House Majority Leader Don Hineman of Dighton defends the Kansas Legislature’s move to reinstate tax cuts in a July 3 Topeka Capital-Journal editorial.
Hineman writes that overturning Gov. Sam Brownback’s “overly aggressive 2012 tax cut” was a return to common sense tax policy, resulting from lawmakers fulfilling promises they made to their constituents during 2016 campaigns.
Brownback’s tax plan, Hineman writes, abandoned the “three-legged stool” approach to funding government with a stable balance of income, sales and property taxes and created a massive budget deficit.
Hineman also criticized Brownback’s move to increase the sales tax and issue billions in new debt to help fill the massive budget hole and blamed the 2012 tax cuts for causing public schools to suffer; for reducing Medicaid reimbursements, thereby straining rural hospitals’ budgets; and for cuts to highway funds for preservation and maintenance.
“Finally, the Legislature said “enough is enough” and rejected the governor’s short-term fixes as being neither responsible nor conservative."
