As predicted, Kansas Governor Brownback is going to make up for holes in the state budget by cutting spending, not by repealing or reducing his signature tax cuts.
via Reuters
(Reuters) – Kansas Governor Sam Brownback on Tuesday called for steep budget cuts and fund transfers to plug a $280 million hole in the state’s current budget.
The Republican governor ordered 4 percent in spending cuts as well as a steep $40.7 million reduction in state contributions to its public employees retirement system to save $78.5 million. The remaining $201.5 million would be tapped from several state funds subject to legislative approval.
These are the actions Brownback will take to fill holes in the current budget for the fiscal year, but this only the beginning of the state’s problems.
Brownback’s plan is to cut taxes each year between now and 2018 and current projections show that Kansas will fall short of its revenue goals by over $1 billion over the next two years alone. And it could be even worse than that.
Brownback’s budget director, Shawn Sullivan, says they do not plan to revisit the governor’s tax cuts and, if they hold true to that, the state can look forward to massive spending cuts every single year that his policy remains in place and beyond that.
Brownback is going to turn the state into an economic smoking crater.
Over the next two years Republican presidential hopefuls will propose that we adopt the Kansas model for all 50 states.