The over-the-top reactions of some Republicans to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ budget plan are unproductive and unjustified. For example, Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, declared that Sebelius’ plan solved “nothing,” while others claimed that she left all the heavy lifting to the Legislature. Huh? There is plenty of room for honest disagreements about some of Sebelius’ recommendations, but her plan is thoughtfully crafted and is a strong start. Some GOP leaders also blasted as a “tax increase” Sebelius’ call to temporarily suspend the phase-in of two business tax cuts. Please. To solve the budget shortfall, everyone in Topeka needs to work together in good faith. Hyperbole doesn’t help.
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12 Comments
A Governor’s budget is supposed to leave 7.5% of projected expenditures in an ending balance—a couple hundred million dollars.
Sebelius’ budget claims to leave $600,000 in the bank.
What’s more, she chose to do the absolute minimum required by law by using the Nov. 4 revenue estimates.
The numbers have worsened considerably since then which means, according to the latest consensus figures, her budget doesn’t even balance—much less begin to replace the huge amount of cash reserves she’s spent down in the last two years since her re-election.
All of that is on top of an explosion in state bonded debt under her administration.
Facts, not hyperbole.
One person’s hyperbole is another person’s plain English.
To quote from a movie:
“Can you understand a word I’m saying?”
Exactly what is the Republican plan for solving the budget?
Tom, the Republican plan is to get more money in the hands of the wealthy which will trickle down to everyone else. You know, exactly the reason the American economy is going gangbusters. Republicans have no credibility on economic issues, trolls like Landwehr should step aside and let the grownups handle the problem.
It is disappointing that the Airtran handout seems more important than education or Law enforcement
Good point Tom. $5 million so businesses can save some money on airfare costs, but cut the water budget because we can all get by without water.
I was surprised to learn that Brenda Landweird never graduated from college.
No wonder she hates education. “Just marry a rich lawyer, girls!”
MP, going to the grocery store or walmart and buying water is so much more cost effective too.
Is Brenda’s husband a lawyer? I thought the hubby and Brenda owned a long term care (like nursing homes) insurance business.
Even for a ultra-conservative, Brenda is pretty far out of the mainstream.
an ultra-conservative
The reason her budget sucks is because she uses Nov ‘08 estimates when the newest estimates show a continuing decline in revenue. Therefore, any cuts that she makes based off of Nov. ‘08 estimates are going to miss the mark and still produce a deficit. That is the problem Republicans have with her budget. They’re living in reality while she lives in never-never land.
But, I understand if that’s too complicated for Mr. Brownlee to understand. It was certainly too complicated for any media outlet in Kansas to print.
The Governor has come up with nearly $1 billion in budget adjustments for FY2009 and FY2010. More than half of that is direct budget cuts. That is more than any governor in the history of our state has ever proposed in their budget (the rest is accounting adjustments, cutting transfers to local governments, etc).
In 2002, when the state faced a smaller shortfall, Republican Gov. Bill Graves suggested and got passed a sales tax increase and several fee increases to solve the problem.
Gov. Sebelius is actually proposing budget cuts and no general tax increases. It is a responsible and refreshing approach.
As far as using the November revenue estimates, those are the numbers she is suppose to use to build the budget. The next time the official state revenue estimating group gets together is early April.
If the April numbers get worse, she and the legislature will have to adjust everything. Until then, the November numbers are the official revenue estimates that everyone is suppose to use.