I usually don’t write about Kansas government because it’s 1) so ridiculous and 2) so boring.
Even this clown show that Gov. Sam Brownback and the Legislature have engaged in since the Legislature drastically cut income taxes four years ago is boring.
But now it’s gone well beyond ridiculous and boring, to the point of being maddening and outrageous. Because what the governor and Legislature are in the process of doing — if the House today approves what the Senate did on Sunday — is substituting $187 million worth of new sales taxes for a like amount of wiped-out income taxes.
Income taxes are the gold standard of taxation: you pay in direct proportion to your income. They are closely followed by property taxes: you pay, essentially, on the basis of the size of your house and the neighborhood you live in.
The worst and most regressive tax is the sales tax. It hits hardest at those who are least able to afford it.
…In the last two years I have been closely involved in efforts to defeat two sales-tax proposals in Missouri. The first was in 2013 when Jackson County proposed a half-cent sales tax for “translational medical research.” It was the most bogus proposition I had seen in 40 years in Kansas City, and it went down to an 86 percent to 14 percent thrashing, perhaps the largest margin of defeat for any measure in county history.
Then, last year, I collaborated with a campaign committee based in St. Louis to help defeat a proposed three-quarter-cent sales-tax increase for the state transportation department. Had it passed, we average citizens would have had to pay through the nose for better highways, while the trucking industry, which inflicts the vast majority of damage on our highways, would get a pass. Our very effective theme was, “You pay, trucks don’t.”
That proposal came crashing down like a bad bridge — the margin being 59 percent to 41 percent, despite the “concrete cartel” spending several million dollars to try to convince Missouri voters to approve it.
So, in Missouri, we’ve reached a point where it’s pretty clear that voters are very unlikely to approve a sales-tax increase for just about anything.
I’m sure Kansas residents feel the same way and that it would be virtually impossible to put a sales-tax increase on a statewide ballot that voters would approve. I think it’s particularly unlikely that Kansas residents would approve a four-tenths of a cent sales-tax increase to offset the foolish income-tax cuts that Brownback and the Legislature engineered in 2012.
But now it looks like it’s going to happen without a vote of the people.
On Sunday, the Senate voted to increase the sales tax from 6.15 percent to 6.55 percent. The House is probably going to take up the measure today, and if the House also approves the bill, Brownback has said he will sign it into law.
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When I was campaigning against the translational medical sales tax, people sometimes asked me to explain what I meant by the sales tax being “regressive.”
Here it is in a nutshell:
If a person with an annual income of $20,000 pays $2,000 in sales taxes per year, the tax amounts to 10 percent of his or her income. If a person with an annual income of $100,000 pays $2,000 in sales taxes, the tax amounts to 2 percent of his or her income.
Now, it stands to reason that someone with the $100,000 income is going to be a bigger consumer than the person with the $20,000 income, but it’s very unlikely the 100-grand person is going to consume five times more than the 20-grand person. Everyone has a lot of basic expenses — food, phones cars, TVs, etc. — and the sales tax hits those in the middle- and lower-income ranges a lot harder than those in the upper reaches.
Remember, too, that the divergence between the haves and the have-nots is continuing to expand and many more people are spiraling into the lower-income ranks all the time. They’re the ones that sales-tax increases kick below the belt.
The sales tax is a tax that only the rich can love. That’s why billionaire St. Louis area resident Rex Sinquefield, president of a think tank called the Show Me Institute, has been spending millions of dollars promoting Missouri candidates who share his determination to lower income and earnings taxes and raise sales taxes.
So far, thank God, he hasn’t been very successful in the Show-Me state. But now I picture him, 250 miles away, smiling broadly at what he sees going on across our state line.
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Now, here’s that song you’ve been thinking about since you read the headline on this post…(Note, in particular, the slide whistle — Wheeee!)
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
The Koch Brothers group (AFP) has vowed to vote out any elected delegate who dares to change the no state income tax for business owners, farmers, LLC’s etc. Each rep has the Sword of Damocles over his / her head.
“Each rep has the Sword of Damocles over his / her head.”
Not to overly belabor the obvious, but if your state legislators are concerned about offending the Koch bros then guess what? They aren’t actual representatives of the people but instead lobbyists who should be removed forthwith.
However my sense is that Kansans in general value their well earned national reputation for continually electing the stoopid more than their own well being, so good luck with that.
It’s all so reminiscent of the Ronnie Ray-gun years.
Sans, of course, a Bush causing a banking system meltdown.
It’s also extremely difficult to vote out elected officials — at every level — who have big money behind them. It’s nice to think about removing forthwith legislators who respond to vested interests rather than the public good; it just doesn’t work out that way most of the time.
Not to be contrary, but voting anyone in or out of office is difficult – it demands informed participation. And that requires the citizenry understand the issues involved, which in turns means being able to discern shit from shinola, regardless of the amount of money behind one candidate/issue or another.
Frankly far too many people vote for preformed prejudices, when they bother to vote at all. And when enough of them do so the current state of affairs in Kansas (and coming soon to Missouri) is the end result.
I was always partial to “Devil With a Blue Dress On.”
Tho, truth be told, they’re not one of my favorites.
Who are some of your favorite recording artists, Gayle? I’ll try to work in a couple of songs for you in the days ahead. (Blog policy is to accommodate commenters who have stood the test of time.)
Mitch and the Detroit Wheels were an outstanding live act, but their albums were poorly recorded. The only one I know of that was decently recorded was https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/mitch-ryder-and-detroit/id334907481 after Ryder formed a new group.
Mitch, the drummer, Johnny Badanjek and lead guitarist, Jimmy McCarty were all exciting to watch live. You can hear some of McCarty’s work much better on the Cactus albums and also on Buddy Miles Expressway to your Skull album.
Omigosh, that’s nice of you! Wow, too many to name. You seem to favor the 60’s, so from that era, a few that come to immediate mind are The Turtles, Lovin’ Spoonful and, of course, the Beatles.
Jim,
Thank you for explaining the idea of “regressive” taxes so well. This (seemingly obvious) idea escapes so many otherwise thoughtful people…
Willie
Thanks, Willie. I used that example to good effect in both sales-tax campaigns.
As for Topeka, the problem is that Brownback is being intransigent and is basically throwing the entire legislature under the bus to rescue his own flawed agenda. And he wonders why people like Scott Walker better than him.
Hypocrite Yael Abouhalkah has been going non-stop since the legislature has been trying to find someway to appease Brownback whilst saving their own hides, but truth be told, this dates back to the tax bull John Vratil, Steve Morris, and Tim Owens et. al sent to Sam thinking he wouldn’t sign it. Needless to say, Yael & Co. endorsed that particular pack of scumbags.
I personally support a solution that restores taxation at some level for LLCs and S corps, a reduction in the sales tax on food and no raise on the sales tax.
If they’re really stupid and raise the gas tax, sales tax, etc, in addition to being regressive, it would have a devastating effect on business as Kansans flock to Missouri for gas and the Internet for shopping.
A gas-tax increase doesn’t appear to be in the mix, and like Missouri, any new gas-tax revenue would probably go to the transportation department for highway construction and maintenance. The Senate bill does raise the cigarette tax by 50 cents a pack to $1.29, to raise an additional $40. I’ve got no beef with that.
If the House decides to walk away from the Senate bill and nothing else happens, it would be up to Brownback, as I understand it, to cut about $400 million out of the budget. Shawnee Mission School District would probably do away with the substitute teachers, which would put me out of a job. (Just kidding; I don’t think it will come to that, but it would be very hard on all school districts and state universities.)
Gayle — I love “You Baby” by The Turtles, but the lyrics fall completely apart at the 1:37 mark, when the song veers off into a new lyric that goes…
“A little ray of sunshine
“A little bit of soul
“Add just a touch of magic
“You got the greatest thing since rock ‘n roll”
Any girl who was being serenaded with those words would probably go, “Huh?”
A lot of lyrics in that time didn’t make a lot of sense!
“I heard the news baby, all about your disease
Yeah you may have all you want, baby, but I got somethin’ you need
Oh yeah, ain’t talkin’ ’bout love
My love is rotten to the core
Ain’t talkin’ ’bout love
Just like I told you before, yeah before
You know you’re semi-good lookin’, and on the streets again
Oh yeah you think you’re really cookin’ baby, you better find yourself a friend”
Love springs eternal.
Yikes. I (thankfully) must’ve missed that one.
My heart is all aflutter …
Mitch Ryder had a very good song in 1983 called “When You Were Mine”. John Mellencamp produced it.