(Syndicated to Kansas newspapers Aug. 24, 2015)
Amid the wreckage of Demofest, the Kansas Democratic Party’s summer convention in Wichita, Kansas Democrats did get some interesting and usable news for their upcoming legislative campaigns.
Now, a lot went wrong at that Wichita gathering which kicked into gear just hours after Democratic Party State Chairman Larry Meeker resigned his office, and the party faithful learned that no official business could be conducted because of a mess-up in officially notifying Democrat State Committee members of the convention they all knew about and attended.
But the good news for Democrats from the meeting was the release of a poll that showed Gov. Sam Brownback’s iconic elimination of Kansas income taxes on earnings of limited liability corporations and other small businesses including farm corporations is not popular.
Many suspected that the tax elimination, especially because it didn’t appear to spur an economic skyrocket in the state, isn’t popular.
But a poll of 1,217 Kansans carefully parsed by party affiliation, sex and age found that if you ask the question in its simplest form, 68 percent of Kansas Republicans don’t like the tax break. Oh, and of course, 81 percent of Democrats and 69 percent of unaffiliated voters, 67 percent of voters age 18 to 45, 72 percent age 46 to 65, and 78 percent of voters over age 65 don’t like the tax break.
Maybe the key was the phrasing of the question in a way that generally isn’t used, but should be forever after by Democrats.
The question posed by the polling firm Smoky Hill Strategies was simple: “Recent tax cuts exempted roughly 330,000 business owners from paying personal income tax on profits from their businesses. Do you think business owners should pay Kansas personal income tax, or not?”
The question is a pretty stripped-down but accurate description of the tax policy. It’s the business owners who don’t pay income tax that the folks up and down the block pay. No mention of LLCs or non-wage income or anything else. Just paying taxes on income that you, like your neighbors, use to buy Buicks or food or lawnmowers.
It sounds a little different than should business owners get a tax break so they can buy new computers or lathes or expand their payday loan business to new neighborhoods to increase employment. It just brings the tax issue down to street level, the money you live on.
What’s the big news for Democrats? Simply, it is that because there are few House or Senate districts in the state where a “D” behind your name locks up the election, there is good reason to campaign to registered Republicans for votes. On the business owners’ tax exemption issue: If they phrase their spiel correctly.
Sales taxes and the boost this year from 6.15 percent to 6.5 percent? The pollsters found that on average 76 percent of Kansans think the rate is too high, including 73 percent of registered Republicans. Not much surprise there, except if the Republican majorities in both House and Senate that passed the sales tax increase as part of their budget package are pressed on the issue.
What might have been the big takeout for Democrats—and the warning for Republicans seeking reelection—is that how you phrase your position on an issue may be of great importance next year. There are lots of Republicans who agree with what have been issues that Democrats/moderate Republicans agree on but couldn’t get passed by the Legislature last session that are key issues for the upcoming election.
Because nobody wants to mess with tax issues in an election-year legislative session unless they can cut taxes—and there isn’t enough spare money to do that next session—those issues, and phrasing them correctly, may be the key to jobs in the Statehouse in 2017.
Wonder how this is going to work out…