Gov. Sam Brownback: Fiendishly clever…or not.
Boy, how often do you get to write that about a governor?
Here’s how this shakes out.
Brownback, of course, signed into law massive income tax cuts two years ago, and while the cuts were bigger than he wanted, he’s got them. And, for a very conservative governor, he is safely into a second four-year term (unless some more attractive job pops up).
From that position, Brownback can pretty much decide how much government he wants Kansas to have. Brownback is a small government guy, or at least a smaller government guy.
So, he’s proposed that because the state can’t spend more money than it takes in each year, he’ll meet this year’s projected $278 million shortfall largely by drying up all the excess cash sitting around in state agencies. His tactic? Transferring about $200 million in those funds—ranging from the Bank of the Kansas Department of Transportation to new appropriations to the state’s pension system to the State General Fund, and actually cutting some expenditures this fiscal year.