(Syndicated to Kansas newspapers on Aug. 11, 2014)
You have until probably Nov. 2 to like your legislator and your governor.
After that, it gets a little shaky.
Because on Sunday, Nov. 2—or, rather make that Monday, Nov. 3, the day before the general election—the Consensus Revenue Estimating Group (CREG) will announce the state’s official revenue estimate for the rest of this fiscal year and make its projection for the next fiscal year.
That CREG projection is undoubtedly going to be that Kansas has barely enough money to make it through the end of the fiscal year on June 30, 2015.
So, if you are one of those Kansans who doesn’t pay state income tax—say you own a company and have adjusted its business paperwork so the money it makes is “pass-through” money that isn’t taxed—or maybe you are a wage earner and paid a little less income tax this year due to those tax cuts…enjoy it.