Gov. Mark Parkinson is sticking by his proposal to increase sales tax by 1 percent for three years and ramp up tobacco taxes for good, despite the opposition of legislators and business leaders. For more than moral support, the governor can now point to the latest SurveyUSA poll, co-sponsored by KWCH, Channel 12. Of 500 Kansans surveyed Wednesday, 56 percent favored increasing the sales tax “to prevent further funding cuts for education, Medicaid, prisons, roads and social services” and hiking the 79-cents-per-pack cigarette tax by 55 cents. Even more people — 71 percent — think the state allows too many organizations to be exempt from sales taxes.
The poll also found that 65 percent want smoking to be banned in public places in Kansas — not the 75 percent Parkinson claimed in his State of the State speech but not bad either.
The state shouldn’t fine people $25 for filing paper tax returns, as Kansas Revenue Secretary Joan Wagnon proposed last week. Many older or low-income Kansans don’t own computers or don’t feel comfortable using them, and they shouldn’t be fined just because the Department of Revenue wants to cut the number of workers who process paper returns. The department is also warning that it may take four months to process paper tax returns, which also should be unacceptable.
Conservative fans of the Washington Times likely were surprised by an article last week on how President Obama has been significantly more successful than President Bush at cutting spending. It reported that Obama “notched substantial successes in spending cuts last year, winning 60 percent of his proposed cuts and managing to get Congress to ax several programs” that Bush was unable to cut.
As the article noted, such discretionary spending is a small portion of the federal budget, and because of the severe recession and the cost of the stimulus bill, the budget deficit has skyrocketed. But Ezra Klein of the Washington Post argues that Obama has also been more fiscally responsible than Bush on big policy issues. “Bush cut trillions in taxes without paying for it and added trillions in Medicare spending without paying for it,” Klein wrote, while Obama’s health care bill “actually raises more money than it spends, and reduces the deficit in both its first and second decades.”
“My friends are running, and I’m for my friends.” — Rep. Todd Tiahrt (in photo), R-Goddard, declining to pick a favorite in the five-Republican race to replace him
“He truly was the greatest figure of the 20th century.” — Gov. Mark Parkinson on the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., telling a Topeka crowd how he wore out cassettes of King’s speeches
“You don’t eat your seed corn.” — adage being heard in Capitol conversations about the state budget crisis
“Now is not the time to dumb down the schools, throw Granny in the street and open the prisons.” — Rep. Ann Mah, D-Topeka
“President Obama announced a plan to recover federal bailout money from banks. I guess that explains why Biden was seen buying a gun and a ski mask.” — Jimmy Fallon
“President Obama’s approval rating is down to 46 percent. But the White House has an idea for how to get it back up again. What they’re going to do is bring back Bush and Cheney for a week.” — Jimmy Kimmel
“The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, is in the news. He’s still under fire for remarks he made about President Obama’s blackness. Sources say he could face congressional censure or, even worse, be promised ‘The Tonight Show’ at 11:30.” — Conan O’Brien
“Now, according to The New York Times, al-Qaida is claiming responsibility for the wreckage at NBC.” — David Letterman
