When it comes to support for Governor Sam Brownback’s ideas about how taxation should work in Kansas, it appears the tides have turned.
As The Wichita Eagle reports,last week Brownback proposed legislation that would have asked every person in the Sunflower State, regardless of income level, to pay a flat tax of 4.6 percent. But when the measure appeared on the floor of the State Senate, it was resoundingly rejected.
Republicans and Democrats alike criticized the bill, which they said would hurt low-income Kansans. Lawmakers also suggested that the flat tax would do little to address the state’s gaping budget gap. The flat tax would only have raised about $300 million in 2018; meanwhile Kansas faces a projected shortfall of over a billion dollars.
The rejection comes after voters sent a wave of moderate republicans to Topeka last year, in response to the state’s flailing fortunes.