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Monday, January 2nd, 2017

Brownback wants to tap state investment fund for budget fix, GOP leader says

Author:     Bryan Lowry
Source:     The Wichita Eagle
Publication Date:     December 31, 2016 4:37 PM
Link: Brownback wants to tap state investment fund for budget fix, GOP leader says
Stephan:   Kansas is one of the states that I follow particularly closely because it, according to its Republican Governor Sam Brownback, is explicitly running an experiment to test the economic theories of the Republican Party. To date it has been a disaster and now, as the state faces yet another crisis, Brownback and his band of trolls  have come up with a scheme, as described in this report, to take what amounts of a payday loan to keep the already desperate public school system operating. One of the reasons I follow Kansas so closely is that Donald Trump apparently holds similar beliefs, and has similar policies in mind for the entire country.

Gov. Sam Brownback wants to tap the state’s long-term investments as part of his budget fix, according to the majority leader of the Kansas Senate.

Brownback has been tight-lipped about how he plans to address the $930 million budget shortfall the state faces over the next 18 months. The governor will roll out a budget proposal during the second week of January when Kansas lawmakers officially begin their 2017 legislative session.

One source of money that the governor is eyeing is a long-term investment fund, according to Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, R-Overland Park.

 Denning said the governor plans on using the roughly $360 million fund “to get out of the crisis” for the next six months “without having to do deep, deep cuts to K-12.”

It’s one of several budget fixes being discussed.

Among the other possibilities:

▪ Selling off future proceeds from the tobacco settlement, money that is currently used for children’s programs.

▪ Rolling back the state income tax exemption for the owners of pass-through businesses.

▪ Raising the state income tax rate on wealthy residents.

▪ Instituting a flat state income tax of 5 percent – a move that would almost double the tax rate on married couples earning […]

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