Republican Utopia In Kansas Ends In Total Disaster

In a prior post about Iceland's strong recovery vis-à-vis the rest of Europe, I mentioned how you rarely get differing economic theories to play out in the real world at exactly the same time. Here is the US, it is most clearly displayed the utter failure of supply-side, trickle-down economics in the state of Kansas. Governor Sam Brownback was elected in 2010 along with a Republican majority in both houses of the Kansas legislature. In 2013, Kansas passed the largest tax cut in Kansas history, reducing taxes on the wealthy and eliminating taxes for over 100,000 businesses. It privatized the delivery of Medicaid, cut the education budget and eliminated four state agencies and reduced the government payroll by 2,000 employees. As Brownback told the Wall Street Journal at the time, "My focus is to create a red-state model that allows the Republican ticket to say, 'See, we've got a different way, and it works.' ".  Well that would require a different meaning to the word "works".  The usual rosy forecasts of all these tax cuts expanding the economy turned out to be the usual fairy tales. Expectations of over $300 million in new revenue by 2018 were somewhat dwarfed by the nearly $700 million deficit that the state ran up in just the first year after the tax cuts. All the jobs that were supposed to be created by the elimination of the business taxes never materialized as Kansas trailed its neighbors in Missouri and Colorado in job and income growth. And the decline in revenue just keeps on coming with the latest announcement that revenue for the month of May alone will be nearly $75 million below projections. 

Last year, facing another massive deficit, Brownback and the legislature cut K-12 spending by 1.5% and changed the education funding formula to an old Republican chestnut, the block grant. Unfortunately, this resulted in six school districts in the state having to end their year early simply because they had run out of money. In addition, in February the State Supreme Court ruled that this change ran afoul of the constitutional requirement that the legislature fund public schools in the state equitably. It gave the legislature until June 30th to rectify the situation or face a school shutdown. And last Friday the Court ruled Brownback's proposal to accommodate the Court was not satisfactory. The legislature adjourned its shortest session in 32 years on Wednesday without addressing the issue which probably means a special session will be called sometime soon.

Brownback built the Republican dream of a low tax, small government utopia and it has been a complete and utter disaster for the state. Brownback's approval rating is somewhere in the mid-20s and as the deficits keep rolling in and more cuts need to be made, it's hard to see that number going anywhere but down. Fortunately for Brownback, he will not have to face the voters again as he has reached the end of his term limit. Now, having implemented the Republican policy platform, which both Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan pointed to as a signpost for where they wanted to take the country when it passed in 2013, and then seen it devastating effects, you would think that the Republican presidential contenders would at least have to answer why the policies they propose to implement wouldn't have the same effect on the country as they did on Kansas. But no. Kansas was a word that went unspoken throughout the entire primary process.  Let's hope the Democrats make sure that every knows the story in Kansas by the time November rolls around.