(Syndicated to Kansas newspapers April 27, 2015)
We may be coming to a legislative wrap-up session where Kansans reassess just what a governor does for a living, and whether they like it.
So far, remember, we’ve got probably $200 million in revenues vs. expenses shortfall in the budget and besides some workmanlike but largely mechanical amendments to the budget made last week there isn’t much of a budget-balancing solution in sight.
Which raises the obvious question of just who is supposed to fix this fiscal mess?
Now, one might suggest that Gov. Sam Brownback, as the leader of the state, probably is a good person to start with: Some novel expense-cutting that for some reason nobody’s really thought of yet because, well, this is Kansas, and this is how we do things, always have and always will. There might just be something out there that the state is spending money on that isn’t necessary. Might be, but nobody has pointed to it yet.
Or, because the governor basically is required on a cold January evening to present to the Legislature a budget that on paper balances expenses with income, he has done his work. If the Legislature just passed his budget and the tax juggling that goes with it, it would be done and could leave the building.
Well, that didn’t happen. Because revenues kept dropping and the numbers that penciled out in January won’t work anymore.
So, we’ve got a governor’s budget that won’t work, and which, so far, he appears to be—what’s polite here?—reluctant to solve.
And, the Legislature now is in the position where it essentially has to ignore the plan of the leader of the state—and the 97 Republican House members and 32 Republican senators—and come up with a solution.
Things start getting interesting now.
Already legislators are looking at the components of the 2012-2013 massive income tax cuts that Brownback signed into law and are considering some tinkering so that to some degree those small business owners who aren’t paying a dime in taxes would actually contribute a dab to the budget of the state.
(This is where most who aren’t paying state income taxes now scream and talk about economic development, Ronald Reagan, radical change in tax policy…and about voting out of office next year anyone who voted to impose any level of income tax on them, and…well, you know the rest of the lyrics.)
But, legislators don’t get to go home for the session until the budget is balanced, and at some point, lobbyists are going to run out of drinks and meals money, and lawmakers find living in Topeka where there is no beach isn’t much fun.
What’s coming up? Probably, because the budget has to balance—at least for upcoming Fiscal Year 2016, though there is a two-year budget, it just has to balance a year at a time—legislators think of a tax plan that will at least short-term balance it, while waiting for Brownback tax guru Arthur Laffer’s consumption tax geyser to blow.
So, we’ll see whether without apparent leadership from the governor’s office lawmakers figure out how to keep cutting or actually raise some tax money. Who is willing to look beyond political threats to balance the budget?
Remember, there are legislators who have pledged not to raise any taxes. And, there are legislators who promised to downsize government, though without any specific downsizings printed on their campaign literature.
Somewhere this all balances out. Just where isn’t clear yet, but it’s going to be interesting to watch. Who takes the reins, who gets dragged to the finish line and who gets the political credit—if any—for fixing things…?