Sun Publications Steve Rose is a patriot. A Joe Biden patriot.In a Wednesday editorial, Rose blamed the state's current fiscal crisis on tax cuts over the years. And not just the cuts from last year or the year before, but all tax cuts from, well, seemingly forever.
A friend who serves in the Legislature asked the state’s research team to figure out how much all the costs of all the tax cuts have totaled since 1995. The cumulative impact on Kansas, the study finds, is a loss of $7.6 billion in revenue during that period. We are now losing about $600 million a year from tax cuts.Of course, Steve fails to mention the 0.4% hike in the state's sales tax the last time we spent way more than we had. Since Steve fails to mention the legislator who requested the study, or really anything else about the study, I have no idea if the $600 million figure includes reductions due to the extra revenue generated by the 2002 sales tax increase. And increases in cigarette taxes. And a 83% increase in property appraisals since 1997.
Of course there are others who would say we spend too much rather than we're taxed too little. AFP-Kansas Director Derrick Sontag noted, "had we restrained spending growth to five percent since 2004, we wouldn’t be facing this budget shortfall."
However, I have a solution that everyone, liberal or conservative, can support.
I encourage the legislature to pass a law allowing anyone to voluntarily increase their tax liability. No more waiting for politicians to act. No more pleading, begging for votes to increase taxes. You can just increase your own taxes!
It's great for everyone. Steve Rose, the Kansas Jackass and others who want higher taxes and more spending can do their patriotic part.
Of course, there's been some trouble lately with Democrats paying their taxes. Maybe that's why they want tax increases, because they'll never have to pay?
Nah, I'm sure when given the opportunity to contribute even more to the government, they'll jump on board.
And because I firmly believe in leading by example, anyone who voluntarily adds to their tax liability should get their name published on a government website so everyone can see what a joy it is to give money to the government. This, in turn, will encourage others to give.
And those of us who feel that spending increases of more than 5% year in and year out are bad... well... we can just pay our required taxes and be very unpatriotic.
