(Syndicated to Kansas newspapers May 20, 2013)
Look very politically strategically at the Kansas Legislature fighting its way to adjournment this week or maybe early next week…and you are looking at a real test of Republican voters in primary elections in August 2014.
It’s either continuing the State General Fund’s share of the penny sales tax that is to expire on June 30, or letting the tax expire as dozens of Republican office-seekers promised at the last election, and see what happens.
The governor and leaders of the Senate maintain that if the state reduces income taxes—paid for in part by the continuation of the sales tax—more businesses will start up or come to Kansas, more Kansans will get good jobs and spend more money on “consumption” or sales taxable items.