(Syndicated to Kansas newspapers April 1, 2013)
Every week this session, House and Senate Democratic leaders have lamented last year’s shockingly large tax cut bill that produced maybe 190,000 Kansans with apparently no need to write an income tax check to the state any more.
Now, it might just work out that if Kansas does away with its income tax for everyone else, people will move here and spend money on cars and clothes and food and such and the sales tax will rise so that the state’s treasury will grow and Kansans can be taken care of.
Or, maybe not.
But Gov. Sam Brownback makes the point that it will take a year or so for this income tax-elimination drive to spur the rest of the economy so the state can support education and health-care and public safety, the stuff we expect the state to do.