Stephan: If you read SR regularly you know that I have been tracking California and Kansas since Jerry Brown became governor of the California and Sam Brownback became governor of Kansas. I consider these two states to be a social laboratory study of what happens to a state when either socially progressive policies or Theocratic Rightist policies are enacted. As the years have gone on the answer has become ever clearer.
Jerry Brown started with a state in desperate trouble, and nearly bankrupt. Sam Brownback took over a state that was conservative but not fanatical, and stable economically. Now California is not only solvent it has a surplus and Kansas is a nightmare.
For a long time I did not see anyone else tracking social data in this way, but now stories are beginning to come out, probably because it is now all so obvious, and this is an example of what I mean. In both states I think it is important to recognize that each has the kind of government it has because that's what the voters chose. It will be interesting to see whether Kansans choose to continuing the suffering. My prediction is they will.
Democratic Governor of California Jerry Brown
Republican Governor of Kansas Sam Brownback
In 2012, voters in California approved a measure to raise taxes on millionaires, bringing their top state income tax rate to 13.3 percent, the highest in the nation. Conservative economists predicted calamity, or at least a big slowdown in growth. Also that year, the governor of Kansas signed a series of changes to the state’s tax code, including reducing income and sales tax rates. Conservative economists predicted a boom.
Neither of those predictions came true. Not right away — California grew just fine in the year the tax hikes took effect — and especially not in the medium term, as new economic data showed this week.
Now, correlation does not, as they say, equal causation, and two examples are but a small sample. But the divergent experiences of California and Kansas […]
Too bad conservatives don’t believe in facts.