(Syndicated to Kansas newspapers Dec. 7, 2015)
While Kansas is looking for a new slogan to lure tourists, businesses and economic prosperity to the state, we Statehouse habitués are waiting to see how that last catchy slogan—“tax amnesty”—worked out.
Kansas has put out a request for bids to gin up a new slogan that will help the state market itself to the nation and world, a few catchy words that will galvanize English readers and draw them here. Forgot that last state slogan? From 2004 to 2011, it was “Kansas…as big as you think.” It just evaporated rather than wore out, and most of us never heard anyone humming “as big as you think” in the liquor store, bars or across the border in Missouri…or anywhere else.
That’s why the state is looking to contract out to some private business creation and promotion of a new slogan, because the last catchy phrase thought up in-house, or at least in the Statehouse, was “tax amnesty” and we’ve got no idea yet, but some indications are that it didn’t catch on.
Tax amnesty? Remember, it was a key to meeting the state’s budget for this fiscal year, to allow delinquent taxpayers to pay up without penalties and interest, a way to get off the hook for debt to the state with no additional baggage.