I have been hearing reports that our esteemed yet completely idiotic governor, Sam Brownback, is being promoted as a model for other state’s Tea Party Republican morons to emulate. Here is just one example from our state next-door Missouri.
-Otto
From Blue Collar View;
The Missouri Senate has passed a massive tax cut, (don't get excited, it's not for you), and the legislation will now go to the Governor. So who gets a big tax cut? Your boss! If your boss owns the company and is paid directly though profits he'll get a 50% tax cut on his income taxes. If you boss doesn't get paid that way, don't worry, he can cook the books so he qualifies. Also the company you work for will have their tax rate go from 6.25% to 3.25.% That's close to a 50% cut, who hoo! So what do you get? If you a working stiff your income tax rate will go from 6% to.... 5.5%. That's something like an 8% tax cut. If that doesn't seem like much, don't worry, you will get something else: crappier roads, underfunded schools, longer waits at the DMV. You see, this plan will pretty much bankrupt the state, costing it $700 million every year once the plan is in full effect.
Why are we doing this? Because we have to keep up with Kansas. You see, Kansas enacted an even more radical tax cut plan last year, so we have to do the same (I can hear my mother saying "If Billy jumped into the lake, would you too?"). So far, all the Kansas plan has done is throw that state into a budgetary crisis as funding for schools, roads and everything else dries up. The Kansas tax plan was supposed to bring businesses and jobs to the state, but that hasn't exactly happened. The resulting budget mess has gotten so bad that the architect of the plan, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback's approval rating has fallen to 19 point in the last year, to 36%. For a republican governor in a hard core republican state like Kansas, that's pitiful. The same poll showed President Obama getting a higher approval rating of 38%, IN KANSAS!
I was raised in Wichita, Kansas, so I hear from relatives how thing are going there. One of my brothers is a teacher there, and he tells me that as a cost saving measure, Kansas has closed down schools for children with behavioral problems, and dumped those kids into the regular class rooms, making it nearly impossible to teach. I hope all those businesses that aren't actually coming to Kansas don't expect educated workers.
Missouri legislators say it will be different here, in part because the tax cuts will be fazed in over a five year period. So don't go making any plans for spending that two or three dollar a week tax cut you might be getting just yet.
So to sum up the tax cut plan. A BIG tax cut for your boss, a tiny one for you, crappier state government, and we get to be more like Kansas.
Why are we doing this? Because we have to keep up with Kansas. You see, Kansas enacted an even more radical tax cut plan last year, so we have to do the same (I can hear my mother saying "If Billy jumped into the lake, would you too?"). So far, all the Kansas plan has done is throw that state into a budgetary crisis as funding for schools, roads and everything else dries up. The Kansas tax plan was supposed to bring businesses and jobs to the state, but that hasn't exactly happened. The resulting budget mess has gotten so bad that the architect of the plan, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback's approval rating has fallen to 19 point in the last year, to 36%. For a republican governor in a hard core republican state like Kansas, that's pitiful. The same poll showed President Obama getting a higher approval rating of 38%, IN KANSAS!
I was raised in Wichita, Kansas, so I hear from relatives how thing are going there. One of my brothers is a teacher there, and he tells me that as a cost saving measure, Kansas has closed down schools for children with behavioral problems, and dumped those kids into the regular class rooms, making it nearly impossible to teach. I hope all those businesses that aren't actually coming to Kansas don't expect educated workers.
Missouri legislators say it will be different here, in part because the tax cuts will be fazed in over a five year period. So don't go making any plans for spending that two or three dollar a week tax cut you might be getting just yet.
So to sum up the tax cut plan. A BIG tax cut for your boss, a tiny one for you, crappier state government, and we get to be more like Kansas.
