of Kansans on a broad range of issues, such as block grants for schools, guns on college campuses, Medicaid expansion, same-sex marriage, immigration policy, and election fraud, among others.

However, these partisans are most dramatically insulated from Kansans’ views on what they claim as their signature achievement, their actions to eliminate the state income tax.

For starters, 61 percent of survey respondents said that this tax policy had been a failure in terms of economic growth; 30 percent said it had been “a tremendous failure.” Only 1 in 9 Republicans surveyed said that the tax policy had been a success.

Those surveyed also do not believe their tax burden has been reduced. When asked to consider sales, property and state income taxes, 74 percent said their tax burden had increased. Only 5 percent said it had decreased. These respondents must be aware that income tax cuts have resulted in two rounds of hundred-million-dollar state sales tax increases plus tax shifts onto property taxes totaling well into the hundreds of millions.

Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed said taxes on top income earners should be increased, a preference in direct opposition to sales tax boosts advocated by Gov. Sam Brownback and legislative leaders. The one tax that reaches those with higher incomes is the income tax.

More than half of the Kansans surveyed also expressed support for exempting food from the state sales tax. But the dire condition of state finance caused by income tax cuts forestalled such proposals in the Legislature.

Survey respondents expressed displeasure with the performance of Brownback, who has championed the tax plan as his legacy. Dissatisfaction with his performance has ballooned to 69 percent, up from 31 percent during his first year in office. More than half of Republicans surveyed expressed dissatisfaction with Brownback.

Positive appraisal of Brownback has fallen every year since the tax cuts first passed in 2012, to the point that only 18 percent of the respondents in this year’s survey expressed satisfaction with his performance. A meager 30 percent of the Republicans surveyed expressed satisfaction with Brownback’s performance.

What is going on here? Kansas voters elected and re-elected these right-wing lawmakers to office in 2010, 2012 and 2014. What explains this chasm between what Kansans say they want and the actions of their elected representative? Several factors are in play.

Interest-group funding of thousands of campaign postcards attacking challengers aided these incumbent officeholders. Some voters were more motivated by social issues such as abortion than state taxes. Primary elections and restrictions on election access also gave advantage to an energized minority. And too many eligible voters simply did not vote.

Only Kansas voters can bridge this gulf between the governed and those governing.

This story was originally published November 6, 2015 at 6:05 PM with the headline "H. Edward Flentje: State leaders out of touch with public."