Kansas tax cuts: lawmakers must decide if experiment is working

Gov. Brownback in 2012, signing into law one of the largest tax cut
measures in state history. Photo courtesy of the Topeka Capital Journal. 

In 2012, Gov. Sam Brownback and the Senate embarked on a bold experiment of slashing state income taxes as a way of stimulating the Kansas economy. 

Now, as the Kansas Legislature is now being asked to raise taxes to fill in a roughly $400 million budget hole, those who supported the tax cuts know their decision will be seen as a verdict on those tax cuts, sending a message about whether the tax policy did or didn't work. 

According to the Lawrence Journal World, the theory behind the tax plan was that by lowering and eventually eliminating income taxes, particularly on those who create jobs, more money would be left in the private-sector economy, boosting employment and other economic activity to such a point that sales and other forms of revenue would more than make up for the loss of income taxes.

Brownback himself called his plan “a real live experiment” and predicted the tax cuts would be “a shot of adrenaline” to the heart of the Kansas economy. 

As recently as Friday, the Kansas Department of Labor reported that the state actually lost 2,900 private-sector jobs in April, and that over the previous year, private-sector job growth had been a mere 1 percent. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that’s about half the national rate of employment growth during that same period. 

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