Views West
Opinion column
by Murrel Bland
Kansas state legislators are going to face some hard choices when they meet early next year for the 2017 session.
State government, headed by Gov. Sam Brownback, continues to come up short as revenue estimates fall short. Three of the state’s major industries, oil, agriculture and aircraft manufacturing are all down. This has caused a severe shortage of revenue.
This is the message that the Legislative Committee of the Kansas City, Kan., Area Chamber of Commerce heard Friday, Oct 14. Shawn Sullivan, the director of budget and business processes for the state of Kansas, spoke to the committee via a teleconference.
“Average growth of tax receipts going back to the 1990s has been 3.2 percent per year,” Sullivan said. “Tax receipts have grown by 1.1 percent per year since fiscal year 2014. “
Sullivan said that crude oil production was down 25.8 percent compared to last year. He also said during 2015, annual net farm income dropped from $120,000 to $4,568. This is a time when aircraft manufacturing, longtime a major employer in Wichita and in other areas of Kansas, is down.
The total current state budget is about $16 billion. However, about $10 billion of that amount is from federal sources that goes to such areas as transportation and Medicaid. That leaves about $6 billion that state legislators control in the state general fund. Of that amount, about 62 percent goes to education.
Gov. Brownback, along with his ultra-conservative legislators, led the effort to exempt small businesses from state income tax—the so-called “LLC loophole.” The governor’s political opponents, such as State Sen. Anthony Hensley, a Democrat from Topeka, blamed the governor’s tax policy for the tax shortfall. The governor and his conservative allies blame the tax woes on the lack of revenue from agriculture, aviation and oil.
To make things worse, the Legislature will most likely be faced with a decision from the Kansas Supreme Court to come up with more money for education. In the meantime, the ultra-conservative folks want to remove four of the five Supreme Court justices. The justices are up for a retention vote in the Nov. 8 general election.
Kansas voters, particularly those in Johnson County, ousted several of the ultra-conservative Republican legislators in the recent primary election. Moderate candidates argued that the “LLC loophole” was what was hurting the funding for education. Even if this loophole is closed, it may not be enough to fund education, according to the court’s decision. Then the Legislature will be faced with either raising taxes or cutting state services, or both.
Murrel Bland is the former editor of The Wyandotte West and The Piper Press. He is the executive director of Business West.
