The state budget — and the re-election campaign of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius — got a big boost last week as new budget estimates projected that the state will collect $299 million more in tax revenue this fiscal year than originally forecast. That means there should be more than enough money to fully fund the state’s three-year school finance plan. And it makes it even tougher for GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Barnett to convince voters that the Kansas economy stinks and that Sebelius is to blame.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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23 Comments
Meanwhile, Colorado’s “Taxpayer Bill of Rights” has them swimming in red ink.
But . . . but . . . but tax cuts would have been proven successful, if only those pesky FACTS hadn’t kept getting in the way.
They’ll have to flip over to the “it’s your money and should be returned to you’ argument, so we can get back in the Republican Red zone.
CapA – The people of Colorado voted to suspend The Taxpayers bill of Rights for a few years. So there is no red in Colorado.
Now what you might be seeing the red from the voters that said it was ok for the state to keep the tax refunds because they agreed that they wanted to see more spending on some things such as schools.
The people are seeing red because the state is not spending the money the way they told them it would be spent. They have now found other projects they deem to be important. Forget the people they don’t really know what they need. Let us elected (we are all knowing and powerful) people tell you what you need.
They lied to the people but for you CapA that is acceptable. You want people to vote on casinos but you don’t want them to vote on raising taxes. You really talk out of both sides of your mouth.
The troll and sts are SOOOOOOOO… edifying today - like they are every day! Could they be the same enlightened mind?
Golly Phill, do you really think so, or has someone just told you to write this?
I think what stinks is the dirty pool played by the media in this state. Witness Crowson’s EXTREMELY BIASED editorial cartoon of SUNDAY and SCHOLFIELD’s hits on Kline’s consumer and the EAGLE’s refusing to look beyond the end of their noses once some AD MONEY of PC lauds are placed on the table. THAT IS WHAT STINKS!
Randy will not answer questions about his biases and sources of income, but sure wants to play journalist real bad….see questions raised on the past consumer blog hit piece he posted for his rich relatives.
AND NOW, THIS WORD FROM PHILL & RANDY’S SPONSORS: This message brought to you by Rent A Center and the new car dealers of Wichita, who ask, “Why own when you can lease from us in perpetuity???”
We hope you enjoy the preapproved rants of our bought and paid for editorial board members. It is good to have a voice running this board in godlike fashion, asking the hard questions but refusing to answer the same. Kinda like our salesmen!
Damned activist tax collectors.Conspiracy to run a balanced budget!!Man them dems have really stooped to a new low.Fiscal responsability supports terrorists.Just ask the GOP about oversight in Iraq.
Yeah, (projected) revenue.
And it tax money? For all of those really not sure what that means is that Sebelius claims she’s better spending your money than you are. Once she has your money, you can’t spend it.
And of course, if she can’t get it through the legislature, she go to the court to get your money even though you voted your choice of representatives in to control what is spent.
In short, to Sebelius your vote doesn’t count, she’s gonna get your money whether you like it or not, even if she has to take you to court.
Well, I see our many-named johnny one-note is at it again. While I have long thought that the eagle is too cozy with car dealers it is economic rather than political. After all, the car dealers are overwhelmingly Republican; starting with Senator Les Donovan. The issue with the eagle is all that advertising revenue.
As for Scholfield it is my understanding that there has been some sort of ‘falling out’ in the family years ago and that Randy has nothing to do with the dealerships.
Just because my brother or cousin might be in some business does NOT mean that I am in that same business.
More tax revenue means our economy is ok? Give me a break.
That is weak, even for Brownlee standards.
Sogaysaid we can’t vote on taxes.
So what are people doing TODAY?
They’re voting to let representatives represent them.
Represent them on things like taxes.
If we don’t like what they do on taxes, we vote them out.
Our system works. Colorado’s TABOR doesn’t.
Sorry about the facts falling out on our side again . . .
Hey, Ed–
When tax revenues for the FEDERAL gov’t went up this year, Bush was crowing about how strong the economy was.
So you disagree with Bush too?
Glad to hear it.
“…They’re voting to let representatives represent them. Represent them on things like taxes. If we don’t like what they do on taxes, we vote them out.”Posted by: CapnAmerica | November 07, 2006 at 08:55 AM
Sebelius will just take any voted and passed legislation, take it to a court and eliminate your vote, just like the school tax enacted by a Judge.
So, according to Sebelius, your vote doesn’t count.
Capn,
There’s been a huge increase in jobs in . . . the USA, just not Kansas.
Kansas is #50 in private sector job growth.
Care to try again, Miss America?
ED - not according to Todd Tiahrt.
Exactly how has Colorado’s TABOR not worked?
JM-These people do not understand about “your” money or “my” money. To them, most of it should be the goverment’s money. We’re too stupid to know what to do with it.
I can see the difference between Republicans and Democrats. Democrats complain when the government spends our nation into debt and is fiscially irresponsible. Republicans are upset when there’s a balanced budget and a surplus. Republicans also whine that the surplus isn’t being spent, but will complain if the government spends that surplus.
Of course I shouldn’t say that all Republicans think like that because thousands of Republicans are voting for Sebelius today.
“Republicans are upset when there’s a balanced budget and a surplus.”Posted by: Doug | November 07, 2006 at 10:25 AM
Typical socialistic thinking from a Dem.
That surplus is money that belongs in the taxpayers pockets, not in the pockets of politicians that will spend it on pork.
I want my money to spend it as I see fit, not to fund some project I had no say in.
Kansas’ economy DOES suck and will continue to suck no matter who the governor is. What’s the argument?
I’ve watched the State of Colorado and its cities and counties since 1992 when voters in our state passed TABOR, and the deterioration in public infrastructure and basic public services has been nothing short of astounding.
We’ve fallen from basically “middle of the pack” on both sides of the public ledger, to last or near last in most such areas as child immunizations, education, roads — you name it.
Students had to buy their own law school building at our only public law school so that the school wouldn’t lose accreditation.
Counties had to stop performing regular public health activities (you know, food and water inspections, health education, etc.).
Sheriff response times were so bad that it took a half hour for a deputy to arrive at the site of a woman mauled to death in her own front yard by a neighbor pit bull.
There weren’t enough textbooks for all the kids in classrooms.
Higher Ed was on its way towards Zero (yes, you read right) State funding by the end of the decade - and that includes community colleges on up to the (now so-called) flagship universities.
Chunks of concrete were falling onto cars from under bridges across the highway system.
I could go on.
The idea that Colorado’s fiscal woes were nothing but the recession has no basis in fact, because these issues were deteriorating long before the March 2000 stock crash, the March 2001 recession, or the Sept. 2001 attacks.
If I hadn’t seen this all with my own eyes and so know what it looks like on the ground, my cynical side might almost say to those Kansas voters who are so smug about adopting a TABOR of your own, to go right ahead, and see for yourself what you have done.
It wouldn’t be pretty.
But my better self says, don’t go down the road that we did. Your children will ask you what you could possibly have been thinking.
and at the same time Colorado has zoomed to the top in every way you want to measure economic growth.
Kansas and Colorado were similar in economic terms, inthe 1970s and 1980s. Not so now.
Low, stable tax rates is part of it.
Oh, and in-state tuition at CU is still lower than KU.
And Colorado’s poverty rate is better and Kansas is toward the bottom in immunizations too - which means TABOR has nothing to do with it.
You’re doing a heckuva job, Brownlee! If you would do your homework and research beyond the liberal talking points, you will find how Sebelius used Enron accounting methods to make it look like she saved billions. And while you are at it, do you think you could get to the core two or three reasons why tax revenues are up? Or do you want a hint? Federal tax cuts (Thank you Prez Bush) increased business investments which increase jobs which increased business, sales and income tax revenues. Having said that, Wichita and Kansas are below other similar size cities, so Sebelius can either take credit for increased revenue from Bush’s tax cut or for the slower growth at the local level. Hmmmm, I wonder which she would lay claim to?
You see, Brownlee et all liberals, if would come to conclusions based on facts, figures and perspectives, instead of using the academia model of a hypothesis (aka agenda, end-game, Bush bash) and justifying the middle to prove the end, you might just be able to BUILD A PLAN!
What’s their rank in deficit spending?
But, there’s really no point in arguing with you rapture-right folks.
You know that tax breaks are always good, that gov’t always wastes money (except in Iraq, strangely), and that any attempt to help the poor is “socialism.”
Your faith-based assumptions are not subject to empiricism.
Unlike us liberals, we look at the facts and decide if a policy is good or bad.
TABOR forces gov’t to raise money only in certain ways and spend it in certain ways. It other words, it reduces gov’t’s ability to solve problems expediently.
I have no opposition to TABOR ideologically, just like I don’t oppose tax breaks for the rich on ideological grounds. I oppose them because they don’t do what they are supposed to do, create a better society for all.
How has TABOR failed? They have a deficit and we don’t.
As far as jobs go, SLAVES had jobs. Workers hunched over sewing machines in American Marianas making a nickle an hour have JOBS.
The benchmark isn’t jobs, it’s livelihoods . . . .