The State of Kansas has enough money on reserve to last for a total of two days, according to a new study by Pew Charitable Trusts.
As The Wichita Eagle reports, if the Sunflower State had to exist solely on its cash reserves, the state wouldn’t last more than 48 hours. In 2012 and 2013, Gov. Sam Brownback urged GOP lawmakers to slash taxes. Ever since then, Kansas has struggled to balance its budget.
Nearby Nebraska is often used as a control group for Kansas’s tax experiment The neighbor to the north is similar to Kansas in many ways, but Nebraska did not cut taxes in the same way the Sunflower State did. By contrast, Nebraska still has $1 billion in reserve funds, which could last 87 days.
Oklahoma, Kansas’s neighbor to the south, did slash taxes in a similar way to Kansas. That state could last 14 days on its $231 million in reserves. A Brownback spokesperson blamed the low reserves on struggles in the oil and agriculture sectors.