Dear Friend:
I am writing you from the floor of the House, at 1:00 am (though it won’t be sent until later this morning), on Day 112 of the 2015 legislative session.
We were scheduled to gavel in 30 minutes ago, but are hung up waiting while staff processes the conference committee report for the bill we will be voting on. Once again, we have no ability to read and evaluate the legislation we are being asked to consider. While we wait, House leaders are busy trying to round up the votes they need to pass this bill.
Not much in it has changed since we voted last night/this morning. It raises sales tax on all things, including food, cuts out itemized reductions, offers amnesty for tax dodgers, raises cigarette taxes $0.50 among other things. Most importantly, 330,000 businesses still pay nothing and the “March to Zero” income tax rate reductions will continue, whether we can afford them or not.
Additionally, most of the added policy components remain in the bill – including expansion of private school vouchers and a property tax lid that will be devastating for local units of government. Aside from removing the provision that imposed a sunset on most sales tax exemptions, and removing the rate reduction on food sales nothing has changed – the latter making this bill even worse than the last. The ending balance falls short of balancing (a constitutional requirement), meaning that around $50 million will still need to be cut from the budget to balance.
Once again, the politics of fear were employed throughout the day. A joint caucus of the Senate and House Republicans was held, and the governor “implored” us to pass this bill. He said that we shouldn’t waste time assigning blame, then blamed increases in Medicaid caseloads and the fixes to our pension funding for our fiscal problems.
Out of a $6.5 billion budget, the statement was made that “the only place to find the amount of money needed to balance would be the operating funds for our Regents institutions.” In other words, to protect the failed economic policy that:
- Brought us to the brink of insolvency,
- Avoided restoring balance and fairness to our tax code, and
- Ensured that all who benefit from state services, schools and infrastructure pay something into the system,
the budgets for KU, KState, Emporia State, Ft. Hays State, Wichita State, Pittsburg State, Washburn and the state’s technical and community colleges would be line-item vetoed out of the budget entirely. Seriously? The only option?