Kansans rally for repeal of Brownback tax cuts

Large audience gathered around speakers at Rev Up Kansas rally

About 100 people rallied Wednesday within earshot of Gov. Sam Brownback’s office to demand the repeal of income tax cuts they say are crippling the state.

Rev Up Kansas, a coalition of organizations from across the state including InterHab, staged the event to call attention to ongoing budget problems.

According to Rev Up Kansas, these budget problems are the result of tax cuts that Brownback championed in the mistaken belief that they would jump-start the Kansas economy.

Late Tuesday, the Kansas Department of Revenue reported that the state had collected $11.2 million less than estimated in March. With three months left to go in the 2015 fiscal year, tax collections are running a total of $48 million behind already lowered estimates.

Just before the legislative session started in January, plummeting revenues forced Brownback to order allotments — a combination of cuts and cash transfers — to close a projected $300 million budget gap. But only weeks later, continued revenue shortfalls forced him to make another $44.5 million in cuts to state universities and public schools.

If tax collections continue to fall short of projections in April and May, additional cuts will be necessary to ensure the state ends the fiscal year in the black.

Bigger problems lie ahead in the budget year that begins July 1. Brownback and lawmakers are facing a projected deficit of at least $600 million. A Senate-passed budget bill partially closes the gap but would require tax increases of $141 million to balance. Speakers at the rally said repealing the income tax cuts would be the best way to solve the budget problems.

Last week, Brownback said adjusted statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor showed Kansas ranked second in its five-state region for private sector job growth in 2014. “These corrected numbers show that our tax policy is working, bringing jobs and people to Kansas,” the governor said in a news release.

Brownback has said he believes higher sales tax receipts eventually will replace some of the revenue being lost because of the income tax cuts. So far this fiscal year, sales and use tax receipts are $40 million higher than estimated. However, they were $7.8 million short of projections in March.

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